Books on Major Landmarks
Four of Gillespie’s books focus on landmarks local to the New York and New Jersey area. He was initially fascinated with easily recognizable buildings and structures. The first, which he co-authored, was Looking for America on the New Jersey Turnpike published in 1989. The authors argue that the Turnpike has certainly shaped the state. While the state’s geography and history and economics made the building of the Turnpike inevitable, the roadway has conditioned much of New Jersey’s subsequent development.
The next landmark book was Twin Towers: The Life of New York City’s World Trade Center. The original Rutgers Press edition came out in 1999. It covered the complete life of the Twin Towers: the sky-high hopes during their planning and construction and the years during which they stood at the pinnacle of the Manhattan skyline. It was the pride of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. After the attack of September 11, 2001, a new paperback edition was planned with a new final chapter about the terrorist destruction and its aftermath. That edition was published by the New American Library in August of 2002.
Subsequently, Gillespie wrote Crossing Under the Hudson: The Story of the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels, a fresh look at the planning and construction of two key links in the transportation infrastructure of the region. It was published in 2011. In a way, it was a sequel to the Twin Towers book, because Gillespie had become interested in the many projects built and managed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. He described and analyzed the building of the tunnels, and he introduced readers to the people who worked there.
Next, Gillespie was moved to write Port Newark and the Origins of Container Shipping, which came out in 2023. He originally became familiar with the port because he had brought Rutgers students there on field trips related to his courses on maritime history. He began to think that there might be enough material here to write a book. Then, as he learned more about the history of the place, he realized that birth of containerization could be traced back to Port Newark in 1956 when Malcom McLean thought of brilliant new way to transport cargo. In the book he shines a spotlight on the men and women who help this complex global shipping operation run smoothly.
A twelve-lane behemoth cutting through the least scenic parts of the Garden State, the New Jersey Turnpike may lack the romantic allure of highways like Route 66, but it might just be a more accurate symbol of American life, representing the nation at both its best and its worst.
When Angus Gillespie and Michael Rockland wrote Looking for America on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1989, they simply wanted to express their fascination with a road that many commuters regarded with annoyance or indifference. Little did they expect that it would be hailed as a classic, listed by the state library alongside works by Whitman and Fitzgerald as one of the ten best books ever written about New Jersey or by a New Jerseyan.
Now Looking for America on the New Jersey Turnpike is back in a special updated and expanded edition, examining how this great American motorway has changed over the past thirty-five years. You’ll learn how the turnpike has become an icon inspiring singers and poets. And you’ll meet the many people it has affected, including the homeowners displaced by its construction, the highway patrol and toll-takers who work on it, and the drivers who speed down its lanes every day.