He has been the host of an hourlong weekly news and Interview Program on new york one. He is the author or editor of eight previous books and his latest, a history of new york, is the vibrant story of the metropolis told through distinctive objects in new york. And both books will be on sale in front of the museum after the talk and they will be here to sign them. And gay talese has written 11 books and was a reporter for the new york time and has written for the times, esquire, new yorker, harpers magazine and other publications. In the late fall of 1964, gay taleses remarkable book, the bridge, was published. In his early days as a reporter, he followed the construction closely and on many occasions putting on a hard hat and joining the workers on the iron beams. More than just a story of a famous bridge, he produced a tribute to those who built it in an absorbing treatment which reminds us how manmind structures affect lives. The release of the book is introducing a new generation of leaders. Of readers. Revisiting the people and places he encountered for decades earlier, he has added an afterward bringing full circle the dramas that make the bridge a resident story for our time. I would like it turn it over to sam robert and gay talese. [applause] sam thank you. Thank you for coming out on this first night of winter. I guess you would call it. It was november 21, 1964, that the verrazanonarrows bridge opened. And as gay wrote, it was the first and perhaps the only blissful traffic day on the traffic jam on the verrazanonarrows bridge. The toll was 50 cents. It was then the longest suspension bridge in the world. It is still the longest in the americas. Gay talese produced more than a dozen articles on the bridge for the New York Times and now the bridge, his book, as she said has been republished again in a beautiful new edition that i urge all of you to buy. One of the things people ask me a lot is how the stories get into the New York Times. How do they appear at nytimes. Com. And i remember ralph blumenthal, a reporter for the New York Times, described the evolution of a story. He said an editor came up to him one day and said why dont you go out and find out who finds owns Chinese Restaurant in new york. He said, what do you mean . He said, go out and find out what the ownership is. Who owns them. And so ralph went out and he said he spent a couple weeks eating very well and he came back and discovered that Chinese Restaurants are owned mostly my chinese people. [laughter] well, when you began writing about the bridge, and didnt know the name, how did you get that assignment, or how did you volunteer for it, or how did you get stuck with it . What did you think when you first started writing the articles about a neighborhood in brooklyn that found 800 homes or businesses were being displaced by a bridge they didnt want. Gay i was given the assignment to cover the protesting residents. It was a crowd, i guess, it would be akin, to the occupy wall street mentality we had in the recent years. Would be akin, to the occupy wall street mentality we had in the recent years. It was the mentality of those had a loathesome position toward robert moses who was the great builder of my early years in new york and a controversial man because he didnt mind breaking eggs to make omelets and sometimes he broke the hearts of people and many hundreds of hearts of people were broken who it was when it was announced the forthcoming project, the verrazanonarrows bridge was going to be built. And what it meant, was hundreds of houses and thousands of people who lived in the pathway to the bridge, in the bay ridge section of brooklyn would have to move. No negotiating. They had to get out. So i covered this for the times and predictablely it was a series of those they were hating robert moses and many wondering, who needs this bridge . And i thought, i have never seen a bridge being built. I was covering this oneday story but i lived it, as we all do in a city of bridges surrounded by bridges, and i was going to have the opportunity to see a bridge built from the lowest level of the water and something was going to come out of that water and a cement foundation and two towers would be there soon. It would be the two towers of the bridge. I thought, i am going to come back here. On my own time, and when i had weekends off or whatever days i had when i wasnt required to be in the office as a general assignment reporter, i would go to the site of the bridge. Little by little, workmen were there, cranes, barges and men in hard hats were there statering the long 4year process emerging these sections of steel that would gradually, as we see today, this great work of art that has the functioning capacity to get people from brooklyn to Staten Island that was never possible before. That is how it started. Sam did you think it would end up being a book . Gay no, i didnt think so. People, sam roberts, or i as one of the elders, still thinks i am a reporter and is still revels in the youthful experience it is when you are a reporter. Most reporters are young men and sam roberts was a young man. You do think when you are doing one story, then a second story and third story, and i was doing the stages of the bridge. The first stage was seeing the concrete Foundation Form and upon those foundations was the first stages of the steel that formed the towers and each tower was equivalent to a sevenstory skyscraper. It took a better part of a year to build them. And then the more interesting part to me, how do you build horizontally from one tower to the other, sections of steel that begin with cables. I once read that when the indians were building across a pond they would get a bow and arrow and shoot from one side to another and keep shooting the rope that would be spearheaded by arrows and that would be a rope bridge later on. 2. 