Gateways to New York: Othmar H. Ammann and his bridges

Directed by Martin Witz

It's a pity Ammann can't live another hundred years. For then he'd build a bridge over the ocean.

The story of the great Swiss engineer Othmar H. Ammann, who moves away in 1904 and redefines the rules of bridge construction in America - for decades and in a spectacular way. The beginning of motorisation, the post-war years, urbanisation and the consumer society: Ammann is not only in the middle of it, he is with his bridges a dynamic player, an agent of progress - and the belief in it.