A truly comprehensive book, enjoyable to both read and look through. It covers the history and scope of air travel, including airport and aircraft design, corporate identities and marketing in a thorough, extensive and compelling manner. It is distinctive in how it successfully melds a global scope and a focused perspective.

This book is an excellent overview of the history of civil aviation, terminals, and airfields. The attention to detail, both photographic and linguistic, is marvelous and provides a wonderful account of airport design. The faithfulness to the original traveling photo exhibit allows readers the opportunity to experience the cultural presentation alongside the historical reconstruction. All in all, a wonderful book for any aviation fan.

BfAT is one of the most intriguing books you'll find about airports. It covers a lot of airport design aspects- but it is not an engineering book. In other words, you won't have to face boring charts and graphs. All you get is interseting texts, divided into differnt issues, and many rare and beautiful pictures. If you really like airports- you should have this book.

I thought I knew a lot about the town I lived in. I joined the historical society and studied Benicia's history to gain an appreciation for the many historic treasures, but I learned more in a few hours of reading this book than I've learned in the last 9 years. Bruegmann filled in so much about the town, providing photos I had never seen and anchoring the chronicle around the theme of dreams and failures. In describing Benicia's history as an "unbroken string of defeats," he captures the heart of the the town's aspirations of grandeur. From Benicia's early role as the state capitol, then as a key stop on the Pony Express, and its importance as a depot on the first transcontinental train route and the home of the largest train ferry in the world, Bruegmann captures the essential elements in concise narrative and illustrates them extensively with crisp, historic photography. His coverage of the military arsenal, the first in California, was enlightening. He also reminds us that it was because Benicia did not become an important city that the history is so well preserved.

I especially liked the stories and pictures of Benicia's historic homes. Bruegmann helps readers appreciate the art and enduring qualities of homes that might otherwise seem humdrum. The architectural narrative intertwines with well researched stories about California's pioneers. I walk by many of the houses every day, but I took them for granted until I read this book. The book helped me feel very connected to the past gave me a much better understanding of California life in the 19th century. It is an easy book to read and a reference book that will remain on my coffee table for many years. If you're curious, you can see my own photos of the historic treasures chronicled in this book at my website --

This book provides an very complete look at not only the architectural history of the town of Benicia, but also the history of one of the first permanent military installations founded by the United State Army in the far west. Anyone who has a an interest in western military history, western architcture, or local Northern California history should have a copy of this book. The illustrations are complete and alone could fill a separeate volume.