Page 251 - DK Eyewitness Travel Guides - The World's Must-See Places

USA ~-,:- ;--;--

v View from Fort Point at the south end

Bridge lighting A
Sodium vapor I amps were
A Building the Roadway
in stalled to provide nongla re
The steel-supported concrete highway was
lighting for drivers.
constructed from the towers in both
directions. so that its weight on the
cables was evenly distributed.
Towers>
The hollow, twin steel
towers that support the bridge's
suspension cables rise to a height
of 746ft (227m) above the water.
Each tower weighs 44,000 tons.

THE BRIDGE IN FIGURES
• Every day, around 118,000 vehicles • The volume of <on<rete poured into Man with a Plan>-
<ross the bridge; this means that every the p lers and a n<hora ges during the Chicago engineering ti til n
year more than 40 million vehicles use it bridge's <onstru<tion would be enough Joseph Strauss is offidally
• The original <Oat of orange paint lasted to lay a 5-tt ( 1.5-m) wide sidewalk from credited as the bridge's
tor 27 years, with o«asional tou<h-ups. In New York to San Francis<O, a distance or designer. He was assisted by
1965, the paint was removed and a more more than 2,500 miles (4,000 km). Leon Moisseiff, Charles Ellis. and
durable <oating was applied. Today, this • The bridge < an stand firm in the fa<e Clifford Paine. Irving F . Morrow
is tou<hed up by a <rew of 38 painters. ot 100 mph (160 km/h) winds. acted as consulting architect.
• The two great 7,650-tt (2,332-m) • Ea<h of the bridge's piers has to
<abies are more than 3 ft (1 m) thi<k, and withstand a tidal flow of more than
<ontain 80,000 miles (128,744 km) of steel 60 mph (97 km/h), while supporting a
wire-enough to <i rcle the Earth at the huge, heavy tower above.
equator three times over.
View north, toward Marl n County

KEY DATES
c. 1872 1923 1933 1937 1985
Earliest discussions a boot califom ia legtlature Construction o( the The bridge opens on time, The ooe-b<lllonth car
building a bridge across passes a bill to explore Golden Gate Bridge and under budget, to passes over the bridge.
the entrance of San the feasibility of building begins in January. great celebrations.
Franc&o Baj. the bridge.