T. Y. Lin's oral history documents a successful career in building bridges both actual and cultural: as a popular university professor of engineering, as head of a major structural engineering firm, and as a classically educated Chinese gentleman and scholar who excels in innovative use of Western technology. In 2000, Professor Lin traveled to Washington, D.C., to receive the highest honor in his profession, the first OPAL award of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Among the hundreds of awards he has received, he prizes the National Medal of Science given to him by President Ronald Reagan, and the award of merit given by the American Consulting Engineers Council, and previously given to Presidents Herbert Hoover and Dwight Eisenhower. His four books and other publications, with their translations into many languages, make a stack four feet high.