“I first wrote The Bridge as a screenplay, which ended up on The Black List, a list of the best unproduced screenplays of that year. I always thought that The Bridge would make a great film – at its heart it’s a great romantic story wrapped up in an epic adventure,” Tomasi explained to CBR. “Its message of grit, persistence and perseverance is something the world needs more of at every turn.”

That message of perseverance and creation weighed very heavily on the first screenplay incarnation, which Tomasi set down in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack. “I was working in the DC Comics offices at the time, so I was here in New York City,” he said. “I had been procrastinating for quite awhile in completing the script, afraid if I could do the story of the Roeblings and the Bridge’s construction justice, but that fear got swept aside when I saw the NY Times front page the next morning which showed the North Tower already having been hit and the South Tower in the midst of being hit, it’s eastern façade engulfed by the second plane’s fiery explosion and there in the foreground the Brooklyn Bridge. We of course shortly learned, that the Brooklyn Bridge was on a terrorist target list too.

“I desperately wanted to contribute to the World Zeitgeist a story of construction – not destruction.”

Although the film version has not yet manifested, Tomasi remained determined to bring the story to audiences. “I finally had the epiphany that after two decades in comics maybe I should bring the screenplay to life graphically instead of waiting around for Hollywood,” he confessed. “Having this story that means so much to me visualized by an artist was suddenly my one and only mission – I had to get it into readers hands any way that I could. I was tired of seeing the script on my shelf. I needed someone to breathe life into these characters by putting pictures to my words. I wanted to share this amazing American story that no one really knows about.”

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Although obviously specific dialogue is made up, the public nature of the Bridge’s bidding, design, and construction provided massive amounts of raw material to draw from for the story, including movie-worthy details about Bridge Trustee J. Lloyd Haigh’s scam to get rejected wire approved by the inspectors.

Tomasi expanded on the sources for his book, saying, “The papers of the day, The Brooklyn Eagle, The New York Times, Harper’s Weekly, etc. covered the construction process in depth, the highs and the lows, the construction and the political machinations, so there was a great deal to draw from. But most of all I had the pleasure of spending time digging my hands through all the incredible journals and personal information archived at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY (where Washington went to school), written in John Roebling, Washington Roebling, and Emily’s own hands. And talk about pressure, right behind the desk I sat at pouring through the journals, is a plaster death mask of John Roebling, his stern features and penetrating eyes burning a hole in my back as I did my research.

“And that greedy scam by Haigh is true,” he added, “but thanks to Washington Roebling adding more wire to the cables than he actually needed, the bridge’s safety wasn’t compromised.”

The research went far beyond the Bridge. The Roeblings stand out as fascinating characters - the tension and the affection between John, the stern taskmaster, and Washington, the war hero, is a story unto itself. The Bridge touches briefly on John’s early life and immigration to the United States and on Wash’s war experiences during the Civil War.

Each man’s story could support its own novel, Tomasi agreed. “They really are both men of distinct vision. I had so many scenes that I had to cut out that I loved, but it was important to keep the graphic novel at 200 pages and focus on the bridge. John Roebling, Washington’s father, basically created his own town after emigrating from Germany and went on to create wire rope (which made him rich) and other amazing things as he focused on civil engineering and building many bridges, some which still stand today (check out the Cincinnati-Covington bridge).

“Washington’s Civil War years are amazing. He fought (and built bridges) in so many major battles (Gettysburg, Antietam, Petersburg, and others), that it’s a miracle he made it to Brooklyn in one piece. But his true personal battle was fighting to escape the long shadow of his father, an aspect of Washington’s life that we examine in the book.”

Shortly after the bridge was approved to be built, John Roebling passed away, leaving his son Washington to bring the project to fruition. But months and months in the high-pressure caissons used to build the bridge’s foundation deep in the East River riverbed left Wash severely ill, unable to directly oversee the progress, at which point his wife Emily stepped into her husband’s shoes. (Wash, using a telescope and binoculars, continued to observe from his bedroom.) It was a challenging dynamic for everyone involved in the strongly patriarchal society of the day, but Tomasi didn’t want Emily’s accomplishments to be overlooked.

