Big Dams and Other Dreams

Who were the men of Six Companies who built the great Hoover, Bonneville, and Grand Coulee Dams and laid the foundations for the Golden Gate and San Francisco Bay Bridges? In twelve colorful, thoroughly researched chapters, Richard Wolf tells how the interests of these strong men coincided, what they accomplished, and what has become of the empires they created. The Bechtels designed and built much of the postwar infrastructure on a half-dozen continents while constructing the world's largest engineering firm. Henry J. Kaiser created an empire of steel, aluminum, chemicals, cement, automobiles, and health care. Marriner Eccles, who succeeded the Wattis brothers as the head of Utah Construction Company, also served as Franklin Roosevelt's chair of the Federal Reserve Board. Harry Morrison was head of the Morrison Knudsen Company, which dominated international construction in the mid-twentieth century. Charles Swigert and Philip Hart of Pacific Bridge, Felix Kahn of McDonald and Kahn, and Charlie Shea all were original Six Companies partners. Donald E. Wolf is the former president and chief operating officer of Wolf and Company, a small engineering firm New York State. Richard Lowitt is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Oklahoma.