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I’m going to post my top 10 book recommendations for themed entertainment insiders and anyone interested in the inspiration that informs the design and production process.

First up — in no particular order — The Bridge, by Gay Talese.

The Bridge: The Building of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge by Gay Talese

What does the construction of a massive suspension bridge have to do with theme parks and entertainment design? A lot! Anyone who has been involved with a theme park under construction, or seen a large attraction come to life will relate to this often death-defying account. Even though this book chronicles the building of a different sort of engineering marvel — the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge that connects the boroughs of Brooklyn and Staten Island — many of the same forces and faces are at play. The Bridge takes readers into the lives of the hard working (and heavy drinking) men who took their lives in their hands every day to see the bridge rise from the New York harbor one rivet at a time. In the early 1960’s there were hardly any safety precautions in place while working on steel girders hundreds of feet in the air, and work continued even in the howling wind and freezing cold of East Coast winters. Three men died before a walk-off protest led to the installation of safety nets, which saved another life shortly after they were installed. I honestly got vertigo just reading the accounts of some days on the job.

Themed Entertainment industry insiders will immediately see the similarities between building a bridge and building a theme park: the design lead with a vision vs. the reality of construction, experienced workers relocating to a new booming city while the project is underway, demanding schedules and hard-nosed construction supervisors. Even the restlessness that comes with looking for the next gig as the project comes to an end. And of course the entire enterprise needs to be safe for visitors for decades and decades to come.

Gay Talese spent time in the Bay Ridge community of Brooklyn getting to know the real men and women whose lives were changed by the bridge, and learned what it felt like to be part of, or impacted by this massive engineering project. In this relatively short book the focus is on the workers who accept the challenge of building something that no one has seen before; something bigger and better than the last one. It’s a reminder that no matter how big the project, it will only come to life because of the hard work of thousands of regular people working together.

— Ryan Miziker