Everything Indicates: Bay Bridge Poems & Portraits

Local poets were hoisted up into the windy towers of the new eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in April 2011 to observe and map its progress and something of its soul. Their words, enhanced by the luminous photographs of Thomas Michael Alleman, are gathered in Everything Indicates, a tribute to the people designing and building the new bridge, and the waters it will span.

Set to open in 2013, the eastern span will be the world's largest self-anchored suspension span bridge; however, beyond this remarkable feat of engineering, the bridge is a literal lifeline for the diverse communities, individuals, and businesses of the San Francisco Bay Area and far beyond.

The poems and photographs of Everything Indicates, which takes its title from Walt Whitman's ''Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,'' are themselves a bridge, bringing us closer to the common experience that unites us all.