5 miles, two and a half miles was the distance from brooklyn to Staten Island on the towers. And it had to be done by cables and i watched the cables be sprung by wheels that were the size of a bicycle wheel. There were 4 of them going back and forth and it took months and months. And from those cables that were bound together forming a great force of about two and a half feet. I dont know. I know somebody in the room will tell me. We have an ironworker. And as part of dessert later, we will have a young man who was an iron worker and he will tell us about this. His grand father was one of the men who did this work. I wrote about the construction and then i thought there is book here and the reason there was, i thought, is because it is a book about people. I didnt know then, and sometimes young people in the room might not think now, of how hard some people work. Sometimes when people are negative about the United States and they think of this nation losing jobs because people in Foreign Countries work harder and that is why jobs are outsourced, that is not true. I saw this in 19621963 how hard the ironworkers and the Bridge Builders worked every day. And they take such pride in their work, more importantly. I am the son of an immigrant tailor. And i saw how he made the suits and he took pride in making them. He didnt sell too many because he took too long and too expensive and not many people appreciated a handmade suit. And my father with the spools down in the shop and pulled them down and sewed by hand. And these great spools of steel, i thought, creating what looked like a heart. Beautifully designed. Long before trucks and cars are making a fortune on a bridge, passing through. Before that, there is a work of art. It is still a work of art. And i thought about that. And the opportunity to write about how hard and how much pride there is in work well done. I saw that my father is making suits and these hundreds of guys, who with different specialties as riveters and guys that did other things like holding the steel together, they brought not only pride but lasting pride because what they were doing would outlive them. And any work of art, whether it is a musicians work of art, opera or a hit tune, or somebody that makes beautiful furniture or a beautiful thing like a beautiful newspaper or bridge, they are going to have pride in it, and the longstanding and enduring talent and design that goes into a craft of lasting parishability. So i saw the bridge as an opportunity for me. I started doing pieces and then i went to a book contract, got a contract, not much, and i wrote this book and it didnt sell very many copies but it did keep a record, and the important thing to me, we journalist are record keepers, and we try to record in our lifetime the history of what we see and understand. Since we love new york we often write about the wonderment of the city. And whoever is writing about working class iron workers and how they built something that would outlive them. And i thought, by using their names and stories in there i would do something that wasnt had it not been done. With the Brooklyn Bridge or the George Washington bridge who incidently the designer of the George Washington bridge did the tunnel bridge. That was his last, great final work of this great engineers life. But i was a recordkeeper. So this book that was First Published in 64 and is now being reissued on the 50th anniversary, is really a testimony to a work of art and a work that changed the economic rhythms of the city. But also, i have put in this book the names and stories of dozens and dozens of workers that otherwise would be anonymous. That was one thing i took pride in. Sam that makes it a testimony to you, because you are one of those few people that cares about little people, small people, ordinary people, forgotten people, overlooked people. Not the robert moses kind of people, that one of my favorite quotes of his, the end of it justifies the means, what does . You once described yourself as an outsider, because you are the son of an italian immigrant and therefore you identified with the neighbors who were displaced and also with people like the ironworkers. They were not even invited to the Opening Ceremony of the bridge. Gay you mentioned moses, and so did i. He was not very gracious. [laughter] gay he had i guess, we might now see it as the latest event elitistment. And that bridge, look at that bridge, it has been there for more than 100 years. I do not think the Bridge Builders and ironworkers needed an invitation to a party. I said before and i will say it again, one of the most enduring and and chanting features of these men i got to know, and i continue to say to those who are still alive, some are older than i am, but i am glad to think that if i lived long enough to see the 50th anniversary and to be here, i will also say that at least 25 men close to my age that were young in 1962 and 1963 and 1964, even now when they drive across the bridge and pay like the rest of us, they still look at this and think, one day i put five rivets in this thing. They think about it. It is a wonderful memory and you see it in your last years on earth, what you did when you were young and how it still stands as a mark of belief and craftsmanship and pride. Pride in your work. Moses cannot mess that up. Nobody can. Sam you describe them as part gypsy and graceful in the air. What do you mean by that . Gay i was surprised when they first started the bridge and i did my research. That it was affected by the air. In winter, it is higher and the steel melts in a way. And i heard from men that were up there, 500, 600 feet working on cables with that early stage when the cables connected to the foundation on the brooklyn side and the Staten Island side and how the wind effects their balance. It is a dangerous way of living and working. And some do not survive without serious injuries. I know so many in their 70s and 80s that still now are like those athletes we admire in our youth. Those players that have their injuries into their final days and they remember the glory days when they were performing. I think of them as almost athletic or like circus workers. Yesterday, i was watching on television the window washers. I was thinking, god, we dont window washers that deal that do that work in a city of skyscrapers, what a wonderful story that would