The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge that connects San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean, connecting the city of San Francisco to Marin County. It was constructed during the Great Depression and stands as a symbol of American ingenuity and resolve. The bridge opened to the public in 1937 and has endured as a picture-perfect landmark and an engineering marvel.
Construction began on January 5, 1933, and didn’t finish until April 19, 1937. Despite opposition, the majestic Golden Gate Bridge opened on May 27, 1937, to much fanfare. The name “Golden Gate Bridge” is a nod to the Golden Gate Strait, the entrance between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay.
The construction of the Golden Gate Bridge began in January 1933 under the supervision of chief engineer Joseph B. Strauss and involved many challenges. The strait has since become one of the most recognizable landmarks in the world, with the bridge being the longest and tallest suspension bridge in the world when completed in 1937.
The bridge’s official dedication took place on May 27, 1937, and it is now recognized as one of the most recognizable bridges in the world. The bridge’s history is marked by significant events from 1846 when Captain John Fremont declared California independent from Mexico to the present day when two white-tailed deer stopped all traffic.
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14:33 I attended the bridge’s 50th anniversary in 1987. When the bridge operators approved the temporary closure to vehicles, they estimated 50,000 would attend. The actual number was estimated at peak, close to 800,000 had come, far more than could even fit on the bridge. You can find photos that show masses of people stretching back on to land, unable to reach the span. I attempted to cross the bridge – end to end. It was so crowded that after two hours, I only made it from the toll booths to mid span. The sag was visible. Could you imagine if the cables snapped, killing several hundred thousand? Even though the bridge held up fine, the bridge operators said they will NOT repeat such an event.
Joseph Strauss was officially the Chief Engineer, based primarily on his long history of building drawbridges throughout the country. But for the GGB, Strauss had absolutely no involvement with its design. The suspension design was proposed by Leon Moisseiff, a Latvian immigrant who had been involved on other large suspension bridges in New York, and it was he who had the idea of an elegant suspension bridge. The real brains behind turning the concept into a well-designed structure, however, belongs entirely to Charles Ellis, a meticulous structural engineer who personally made all the static and dynamic load calculations, including solving some equations with 37 variables…all done without the benefit of computers. Strauss became so irritated with the attention Mr. Ellis was getting from the press and other engineers that Strauss canned him. It wasn’t until the 75th anniversary of the bridge’s completion in 2013 that a plaque was installed on the bridge to honor Charles Ellis as the true designer.
Fun fact. The Golden Gate Bridge undergoes constant maintenance. There is a crew that works from one end of the bridge to the other. They repair and replace rusted out pieces and repaint as they go. This is a never ending loop. When they reach the end the crew goes back to the other side and begins the process all over again.
Additional facts: At the time of the Golden Gate Bridge’s construction, no steelworks on the West Coast could produce components large enough to construct the towers, so they were shipped via the recently finished Panama Canal from the East Coast (New York specifically I belive) The Red color originally was to be a temporary coat to protect the bridge while a final color could be chosen (the navy suggested yellow/black stripes for visibility reasons) but it was stuck with as the locals were fond of it The Bridge was constructed with an unprecedented (for the time) emphasis on worker safety, to the point as far as I’m aware there was only one fatal accident during construction.
My Grandfather (1890 – 1964) wrote a book on the engineering of the bridge contemporarily with its costruction.. He was an engineer for the City of San Francisco. BTW. I don’t think they used roller compacted concrete. I inherited a small piece of one strand of the cable and splice from my mother. The Golden Gate Bridge will always be the standard for beautiful infrastructure. His book is still for sale at the gift shop.
That is why i as civil engineer really fall in love with these kind of mega structures. Only those who worked on structures know how they built it. For normal people it is just bridge to connect with each other but for us it is more than that it is our emotions, our commitment and love to our country.
They give Strauss far too much credit here (a common mistake)! Strauss did come up with the concept of bridging the golden gate, and was its chief promoter, a herculean task in itself! However, he primarily designed cantilever bridges and did not have the engineering experience to create the suspension bridge that was built. Charles A. Ellis was the primary engineer. Also, they show the traffic flowing in the wrong direction on the bridge. Our steering wheels are on the left in San Francisco!😂 Other than that, a very interesting article!
