VHS: Secrets of a Master Builder - The American Experience

VHS: Secrets of a Master Builder - The American Experience

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Secrets of a Maste...

	Secrets of a Master Builder - The American Experience Pbs (Direct), 2000 view larger image
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Though his isn't a household name today, James B. Eads was the most famous engineer of his time. This biographical portrait of Eads, an episode of the American Experience series on PBS, follows his rags-to-riches story, in which he rose from working as a clerk in a small dry goods store to being a practical visionary who helped America become an industrial giant in the 19th century. Eads first gained national renown for building gunboats that hastened Union victory in the Civil War and followed that feat by building the world's first steel bridge, a revolutionary structure that crossed the Mississippi at St. Louis. Indeed, Eads's entire life was bound up with the mighty river, as a riverboat disaster helped define his early life, and in his later years he developed a scheme that kept the Mississippi free from silt, allowing New Orleans to develop into one of the major ports of the world. Despite his engineering brilliance, Eads was a deeply troubled man, and this film presents a balanced view of him. He was prone to emotional breakdowns, and an arrogant temperament led him into endless controversies as well as grandiose schemes, such as his unrealized plan to cross the isthmus of Panama with an enormous train that would carry ships overland. This is an entertaining and informative look at a man whose engineering projects truly changed American history. --Robert J. McNamara

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