Building Big with David Macaulay: Bridges - VHS

David Macaulay, the renowned author/ illustrator of The Way Things Work, has a knack for demystifying mechanical structures by explaining the engineering, physics, and human ingenuity that have gone into their design -- although in sum, his explanations usually make the man-made world seem ever more curious and phenomenal. In WGBH Boston's Building Big series, Macaulay visits the world's great architectural structures to tell their stories and the stories of the men who built them; here he discusses Brooklyn's famous suspension bridge and the engineer who never saw his biggest project to completion, the Golden Gate Bridge's history and the unique construction that allows it to withstand nature's fury, as well as the Firth of Forth Railway Bridge in Scotland -- whose cantilevered design was inspired by a human tragedy. The video also includes a mini bridge-making activity. ~ Sarah Welsh, Rovi