Great article presentation. They forgot to include the bridge road to be slightly arched, like an old arch bridge design. It may lessen the tension of the cables and reduce damage when the road deck steel expands. When the finger expansion has no more room for expansion, the steel road deck will push horizontally and may damage the two towers. When the road deck is slightly arched, it will just push up to lessen compression. The designers are very smart. It’s a combination of an arch bridge and a suspension bridge.
The Golden gate bridge is so iconic. Such a beautiful landmark. Since I was a child, I always wanted to go to San Francisco. I always loved SF but always wanted to see the Golden gate bridge. I went last year and made my dream to see SF and Golden gate bridge a reality. I cried so much as soon as I seen the Golden gate. If you guys haven’t already, I highly recommend going to SF. Not just for the bridge (even though it is so beautiful and that was my main reason for going), all the other attractions and culture is amazing. I made so many great friends in SF
Never cared about this kind of stuff but last year i rode my bicycle from Canada to Mexico and i remember crossing the GGB at around ten miles an hour and actually able to stop to admire it and not be moving with traffic, but it was one if the best parts of my trip. On the north side of the bridge is this cool little park where you can stand at the base of the supports and just really get to admire the whole thing. Super cool article thank you.
It’s crazy to think about every movie it’s been destroyed in. The Golden Gate Bridge has been destroyed in the following films. It Came from Beneath the Sea: Destroyed by a giant octopus. Battle in Outer Space: Destroyed by a meteor from space. Superman: Partially destroyed by an earthquake. The Core: Destroyed by unfiltered solar radiation from the Sun. 10.5: Destroyed by a major earthquake. X-Men: The Last Stand: Destroyed and moved to Alcatraz by Magneto, one of X-Men’s villains. Shown to be rebuilt at the end. Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus: Destroyed by a giant monster attack. Monsters vs. Aliens: During a battle with the probe, it topples over onto the span, resulting in the south tower’s collapse. Meteor Storm: Destroyed by a meteor shower. Pacific Rim: Destroyed by a giant kaiju. Godzilla: Destroyed by Godzilla after it cuts through the span. San Andreas: A mega-tsunami carrying a cargo ship hits the bridge, causing it to collapse. Terminator Genisys: Destroyed by a nuclear missile. Sharknado 5: Global Swarming: Destroyed by a Sharknado worldwide.
I remember walking all the way across the golden gate bridge when I was a kid then a few years later moved to Texas and some dumb ass kid at school kept insisting that the golden gate bridge was actually made of gold. I wanted to strangle the shit out of him because I had already been on it; under it and all around it. I even saw the cross section in Golden Gate Park and knew it was called the “Golden Gate Bridge” because California is where the gold rush started, which is why it’s referred to as the “Golden State”.
Another fact you missed out on was that the bridge also accounted for the curvature of the Earth, I copy and pasted this equation of the length of the bridge showing the towers are a different height, a mere 4.7 cm, but the engineers even thought about that when building the Golden Gate Bridge – 1280m main span, 227 m height -> 4.7 cm. While the longest suspension bridge in the World the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge its span is so wide there is a nearly 9 cm of difference in the hight of the towers – 1991 m main span (world record), 283 m height -> 8.8 cm. having a poke at flat earthers 🙂
Another interesting engineering tidbit involves the bridge’s south anchorage. Upon site inspection, Strauss realized that the Civil War-era Fort Point stood on where he had planned to build the south anchorage for the suspension cables. Wanting to preserve the fort’s architecture, he redesigned the south anchorage, incorporating an arch structure so that the bridge could pass over the fort, thereby preserving it. The redesign also moved the suspension anchorages further to the south. (Note: it’s also been hinted that preserving the fort saved the Golden Gate Bridge district a ton of money. The bridge was being built on US Army property — the Presidio to the south and Fort Baker to the north. As part of the agreement with the Army to build the bridge, the bridge district was required to compensate the Army for any property they had to demolish during construction. Needless to say, demolishing old Fort Point would have been quite costly for the project.)
9:20 You can learn this section at home by hanging heavy pictures or mirrors with picture wire. The weight of the load is always the same but the tension in the cable depends on how it is oriented. Vertical would be supporting the weight fully. But with added angle, only a portion of the tension is holding the vertical load weight.
