How industrializers reinvented the building process and why this breakthrough was unknown-until now.

American Bridge reveals how and why innovators transformed building from one-off to mass construction. At the same time, it overturns the narratives that have made this history invisible, though its outcomes are everywhere. With a diversity of rare and astonishing images, Gregory Dreicer tracks creative exchanges behind the invention of the fundamental components of our world: beam, truss, and high-rise frame. This building rethink enabled the rise of the nation-state. It was a giant step in the development and implementation of fundamental industrial principles such as uniformity and modularity, still indispensable for the successful completion of complex projects.

American Bridge launches by questioning the stories behind common understandings of invention. For two centuries and counting, evolutionism and nationalism have dictated how designers, their chroniclers, and all of us see materials, structures, and one another. This timeworn, toxic narrative infrastructure determines what we celebrate, how we design, and who we forget. But by prioritizing bridges over borders and evidence over myth, American Bridge spans a massive gap in history, while illuminating an alternate path to industrialization. It restores wood's role in this "revolution," recognizes the contribution of enslaved Black people at a technological turning point, and reveals the transnational networks that are the basis of innovation.