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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, MichiganMichigan is a state in the United States. The name is derived from Lake Michigan, which in turn is believed to come from the Chippewa Indian word meicigama meaning "great water. Bounded by four of the Great Lakes, Michigan has the longest state shoreline's Mackinac Bridgesuspension bridge in the United States. The Mackinac Bridge (pronounced MACK-i-naw, and affectionately known as the "Mighty Mac" or "Big Mac"), is a suspension bridge spanning the Straits of Mackinac to connect the non-contiguous upper and lower peninsula 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 BridgeThe Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge (; Akashi-Kaikyo Ohashi) is a bridge in Japan that employs the longest central section of any suspension bridge in the world to cross the Akashi Strait (Akashi-Kaikyo) linking Maiko in Kobe and Matsuho, on Awaji Island as part of in JapanJapan (, Nippon/Nihon literally "the origin of the sun") is a country in East Asia situated on a chain of islands east of the Asian continent on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean. The largest of these islands are, from north to south, Hokkaido , Honsh.
The bridge was the brainchild of Joseph StraussFor the composer, see Josef Strauss Joseph Baermann Strauss ( January 9, 1870 May 16, 1938) was a American engineer and designer. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1892. He was Chief Engineer of the Golden, 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 cantilevercantilever bridge with three double cantilevers Cantilever is an engineering term referring to a construction technique in which loads are carried by a beam to a strong mounting point. The beam forms a lever, which carries the load by being held in positi 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 DecoArt Deco was a movement in decorative arts that also affected architecture, deriving its name from the World's fair held in Paris in 1925, formally titled the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes, which showcased French lu 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 5January 5 is the 5th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 360 days remaining until the end of the year (361 in leap years). Events 1463 Poet Francois Villon is banned from Paris. 1477 Battle of Nancy, Charles the Bold killed, Burgundy beco, 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.
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.