Love this! I have visited GGB many times in late 80s early 90s. I remember the story about the 50th Anniversary. As I remember it, the officials were in constant contact with civil engineers across the Bay Area. They key was not to start a panic among the visitors on the bridge which could have caused widespread trampling. The officials closed the bridge to walking traffic and slowly allowed visitors to walk off the bridge, thus releasing the stress. I remember walking across one time and nearly pooping myself as the bridge bounced as trucks and traffic whizzed by. As I called out to my parents, my father said “I’d be more worried if it wasn’t bouncing.” He then showed me the expansion joints and explained their design. It was still a harrowing experience, but I never forgot that lesson and could only imagine those visitors during the anniversary. How many saw that the joints were completely compressed? Did they have any clue? If they did, how did they stay calm? Just amazing. I went on to become a teacher and I especially loved teaching children about engineering and especially bridge design. Thank you for this awesome article. Side note, were you aware that many of the past and current bridge workers were of Asian descent? Many from South Asia. I hope this wasn’t a culturally inappropriate statement from my father, but he said it was because of increased balance. I pray that I am not passing on a culturally inappropriate belief, cause if true, I would see it as an incredible point of pride.
Charles Alton Ellis designed the majority of the bridge, apparently he and Joseph Strauss had disagreements so Strauss did not give him any credit when the bridge opened. In 2012 a plaque was installed at the bridge to acknowledge Charles Alton Ellis contributions to the design of the bridge. This is all on Charles Alton Ellis wiki page.
theres a fun engineering problem with the bridge right now: they installed aerodynamic slats on the pedestrian railings to resist resonant lateral twisting of the decks during some future sustained wind event (100mph). however, now, when the wind hits from the right angle, the bridge now “sings” loudly and can be heard sometimes from miles around. some locals have described the dissonant noise as a “giant wheezing kazoo”. this has been happening with enough regularity that the bridge authority is working to retrofit every slat to mitigate the creepy noise.
Strauss is credited as the chief engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge, but Charles Alton Ellis is responsible for most of the structural design. Because of a dispute with Strauss, however, Ellis was not recognized for his work when the bridge opened in 1937. A plaque honoring Ellis was installed on the south tower in 2012, to acknowledge his contributions.
Part 2 can discuss maintenance. In particular: how in the world do they inspect for corrosion in the tower bases? Certainly the original paint and sealants have not held up perfectly these 80 years since. Any pinhole of weakness can be a grave problem in that saltwater environment. Do they just look for the worst rust, chisel out the oxidation, and then back fill the hole with JB Weld? Those assemblies of “Lego pieces” do not support easy access to all air spaces in the structure.
Man this article is kinda sparking the engineering/math loving side of my brain that I let kinda die over recent years. Super super cool stuff. And it’s absolutely incredible that this even happened. Like imagine the SIZE of the team that there needs to be working on this. All with the same goal in mind, all working in tandem to create something bigger than themselves. Absolutely incredible
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Sure, this design is not done by just one person because it requires different expertise in different fields of civil engineering, But unfortunately, everywhere the engineers and those who do the hard work are at the middle and lower levels but the achievements and credits are always for those who work at the Senior levels of the company. Good job for all the engineering team who participated in this work
I have lived in San Francisco since 1974, and the Golden Gate Bridge never fails to awe me. It joins a handful of visual splendors in North America–Niagara Falls, The Grand Canyon, The Grand Tetons, Monument Valley and Yosemite Valley–that cannot be exaggerated, and never lose their majesty. The article aptly honored the estimable engineering prowess of Joseph Strauss, but another man, Irving Morrow, a local architect, was in charge of the design. The soaring, tapered lines of his Art Deco esthetic were finished in a wonderfully unexpected vermillion color, conferring warmth to the bridge’s breathtaking power, and transforming an engineering marvel into a towering monument of 20th-century art & architecture. The compelling grace of Morrow’s brave proposal is further enhanced by the bridge’s natural setting–strung improbably over a yawning, tide-ripped strait between two promontories of the California Coastal Range, with Alcatraz Island and San Francisco Bay to the east, and the great Pacific Ocean spreading west. Ansel Adams once described it as the only manmade structure to ever enhance its setting, not merely exploit it. The bridge is like an enormous gem viewed from bug’s size at the south tower, with a misplaced Mediterranean city, San Francisco, behind you, and the bridge’s glowing, ember-toned iron shoulders above, arching over a Civil-War era Fort Point. Strauss and Morrow took great pains to preserve the historic, red masonry fort, which compiles in a single visual sweep the weight of history, the gravity of technology and the beauty of geography.
