Charles Sheffield 
Web Between the Worlds [EPUB ebook] 

Rob Merlin was the best engineer who had ever lived. That was why "The King of Space" had to have him for the most spectacular construction project ever — even though Rob was a potentially fatal threat to his power…Thus begins a breakthrough novel by the former President of the American Astronautical Society, about an idea whose time has come: a shimmering bridge between Earth and space that mankind will climb to the stars!