“Emily was Washington’s closest confidant,” he said. “Their marriage was very modern in many ways. After he is stricken with the bends and unable to go down to the work site, Emily becomes his eyes and ears, offering a unique perspective on the comings and goings. And boy was she noticed alright! To the men of that era she might as well have been an alien from another planet. Remember, we’re talking the 1870s here, the Victorian Age. Women do not have the right to vote, and here comes Emily Roebling down to the docks with some newly conceived plans from her incapacitated husband rolled under arm, whereby she unfurls them for the other engineers and foreman to see, and goes about, in the language of engineering, how her husband, the chief engineer, expects these revised plans to be implemented and utilized. Emily, by osmosis, sitting beside her husband for hours at end, in a way, gets a degree in engineering from one of the best in the world and nobody is quite fond of this scenario.

“If two people were meant to be married, it was most definitely Washington Roebling and Emily Warren Roebling. It was like the fates made sure they were there for each other to battle through what was to be a significant struggle, but in the end, an amazing feat that rings through the ages. They were perfect for each other.”

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The Bridge is illustrator Sara Duvall’s debut graphic novel. Beyond the details of how New York looked and how people dressed more than 150 years ago, the Brooklyn Bridge is an architectural marvel. Add to that the demands of researching Civil War battlefields, complicated engineering feats like the caissons, and the various near disasters that befell the builders, and Duvall truly had their hands full.

Duvall explained, “The research was intensive for sure, and I honestly never really felt like I ever stopped doing research over the course of drawing the book. It felt like a full time gig on its own, but it was actually really interesting and I loved getting so immersed in that time period. I love doing research and finding references for my work, so it wasn’t a chore, but I’d never done a historical piece like this so it was definitely a different sort of experience compared to the time and effort I typically spend on research.”

Continuing on, Duvall added, “I was lucky to have Peter as an incredible resource for making sure I was using the most accurate references available to us, but it was an almost nonstop process. Even once I had reached a point where I felt like I had all of the larger details put together, I would be researching minor details for background character outfits and hairstyles on a daily basis.”

With nearly two decades in the industry, Tomasi has a deep bench of collaborators he can refer to, but for The Bridge, he had something else in mind. “I’ve got a helluva list of artists after having been an editor for 15 years, but I was looking for someone who was fresh and could bring a mix of a modern and classic feel to the pages, and when I saw Sara’s portfolio followed by their sample pages of the script – well, that was that, we signed them up and it became Christmas Day for me every time Sara’s new pages arrived.

“After that, I did hit the rolodex and brought on the rest of the talented crew, Gabe Eltaeb (a deadline super-soldier who literally worked around the clock to make sure the booked shipped on time) and John Kalisz on color, along with the talented letterer Rob Leigh who tied it all together.”

Duvall also gushed over the seasoned pros who aided with their first graphic novel. “It was an incredible experience! Peter was great to work with, and I’m so grateful that he’s the writer I got to work with on my first big gig. He made me feel right at home working on this book, and made sure to support me throughout the process, especially since I was new to the scene,” they said. “His enthusiasm for my work was really heartening and I felt really inspired to take on this project. And then working with colorists to bring the pages to life was a really cool experience on its own. I’d never had someone color my pages before, and Gabe’s hard work ethic and enthusiasm made it really fun to collaborate with him.”

“The gods smiled and my agent, Charlie Olsen at Inkwell, got it to Charlie Kochman, head of Abrams ComicArts, who loved the script and gave it a green light. (It didn’t hurt that he had a personal connection to the Brooklyn Bridge by proposing to his wife directly on the middle of it.),” Tomasi explained of the book’s connection with a publisher with strong library and bookstore reach. “Everyone at Abrams has been incredibly supportive and driven to help get this graphic novel into as many hands as possible, and I’ve been pounding the pavement like a madman doing as much publicity as I can. I’m trying to be like Brad Meltzer when I grow up. He’s amazing and a promotional beast.”

After The Bridge promotion wraps up, both creators plan to stay busy. “I’ve got several irons in the fire, some pretty cool upcoming projects with DC Comics and other assorted books I’d love to speak about, but the reality is, that Ninja Lawyers would descend on me while strolling down a rainy Manhattan street and paper cut me to death with NDAs and leave me for dead,” Tomasi joked, as Duvall added, “I have some short comics debuting in the Alloy: Electrum Anthology and Iron Circus’ Faster Than Light, Y’all Anthology later this year, as well as two graphic novels in the works.”

But those future projects can wait. For today, both creators hope readers will take a look at The Bridge and see how three extraordinary people changed the look of New York City and the lives of all its denizens forever. An inspiring story of accomplishment and struggle, The Bridge: How the Roeblings Connected Brooklyn to New York is a testament to the forward-thinking, determined men and women who made it possible.

The Bridge: How the Roeblings Connected Brooklyn to New York is now available in bookstores and comic shops everywhere.