BEAUTIFULLY EXPLAIND EACH PART OF THE BRIDGE AND THE THEORY AND PRINCIPALS BEHIND THEM. THE MAIN CABAL CONSISTED OF 27000 CABALS MAKIN AS ONE CABAL .FOUNDATIONS OF THE PILLARS WHAT A GREAT PROCEDURE. ABOVE ALL THE MIND BEHIN THIS BRIDGE, THE ENGINEER WHO DESIGNED THIS MASTER PIECE. A BIG THUMB UP FOR MR.JOSEPH STRAUSS. 👍 170 K + 1 😀
I find humor knowing that this bridge was invented many decades before the safety vests on the workers in this rendering. They’ll spend a gazillion dollars to make two gazillion dollars but it didn’t occur to them that a little visibility might save a few thousand lives, though I’m not sure how they would help the guys at the top of the GGB. I don’t think there was much air traffic back then. The above is just humor. The GGB is a beautiful marvel of engineering and this is an awesome article depicting such.
Each strand in the main cables occupies a different part of the cross-section and thus bears a slightly different load. To account for this, and to minimize thermal expansion, engineers looked at weather records and determined that the most stable temperatures at the Golden Gate occur around 4 am. Hence, most of the cables were stretched in the wee hours of the morning. Also, in addition to the 1987 incident, shortly after its completion the bridge was displaced laterally several meters by gale-force winds. Some fun facts I learned from T.Y. Lin in 1989.
What ‘s amazing is how farsighted the engineers of the past were. Everthing was thought of and the Golden Gate Bridge still standing is the proof of the ingenuity. I am sure mistrer Stauss was asisted by a score of talented engineers and backed by a solid financial backing. If I am not mistaken the money is always in problem as the original designs are never in sync with the final price tag. Absolutely genius and impressive. If only he knew this bridge would turn into the most popular suicide attraction destinations. Not his fault, obviously. I saw the bridge a couple of years ago. In the foggy weather and ambient light it looked downright majestic and otherworldly. The Alcaatraz in the distance just added the overall feeling of something very special in the entire area. As if the world’s richest and most successful converged to this exact spot to be met with the population on the opposite side of the wealth and happiness spectrum. It’s a constant tug of war between the two, where you see tents right in front of some of the most advanced companies, some of which changed the world as we know it. Amazing juxtaposition The cold weather and constant cold breeze did not dissuade the surfers as there were literally hundreds of them right under the bridge, some riding the waves some waiting for the right one to hop on. At one spot on the land there is a WW2 turrett which is obsolete and is not even a museum or a tourist attraction. It just sits there reminding us of the days long past.
An entire article could be done on the main cables alone! In my opinion, they’re the single most complex element of the whole bridge. There’s the precise tensioning of each individual strand, bundling strands into packets that are positioned into a specific pattern. Then using a specially designed hydraulic compressor to form a perfect circle, and wrapping the whole cable with a spiral wrap using another specialized machine. And having pre-planned connections to the massive anchorage blocks at each end. AMAZING!! The designer, Mr Ellis, also had to calculate the distributed vertical loads from the suspender cables onto the catenary, the weight of the cables themselves, and the required thermal expansion/contraction in the roadway, plus estimated lateral force from 100 mph winds (his arbitrary standard) and you get the idea.
I’ve always been impressed by Strauss’s repeated deference to worker safety considering the construction safety standards of the era were for the most part non-existent. The entire project’s design and execution remarkably hold up a century later considering that it has only required reinforcing of anchors and upgrading critical steel junctions retroactively without requiring it to be replaced, and is now considered at minimum capable of surviving a 8.0 magnitude earthquake with a epicenter close to the bridge itself.
For those who are familiar with the metric system: On screen at 2:37: “George Washington Bridge – New York City, NY: 1,067 m // Golden Gate Bridge – San Francisco, CA: 1,280 m” At 4:11: “Once the towers were complete, workers, span the cables in place, hung suspenders at 15.24-meter intervals and laid down the concrete roadway.”
Unfortunately, the original designers of the Golden Gate Bridge did not have a good understanding of aerodynamic loads and its potential interactions with the natural frequency of the structure. The first Tacoma Narrows Bridge was a victim of this oversight and it catastrophically failed in 1940. More money has been expended on remediation work for the Golden Gate Bridge than was spent to build it as a consequence.
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I was in CA and drove across the Golden Gate Bridge in October of 2020. Unfortunately, I was there for the wildfires, and the combination of smoke (at that time, probably from Napa) and fog made it impossible to see the bridge even as I was driving across it. The towers weren’t visible at all until I was driving under them.