Bridge Worth Saving is a call to action. Everything about this book—its structure, its content, its style—shouts "Save that old bridge!" Unlike some calls to action that leave their readers at the starting line, this book shows the layperson and the professional, in a step-by-step way, how to save an old metal-truss bridge. Use it as a tool kit, a map, a handbook, or an operations manual. A Bridge Worth Saving can help a community actually save a bridge.
The chapters are full of practical things to know or do. Sometimes this advice is offered in essay form. More often it is presented as to-do lists. In fact, the book begins with a comprehensive checklist of everything you need to know before you get started on saving a bridge. It's all here. There are even job descriptions for volunteers and interview questions for professionals who will need to be brought into the process. Useful case studies abound.
An appendix of truss-bridge types gives prospective bridge-savers a useful starting point, and forty-one photographs give them a vision of the goal. All of the advice has been sifted through the experiences and insights of people who have actually gone through the process of saving old bridges. It is for these front-line leaders that this book has been written. It is also for the small group of citizens who simply cannot bear the thought of losing the old bridge that has served their community for as long as they can remember. It is about paint, rust, metal fatigue, eye-bars, and rivets. It is also about volunteers, fundraising, liability, and finally, it is even about the meaning of life. A Bridge Worth Saving is for the pessimist who is sure it can't be done, and the optimist who just needs to learn how.
