Like Whitman, Hart Crane strove in his poetry to embrace America, to distill an image of America. Begun in 1923 and published in 1930, The Bridge is Crane's major work. "Very roughly," he wrote a friend, "it concerns a mystical synthesis of 'America.' . . . The initial impulses of 'our people' will have to be gathered up toward the climax of the bridge, symbol of our constructive future, our unique identity."