The Golden Gate Bridge
The Golden Gate Bridge, the bridge that spans the distance between the Marin Headlands and San Francisco is San Francisco's most famous and probably most photographed landmark. There have been songs written about it, movies filmed on it, and ofcourse thousands upon thousands of people cross it every day.
In 1916 a proposal was made to build a bridge to span the Golden Gate. While many people had wanted a bridge for a long time, there was quite a bit of opposition. The unions wanted assurances that their workers would have first shot at construction jobs. Some were concerned that a bridge would interfere with ship traffic. The Southern Pacific Railroad which was the parent company of the ferry service wasn't too happy about the competition from a bridge.
Many experts said that a bridge could not be built across the Golden Gate Strait. The strait was 6,700 feet long, making the Golden Gate Bridge the longest bridge in the world at the time. There are deep waters, strong swirling tides, dense fog, and strong winds. Though the winds are nearly a constant 60 mph, the bridge has only ever been closed due to weather conditions 3 times. On December 1, 1951, due to gusts of 69 mph, on December 23, 1982, due to winds of 70 mph, and on December 3, 1983, due to wind gusts of 75 mph.
Eventually the the people finally got what they wanted and the bridge was to be built. Construction finally began on January 5 1933 and the project cost over $26 million. The project was finished by April 1937 and actually came in $1.3 million under budget. The opening celebration for the bridge began on May 27 1937 and lasted for a week.
The bridge gets it's name from the body of water it crosses. The Golden Gate Strait, the entrance to the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean.
People had dreamed of spanning the Golden Gate Strait for well over a century before the bridge opened. Before the bridge was there, the most efecient way to cross from the Northernmost point of San Francisco to what is now the Southernmost point of Marin County was to take a boat. There was ferry service as early as the 1820's but it wasn't until 1868 that the Sausalito Land and Ferry Company service opened for business and by the late 1920's it had become the largest ferry operation in the world.
In a project of this magnitude, that took nearly 4 1/2 years to complete, it surprising that only 11 men were killed while building the bridge. These men are memorialized by a plaque at the Southern entrance to the West sidewalk of the bridge.
This bridge is THE symbol of San Francisco. It's not just a bridge, it's a work of art. And, it's no small task keeping it looking as good as it did on the day it opened. Painting the Golden Gate Bridge is an ongoing task and the primary maintenance job for the bridge. Currently a crew of 17 ironworkers and 38 painters work to maintain the bridge and repair any corroding steel.
Not only is The Golden Gate Bridge a beautiful landmark itself, but if you walk across the bridge you can see some other sites as well. San Francisco's downtown skyline, Alcatraz, The Farallon Islands. If you're going to travel to San Francisco, do yourself a favor and spend some time at The Golden Gate Bridge, you'll be glad you did.
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S.F. Visitor Pages