Novel macrocyclic compounds are constructed to include large cyclic structures that are interrupted by at least one ring system. Each interrupting ring system includes two bridgehead atoms. Bridgehead atoms are bonded to one or more bridges that interconnect one or more ring systems thereby forming a large cyclic structure. Located in each bridge are two or more nitrogenous moieties that are derivatized with chemical functional groups. The ring systems can include further nitrogenous moieties, either as ring atoms or on pendant groups attached to the ring. These can also be derivatized with chemical functional groups. The totality of the chemical functional groups imparts certain conformational and other properties to the macrocyclic compounds. In accordance with certain embodiments of the invention, libraries of such macrocyclic compounds are prepared utilizing permutations and combinations of the chemical functional groups and the nitrogenous moieties to build complexity into the library.