The whole book restores the unique materials, temperament and connotation of that era. Through the re-editing of historical materials and images, we try to use the bridge as the entry point to restore the most authentic China to the world.
In the 1950s and 1960s，China was in the cold war period of the world-level two-tier structure and the great change period of Sino-Soviet relations. It was in the double dilemma of trying to defeat nature (the Yangtze River Tianzhu) and history (the poverty and weakness). In the self-reliance period of efforts to get rid of the Soviet restraint, the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge inevitably stood in the position of miracle and became a symbol of the highly symbolized China that was irreplaceable in that historical period.
From a contemporary perspective, the designer has given the book a sense of nostalgia in the historical era, while avoiding the simple listing of historical materials, thus realizing the interactive transformation and vivid contrast between the two clues of history and modernity.The red plastic cortex of the cover truly reproduces the irreplaceable China that was very rich and identifiable 50 years ago. In the era of building bridges, almost all of China's books were made of plastic covers. These books accurately conveyed the unique and collectivist Chinese spirit of that era just as same as the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge.
The design of this book seeks to reproduce the "truthful and simple power of a monument" in the process of "taking a socialist road different from the Soviet Union." Thereby, it evokes the Chinese memory of the “all the imaginable things have almost a bridge figure”.
整本书在设计中还原了那个年代独有的材料、气质和内涵，通过对史料与图像的再编辑，力图以大桥为切入点，向世界还原那个最真实的中国。
二十世纪五六十年代的中国，正处于世界两级格局的冷战期和中苏关系的巨变期、正处于试图战胜自然（长江天堑）和历史（积贫积弱）的双重困境期、正处于努力摆脱苏联钳制的自力更生期，南京长江大桥，不可避免地站到了奇迹的位置上，成为那段历史时期不可替代的高度符号化的中国的象征。
设计师以当代性的视角，在赋予全书以历史年代的怀旧感的同时，也避免了史料图片的简单罗列，从而实现历史和现代两根线索的交互变换和鲜明对比。封套的红塑料皮质真实再现了50年前那个极富年代感和辨识度的，无可替代的中国。在建桥的那个年代，中国几乎全部的书籍都是用塑料皮做成封面的小本子，它和大桥壹样，准确传递出那个时代特有的、集体主义中国的精神风貌。
本书的设计，力图再现“走上了壹条不同于苏联的社会主义道路”过程中的“宛如纪念碑般悲壮而朴拙的力量”。进而，唤起人们对那个“所有能想象到的东西几乎都有大桥身影”的中国记忆。
