200,000 people celebrated the opening of the Golden Gate by walking across it. (historydaily)
When people think of San Francisco, the iconic Golden Gate Bridge ranks as one of the first images that come to mind. Along with Alcatraz and the city’s notable rolling hills, the Golden Gate Bridge marks the quintessential essence of the City by the Bay. At the time of its construction, the project was considered infeasible by many experts. Nevertheless, the people of San Francisco actually pushed the project through, paying for its construction costs through a bond agreement that actually used their homes as collateral! Here’s everything Golden Gate related.
Coming Together
Upon completion in 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge became the tallest and longest suspension bridge in the world at that time.
The need for the iconic “international orange” bridge wasn’t exactly a newsflash. The people of San Francisco clambered for it, starting around the 1870’s. However, the powers to be nixed the idea due to cost, aesthetics, and the small-minded thinking of keeping commerce within the city limits. Nevertheless, by 1920 public opinion overwhelmed the bean-counting bureaucrats who eventually accepted Joseph Strauss’ second attempt at the bridge’s design.
Take Two
Just another day at the office. (sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com)
Strauss’ original attempt was flatly rejected as one critic described it as “an upside-down rat trap.” After going back to the drawing board and enlisting the help of his competition, Strauss earned approval for the bridge we know today. After fighting off lawsuits from everyone from the railways to the ferry companies, the city still needed permission from the War Department as they owned the land on either side.
Almost A Bumble Bee Bridge
The Golden Gates' cables were made by the same company that built the Brooklyn Bridge.
The military held many concerns over the construction, like would ships be stuck in the bay if the bridge was bombed. They also requested it be painted black and yellow to improve visibility when the famous fog of San Francisco inevitably rolled in. The Army Corps also threw their two cents in for a red and white “candy-cane” colored bridge. Thankfully for people blessed with the gift of sight, none of these suggestions were taken into consideration.
Not A Numbers Guy
The landing place for the "Halfway to Hell Club" after falling hundreds of feet. (sfgate)
Strauss, who elicited the help of his competition to finish his bid, basically did not understand the ins and outs of engineering. That duty fell to Charles A. Ellis who performed “thousands of calculations for the bridge, writing specifications for ten bridge construction contracts, and supervising the test boring and siting, which involved the complicated process of locating firm footing on the Marin shore.”
Strauss, according to PBS, “did not understand the complexity of the engineering work” and failed to comprehend why Ellis’ work was taking so long. So, Strauss fired Ellis and promoted an assistant. Ellis did not receive credit for his work until his death in the 1940s despite designing “every nut and bolt on the darn thing.”
Safety Strauss
The visible safety net was not foolproof. It gave way under the weight of a collapsing scaffolding. 13 men were on the scaffolding, one jumped clear, two survived the fall into the water, and 10 were killed. Only one other death occured over 4 years after
Ultimately, perhaps Strauss’s largest contribution to the project was his prioritization of safety. In the ‘30s, the general rule for bridge construction was one fatality per million spent. The bridge ended up costing $35 million but only 11 laborers lost their lives. By comparison, 35 workers died while completing the Bay Bridge, connecting Oakland and San Francisco around the same time.
Strauss’s smartest move was spending $130,000 on a safety net suspended across the bottom of the bridge. That net saved the lives of 19 men who entered the “Halfway to Hell Club,” as they called it. As workers put it, “Old Strauss enforced the rules. All a guy had to do was to stand out there on one foot, and he was fired.”
Accidental Majesty
Turns out a primer served as the most logical color choice for the picturesque bridge. (theb1m.com)
As many great ideas go, the brainchild for the bridge’s famous color was pure happenstance. Originally, the “international orange” was simply just a primer to avoid corrosion. However, the color worked perfectly: both aesthetically, contrasting the ocean and surrounding hills while brightly displaying itself in the obscuring fog. The custom formula by Sherwin-Williams remains proudly featured on the bridge’s website.
Ceremonial Button Pressing
The massive project created many dangers but an enduring monument to human achievement.
When the bridge was finished in 1937, over 200,000 people came out to celebrate the occasion. Most of these pedestrians had lived through the Great Depression and the opening of the monumental undertaking was seen as a symbol of hope and perseverance through dark times. The next day President Franklin Roosevelt opened the bridge to vehicles by pressing a telegraph button from the White House.