be. If i could do that story today, let me travel with those guys and what about their health, the danger realized in the most futile fashion. And we also saw, as we see in the same building, the firemen who are also heroic people. We have to have a 9 11 sometimes to realize. And the everyday life of window washers or people working on high altitudes, we see the city and the miracle city, but it is built by the hands of people. And hands washing those windows. With all of the technology, manual labor and pride in manual labor, is such a part of our society. It is wonderful to contemplate that and even more wonderful to see it in action, when i was lucky enough to be on the bridge, to see that. Sam that is one of the striking things you walk away from the book with, how much of the work is done by hand. When you think of all the machinery and technology that goes into the design and construction, how much one Person Holding a rivet or passing a piece of steel, how much a couple of individuals gay it is true. Sam or one or two window washers on the scaffold. Gay what about the mohawk indians . Is a myth . Gay there is a chapter or maybe more about some ironworkers that i met who had apartments in brooklyn but would also visit their wives and children not far from montreal on a reservation. And the way i went around interviewing these people i i would hang out with them during the day and then at night, i would go to the bar with them. I did a lot of drinking with these guys. [laughter] gay and one guy i would be with. His father was an ironworker. It was a family tradition. It sometimes goes back for generation and it continues today. You will see the ironworker today as an example. One day, he said, spend a weekend with us at the reservation. I said, sure. One friday night, after the work was done and we would hang out in the bar and they would get a little liquor and they would get into a limousine, there were four of them, indian ironworkers, and me. And we drove think about four hours or more, and then we would get to the Lawrence River and where the reservation was located. I would spend friday night and saturday night and sunday, coming back early monday morning. And i saw other old men who were ironworkers, some of them with injuries, they were the people who were not the first, but the second generation. The first generation of iron workers built the bridges across the st. Lawrence river. That was in 1890. What happened was there was a bridge of no significance, just a railroad bridge, it was near the reservation and that is how they started working. At first, they were giving them tasks, but then they would walk across the bridge and one of the superintendents said, these guys handled the height easily. They would go easily on these narrow beams. So they became part of the tradition of ironworkers. And when i went on this occasion, they were so nice to me. I do not want this for the record because i am a married man. But one of these guys said listen, why dont you sleep with my sister, she would like to have you. [laughter] gay so they had a lot of hospitality. Anyway, what else . [laughter] sam you are a meticulous dresser. You were flopping around the cables at the top of the towers, and you found out that they are one and 5 8 different from the top to the bottom. What were you wearing . Gay i am dressed as i am now. I am the son of a tailored, my close were made for me clothes where he made for me and my father, i told you he did not sell many things. But he did like us to see his work on display. So i was a model for him when i was in Parochial School and high school and i was not very popular because i would be on the school bus and i would have a fedora and they would knock it off. But i still believed i represented the tailoring trade. And i feel like that to my to this day. And we had other italians in our family that worked in other cities and those in paris. My fathers mentor from a village near paris. My father later worked as an apprentice in 1920. This guy who is my fathers uncle who had sons my age and they were tailors. This suit i have on now was made about 15 years ago. I have 60 or 70 suits made by these cousins of mine in paris. Theyre so beautifully made like my fathers standards. And they last forever. They are beautifully designed. This is a pinstripe brown suit but the stripes are measured so precisely just like the bridge. Sam mentioned the precision of those towers. It is all the way through the bridge. The cables and every bolt. Like the standards of tailoring. That is one of the underlying attractions i found when i started knowing the ironworkers. They are strong guys, but they have the touch of a tailor. The cables, you see them, they are beautiful. And the Brooklyn Bridge is another example. Sam joe berger is inspired by you is chronicling the new bridge on the hudson. Do you see differences between that and the verrazanonarrows bridge . Gay joe is an excellent reporter. You should probably know if you are readers of the paper. But the verrazanonarrows bridge is a work of art. And the George Washington bridge is beautiful. I do not know which is more beautiful. Every time i drive past i look up and i think that what a great grand design. And the new bridge will be a wonderful opportunity for joe berger to write about what they are doing. But i dont think that completed it will be as much of a work of art. But i am prejudice. [laughter] sam i think so too. If we talk about your dress, we can also talk about how you work as a reporter. Gay i want to say one more thing. When i interviewed ironworkers or the Baseball Players or the street sweepers or the window washers, if i was given the opportunity, i never dress down. I always dress up. The reason, for many reasons, one of them is because of my pride in my fathers work. And also like sam, i take pride in being a journalist and i thought, i am guessing up for this story. If i am going out to be with workingmen and i wear a hard hat, like i did always, i did not want to to dress in a way like the workingmen, because i thought it would be in a way, it is honorable to have pr