Page 250 - DK Eyewitness Travel Guides - The World's Must-See Places

Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco

Superlatives flow when describing this world-famous land-
mark. It is the third-largest single-span bridge ever built, and,
when it was erected, it was the longest and tallest suspension
structure. Named after the part of San Francisco Bay dubbed
n Golden Gate in the mid-19th century, the bridge opened
in 1937. There are breathtaking views of the bay from this
spectacular structure, which has six lanes for vehicles as w ell
ATlANTIC
OCEAN
as a pathway for pedestrians and cyclists.
GVLF OF
MEXICO
The bridge's length One of the builders, In
THE FERRIES' RETURN a protec tive mask
is 1.7 miles (2.7 km),
BUILDING THE BRIDGE with a center span of
Although the bridge was built to
The Golden Gate Bridge IS a classic s uspensiOn relieve ferry congestion in San 4,200 ft (1 ,280m)
bridge of the kind first bu1lt in the mid-19th Francisco Bay, in recent years it has
century. Its main elements are anchorages, become so busy that thousands of car
towers (pylons), cables, and road. Enormous drivers have abandoned their vehicles
concrete anchorages were poured at either end for reliable water travel- there are
to hold the cables. The steel for the towers was now 18 ferries serving the area.
fabricated in Pennsylvania and shipped through
the Panama Canal Engineer Joseph B Strauss
chose John A. Roebh ng and Sons, bull ders of
the Brooklyn Bndge, to make the cables. Since
no derrick of the t1me could hft cables as heavy
as these, they were spun 1n place, the mach1nes
passing back a-.d fath cont1nuously for SIX
months. For the bridge's pa1nt cola, arch1tect
Irving Marow reJected the standard gray, cho-
osing instead "International Orange," which he
felt blended better with the bndge's setting.

BRIDGE PARTY
The Golden Gate Bndge opened to pedestrian
traffic on May 27, 1937, on schedule and
under budget On a typ1cally foggy and windy
day, over 18,000 people took part 1n the grand
opening by walking its total length fjncl udi ng
the approaches ) of 8,981 ft (2,737 m). The next
day, President franklin D. Roosevelt pressed
a telegraph key in the White House that
opened the bridge to vehicular traffic. Every
THE FOUNDATIONS
siren and church bell 1n San Francisco and
Marin County sounded Simultaneously A The foundations of the twin towers are a remarkable
feat of engineering. The south pier, 1 ,125 It (345m) The highway 65-ft (20-m) thick
week-long celebrat1on followed the event offshore, was sunk 100ft (30m) below the s urface in is 220 ft (67 m)
open water. above water
DESIGNER SQUABBLES that is 318 ft 155-ft (47 -m)
(97 m) deep.
The idea of bu1ld1ng a bndge across the Golden high fender
Gate was conceived as early as 18n, by
ra1lroad tycoon Charles Crocker, but 1t was not
conSidered feaSible until ard"l1tect Joseph B.
Strauss stepped forward With a plan 1n 1921
Nine years of bureaucratic wrangling passed
before Strauss was named chef eng1neer, but
it is actually assistant ch1ef engneer Clifford
Paine, and architect lrv1ng F Marow, who
deserve the cred1t for the des1gn and build1ng
of the bridge that stands today By all accounts,
Strauss seems to have been a dlff1cult man;
he fired his first assistant ch1 ef engineer, Charles The Concrete Fender no reach the bedrock, divers were
During construction, the south pier base was protected
Ellis, for attracting too much publicity. Strauss from the force of the tides by a fender of concrete. Water employed to dynamite 20-ft (6-m)
even kept Ellis's name from appearing on any was pumped out to create a vast watertight locker. deep hoi es in the ocean floor.
offi cia I documents.