5/27/2005: Happy 68th birthday to the bridge
The Golden Gate Bridge opened on May 27, 1937 - 68 years ago today. That first day was for pedestrians only; the bridge was opened to cars the following day at 12 noon by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It opened ahead of schedule and under budget.. something that doesn't happen too often anymore.
The Golden Gate is an engineering marvel, particularly for its pre-computer-assisted era. It's 1.7 miles long including approaches; the suspension span itself is 1.2 miles long. The two main cables holding everything in place are each 7,650 feet long and just over 36 inches in diameter; each is made up of 27,572 galvanized wires in 61 strands. The two famous towers are 746 feet above the water, and the roadbed is 220 feet above the water.
The bridge was built to fill a need - connecting by car the city of San Francisco to Marin County and points north - but it was also one of several major US construction projects that provided jobs to thousands of desperate workers during the Great Depression. Its chief engineer was Joseph B. Strauss, who turned into reality a project that had been talked about since 1872.
The bridge is continuously painted to fight rust and corrosion. Its famous color is "international orange" which you can order at your local hardware store with PMS code 173, or the CMYK colors: Cyan 0%, Magenta: 69%, Yellow:100%, Black:6%. Make a model!
The Golden Gate is said to be the world's most popular suicide spot. An estimated 1200 people have jumped to their deaths from the bridge's walkways; interestingly, most of them stepped off the bridge toward San Francisco and the bay rather than toward the open Pacific.
Nearly 39 million vehicles crossed the bridge in its latest fiscal year ended June 2004, paying $5 each (or $4 for FasTrak passes, or $2.50 per axle for multi-axle trucks.) The bridge has seen 1.8 billion vehicle crossings since it opened. It's undergone a recent seismic retrofit, and currently the needs and costs to renovate the cables are being assessed.
The bridge celebrated its 50th anniversary on May 24, 1987 when it was closed to traffic and the roadway opened to pedestrians, bicyclists, and skaters to commemorate that first bridge walk fifty years earlier. An estimated 300,000 people walked, bicycled, and skated onto the bridge that morning, and the distinctive upward arc usually seen in the roadbed was flattened out in a dramatic homage to the structure. When the span was opened to cars again at 11am, tolls were suspended for the rest of the day.
Historic photos from the Golden Gate Bridge official site; 50th anniversary photo from San Francisco Chronicle.
