Paying the Toll

Louise Nelson Dyble teaches history at Michigan Technological University.

"A splendid blend of narrative political history and political science theory based mostly on deep archival digging, newspaper research, and interviews. . . . Dyble indicts the Golden Gate Bridge and Tunnel Authority for its arrogance, corruption, and self-perpetuating administration of the bridge." (Journal of American History) "Urban historian Louis Nelson Dyble lays bare the politics, scandal, corruption, and arrogance that mask what she calls the bridge's 'mythic proportions' and 'heroic beauty'. Dyble's work is not a deconstruction of the bridge itself, but rather an intriguing exposé of the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway, and Transportation District. . . . Her telling of this experience is useful for any emerging scholar seeking to unravel the intricacy of public policy debates. It can be an uncomfortable, awkward, suspect, and thankless task, but Dyble's book shows the benefits when one prevails." (Journal of Historical Geography) "An important contribution to the study of business history. . . . Louise Nelson Dyble recounts the history of a special district, the Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District (aka the Bridge District), which was created to build and service the debt for financing the Golden Gate Bridge." (Enterprise and Society) "Dyble possesses a firm grasp of current scholarship, drawing upon work written by historians, political scientists, and legal scholars. Her in-depth discussion of special districts during the course of the twentieth century and how they played out is itself worthy of the price of admission. . . . Paying the Toll has, unquestionably, added an invaluable chapter to historical scholarship. It is deeply researched, very well organized, and well narrated." (Pacific Historical Review) "Dyble's account is complex and in many instances compelling. . . . What might have been an expose of corruption and greed assumes greater power as an assessment of power and policy. Because she writes so well and draws effectively from the archives she managed to penetrate, her argument is both clear and compelling." (Journal of Planning Literature) "In this magnificent gem of a book, Louise Nelson Dyble takes the reader from the dark corners of avaricious public officialdom and smoke-filled rooms to the bright vistas and architectural wonder of the Golden Gate Bridge itself. At once steward of the public interest, notorious bureaucracy, and gateway to northern California, the Bridge and Highway District emerges in Dyble's telling as the center of a multilayered history of the state. The bridge and its legacy have found their historian." (Robert O. Self, Brown University) "Not merely the history of one particularly unresponsive and incompetent government agency that managed to survive-even thrive-despite decades of public discontent and organized opposition from influential politicians and business leaders, Paying the Toll provides us with greater understanding of the institutional structure of American government. A must-read for everyone concerned about our fragmented public sector and its difficulties confronting the demands of the twenty-first century." (Gail Radford, author of Modern Housing for America)

• Introduction: "Agency Run Amok"1. A Bridge to Prosperity2. A District Divided3. The District and Its Enemies4. The Defeat of the Golden Gate Authority5. Rapid Transit Versus the Golden Gate Bridge6. James Adam, Boss of the Golden Gate Bridge7. Regionalism, Transportation, and Perpetual TollsConclusion: Subsidies, Suicides, and SensitivityNotesIndexAcknowledgments