The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the opening into the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. It connects the city of San Francisco on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula and a portion of the south-facing Marin County headlands near the small bayside town of Sausalito. The color of the bridge is International Orange.

Completed in 1937, it is widely considered one of the most beautiful examples of bridge engineering, both as an structural design challenge and for its aesthetic appeal. Its center span was the longest among suspension bridges until 1964 when the Verrazano Narrows Bridge was erected between the boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn in New York City. In 1957, Michigan's Mackinac Bridge surpassed the Golden Gate Bridge's length between anchorages to become the world's longest suspension bridge in total length. The longest center suspension span in the world is currently the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge in Japan.

The bridge was the brainchild of Joseph Strauss, an engineer responsible for over 400 drawbridges, though they were far smaller than this project and mostly inland. Strauss spent over a decade drumming up support in Northern California. Strauss's initial proposal for this location was not at all pretty, being comprised of a massive cantilever on each side connected with a central suspension segment. Other key figures in the bridge's construction include architect Irving Morrow , responsible for the Art Deco touches and the choice of color, and engineer Charles Alton Ellis and bridge designer Leon Moisseiff , who collaborated on the complicated mathematics.

The construction of the bridge began on January 5, 1933 under the aegis of the Works Projects Administration (WPA), a program instigated by Franklin D. Roosevelt to create public works through federal funds and alleviate the effects of the Great Depression. It was completed in April 1937 and opened to pedestrians on May 27 of that year. The next day, President Roosevelt pushed a button in Washington, DC signaling the start of vehicle traffic over the Bridge. The cost to build it was $27 million. A unique aspect of the construction of this bridge was that a safety net was set up beneath it, significantly reducing the number of deaths that were typical for a construction project such as this in the early 1900s. Approximately 11 men were killed from falls during construction, and approximately 19 men were saved by the safety net. The bulk of the deaths occurred near completion when the net itself failed under the stress of a scaffold fall. Those workers whose lives were saved by the safety nets became proud members of the (informal) Halfway to Hell Club.

It is 1.22 miles (1970 m) long, the distance between the towers ("main span") is 4200 ft (1280 m), and their height is 746 feet (230 m) above the water.

The bridge has been declared one of the modern Seven Wonders of the World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. It was for many years the suspension bridge with the longest main span in the world, but was superseded by the 1298 m long Verrazano Narrows Bridge, New York City in 1964, and several other bridges since. It also had the world's tallest suspension towers at the time of construction, and retained that record until more recently.

Why isn't the bridge gold, as its name would suggest? International orange, the color of the bridge's paint, was chosen for its visibility in fog. The phrase Golden Gate refers to the strait that the bridge crosses, and this name predates the bridge.

As the only road to exit San Francisco to the north, the bridge is part of both United States Highway 101 and California State Route 1. The bridge has six total lanes of vehicle traffic, and walkways on both sides of the bridge. The median markers between the lanes are moved to conform to traffic patterns. On weekday mornings, traffic flows mostly southbound into the city, so four of the six lanes run southbound. Conversely, on weekday afternoons, four lanes run northbound. While there has been much demand and discussion concerning the installation of a movable barrier, no satisfactory solution has been committed to by the authorities. Usually, the eastern walkway is for pedestrians only, and the western walkway is for bicyclists only, although this can change during times of construction. Both walkways are closed to pedestrian traffic during the evening and at night.

On September 1, 2002, the toll for southbound motor vehicles was raised from $3.00 to $5.00. Northbound motor vehicle traffic, cycling, and pedestrian traffic remain toll free.

Jumping from the bridge is a rather common method to commit suicide. On average, there is one jump every two weeks, with a total of well over 1,200 suicides (officials stopped counting in 1995 when the number approached 1,000). More suicides take place on this bridge than on any other single structure in the world. [1] Almost all people jump facing east, towards the bay, due to the fact that only the eastern side of the bridge is open to pedestrians. The 220-foot (67 m) fall takes four seconds and jumpers hit the water at 75 miles per hour (120 km/h). As of 2003, only 26 people have survived the jump. The survivors, many of whom report that they regretted the decision in mid-air, all hit the water feet first at a small angle and suffered multiple internal injuries and broken bones. The bridge board has so far resisted calls to add a suicide-prevention barrier to the four-foot (1.2 m) tall rail.

The Golden Gate Bridge in fiction and film

• The bridge is a prominent backdrop in Alfred Hitchcock's film Vertigo (1958) in a scene set just east (bayside) of Fort Point, with the bridge in the background.
• The bridge plays a significant role in the climactic scene of the James Bond film A View to A Kill (1985)
• In William Gibson's futuristic Bridge Trilogy of novels, Golden Gate Bridge, closed to traffic after an earthquake, has been taken over by the homeless, and turned into a miniature city of the dispossessed.
• In one of the Superman film series, Superman saves a school bus about to fall from the bridge.
• In the Japanese science fiction film Mothra the bridge is destroyed by the collision of a large nuclear mutant monster.
• In the one of the Star Trek movies (involving the saving of a species of whale), the location of the United Federation Of Planets Academy for the training of starship officers is set in San Francisco's Presidio, with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Instead of a direct view of traffic lanes and whatever transportation technology is employed there is an obscuring weatherproof glass arch cover. Perhaps everyone travels the bridge by walking and bicycle in this future time, since purposeful travel may be done quickly by the transporter technology common in starships.

External links

• The Official website of the Golden Gate Bridge
• Structurae: Golden Gate Bridge
• The Museum of San Francisco's Story Behind the Construction of the Span
• PBS American Experience
• Golden Gate Bridge Virtual Tour
• The story of Golden Gate Bridge - by CBS Forum

References

• Tad Friend: Jumpers: The fatal grandeur of the Golden Gate Bridge, The New Yorker, Oct 13, 2003 v79 i30 page 48