Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, California, United States – History, Construction, Length, Images, Facts, Park, night view, Height and many more.
A History of the Golden Gate Bridge
Golden Gate Bridge: Facts, history and all you need to know :- In the mid-1930s, two familiar summits rose above the morning fog. Spanning 227 meters in the sky, the 22,000-ton tower will help support California’s Golden Gate Bridge.
But since they were in present-day Pennsylvania, they first had to be dismantled, packed, and shredded to pieces more than 4,500 kilometers away.
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Moving the bridge’s towers across a continent was one of the challenges facing the project’s lead engineers, Charles Ellis and Joseph Strauss.
“The bridge was opened in 1937 and has a main span of approximately 4,200ft and total length of 8,980ft (2,737m).”
Even before the construction started, the pair faced all kinds of opposition. The military feared that the bridge would make the vital port an even more vulnerable target.
Ferry companies claimed that the bridge would steal their business, and residents wanted to preserve the area’s natural scenery. Even worse, many engineers thought the project was impossible.
The Golden Gate Strait was home to 96 kph winds, swirling tides, an endless blanket of fog, and the earthquake-prone San Andreas fault.
But Strauss was convinced that the bridge could be built; And it would provide San Francisco commuters with a more reliable route to the city.
However, he was a little out of his depth. A cantilever bridge was used in Strauss’s initial plans to span the strait.
Such a bridge consists of a single beam anchored at one end and extended horizontally like a diving board.
Since these bridges can only move before they collapse under their own weight, Strauss’s design used two cantilevers, connected by a structure in the middle.
But Ellis and his colleague Leon Moisif convinced Strauss to take a different approach: suspension bridges.
“The 776ft suspension towers of the Golden Gate Bridge were the tallest towers in the world until 1998.”
Where a cantilever bridge is supported at one end, a suspension bridge suspends its deck by cables stuck in the gap.
The result is a more flexible structure that is resilient to winds and shifting loads. Such designs were long used for short rope bridges.
And in the 1930s, advanced steelmaking could make cables of bundled wire to act as stronger steel ropes for large-scale construction.
At the time, the Golden Gate Bridge was the longest and highest suspension bridge ever built, and its design was only possible because of these innovations.
But cables and towers of this size could only be built in the large steelworks on the east coast of the country.
While the recently completed Panama Canal made it possible to ship these components to California, reconnecting the towers on site did not happen quite as easily.
Facts about city of golden gate.
| Name | City of golden gate |
|---|---|
| City | San Francisco |
| Address | Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, CA, USA |
| Country | USA |
| Continent | North America |
| Came in existence | May 27, 1937 |
| Area covered in KM | 8,981 ft (2,737.4 m) |
| Height | 746 ft (227.4 m) |
| Time to visit | 4.00 am to 8.00 pm |
| Ticket time | 4.00 am to 8.00 pm |
| Ref No of UNESCO | 974 |
| Coordinate | 37°49′11″N 122°28′43″W |
| Per year visitors | 10 million annual visitors |
| Near by Airport | San Francisco Airport |
| Near by River | Nanjing Yangtze River |
It was relatively easy to find a stable, shallow foundation for the north tower. But the construction of the South Tower essentially required the building of a ten-storey building under water.
As the depth of the strait prevented them from digging or digging foundations, bombs were dropped on the ocean floor, opening openings for pouring concrete.
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A sea wall was built to protect the site from powerful currents, and workers worked 20-minute shifts between tides.
There were so many compartments in the towers that each worker kept a set of plans to avoid getting lost. And at one point, an earthquake about 5 meters in each direction shook the South Tower.
Strauss took worker safety very seriously, requiring hard hats at all times and a safety net to be stretched under the towers.
But even these precautions did not prevent the entire scaffolding platform from collapsing in 1937, in which ten workers died.
Once the towers were complete, workers moved cables into place, hung suspenders at 50-foot intervals, and laid the concrete road.
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The bridge was completed, but there was another task ahead: painting it. After production, the steel was coated with a reddish primer, which was retained throughout construction.
But the Navy was working hard to paint the bridge black and yellow. Consulting architect Irving Morrow really thought the primer paired well with the natural background of the strait—and he wasn’t alone.
Citing several letters from locals, Morrow’s 30-page pitch defeated the Navy’s plans to paint the bridge “international orange”. And even today, this iconic color still complements the strait’s blue waters, green hills, and rolling fog.
Movies that included the Golden Gate Bridge:
- A View to a Kill (1985)
- Ant-Man (2015)
- Basic Instinct (1982)
- Big Hero 6 (2014)
- Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
- Dirty Harry (1971)
- Hulk (2003)
- Interview with a Vampire (1994)
- Milk (2008)
- Monsters Vs. Aliens (2009)
- Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
- Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
- Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
- Superman (1978)
- The Abyss (1989)
- The Birds (1963)
- The Core (2003)
- The Maltese Falcon (1941)
- The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
- The Rock (1996)
- Vertigo (1958)
- X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
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How Long is the Golden Gate Bridge?
The Golden Gate Bridge is 8,981 feet long.
How Tall is the Golden Gate Bridge?
The Golden Gate Bridge is 746 feet tall.