Crossing Bridges is the autobiography of Public Servant, Thomas Edison Brown, Jr. based upon his experiences, opinions, and observations of events including his family lineage to his professional career of more than forty years in public service beginning in Atlanta as a firefighter through his serving in three major capacities in DeKalb County, Georgia. Brown says: Having grown up in the Mozley Park Subdivision of Southwest Atlanta, nobody could have ever convinced me that this Henry McNeal Turner High School graduate would dedicate his life to 40 years of public service. I was a “C” student trying to figure out life, and at the time, I was not prepared for life. But through others believing in me, especially my mother Rosa Belle Branham Brown, and countless others, I became an Atlanta Firefighter, the youngest and the first African American to be appointed as the Fire Chief of DeKalb County, Georgia, the first African American to be appointed as the Public Safety Director of DeKalb County, and finally appointed as Interim Sheriff of DeKalb County after the assassination of Sheriff-Elect Derwin Brown before winning four consecutive elections as the High Sheriff of DeKalb County. Crossing Bridges is not just about my family, or the phenomenal lineage of the first generation of Browns who arrived here in America as indentured servants in the 1700s. But it’s about facing the challenges of life with conviction, determination, and the character to do the right thing against many challenges. In Public Service, I was immediately introduced to the politics and personal agendas that went along with it. It required great strategic moves and savvy alliances and networking to overcome a lot of Bridges, on my part, including dealing with the behind-the-scenes nonsense of the defamation and vilification of Dr. Crawford Lewis, one of DeKalb County’s premiere educators; fighting to get decent healthcare for DeKalb County Inmates; facing former Sheriff Sidney Dorsey: a convicted criminal and inmate, and so many more stories that reveal new perspectives through the eyes of one who saw it, lived it, influenced much of it, and now can write about it.