Bridge to the Future: Golden Gate Connects San Francisco

The opening day was for pedestrians. Two hundred thousand San Franciscans walked across the Golden Gate Bridge on May 27, 1937, celebrating with footraces, roller skating, and a brass band. On May 28, President Roosevelt pressed a telegraph key from the White House, and vehicle traffic began crossing the span that engineers had insisted could not be built. The bridge connected San Francisco to Marin County across a strait notorious for violent currents, deep water, and dense fog. Chief engineer Joseph Strauss overcame opposition from ferry companies, the War Department, and the Southern Pacific Railroad, all of which profited from the strait remaining unbridged. Financing came through a $35 million bond issue approved by voters in six counties during the Great Depression. Construction took four years and four months. Workers drove the south pier's foundation into the ocean floor 1,100 feet from shore, inside a massive concrete fender that was repeatedly damaged by storms and ship collisions during construction. The main cables, each containing 27,572 individual wires, were spun in place by a system that sent wire loops back and forth across the towers. The bridge's Art Deco towers rise 746 feet above the water, and the roadway hangs 220 feet above the strait at center span, high enough for the largest ships to pass beneath. Consulting architect Irving Morrow chose International Orange for the color, originally intended as a primer but so striking that it became permanent. Eleven men died during construction. Joseph Strauss had insisted on a safety net below the roadway that saved 19 workers from fatal falls. The "Halfway to Hell Club," composed of saved workers, became a symbol of the project's commitment to worker safety. The Golden Gate Bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world for 27 years and remains the most photographed bridge on Earth. Its completion proved that public infrastructure built during economic crisis could be finished on time and under budget, a lesson governments have struggled to replicate since.