Great Golden Gate Bridge

People dreamed of the construction of the bridge across the Golden Gate Strait, which would connect San Francisco and Marin County, back in the XIX century. But only at the beginning of the XX century there were real technical possibilities for its construction. Engineer Joseph Strauss, developer of about 400 bridge structures, proposed to extend the suspension bridge with two supports over 2.5 km in length. People didn’t believe that it was possible to build such a bridge, but they became interested in the project.
Motorization in many ways accelerated the process of creating a bridge across the Golden Gate Strait. San Francisco grew rapidly, and the number of cars on the streets of the city increased.

Experts began to count all the pros and cons of building a car and pedestrian bridge of traditional design. The approximate cost of such a project was $ 100 million. The city hadn’t such money. And then engineer Joseph Strauss announced that he could build a suspension bridge that would cost $ 27 million. He had supporters and opponents. Specialists from the military department believed that in case of war such a bridge could be a convenient target for enemy bombs.

But Joseph did not give up and companion architect Irving Morrow helped him. They showed the mathematical calculations made by the well-known mathematician from New York, Charles Alton Ellis. This trio managed to convince the unbelievers and skeptics. In 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt became president of America and showed great interest in this structure. Finally, the project was approved, and the construction of the bridge across the Golden Gate Strait began.
Construction took place in difficult conditions. Frequent fogs, winds, waves prevented the erection of supports, tighten the wire ropes and install spans of the bridge. Strauss demanded the strictest discipline and the implementation of all the safety rules. However, just before the completion of the construction, ten people died at once in a tragic accident.

And yet the bridge was finished in record time, in 1937 it was already ready. They spent $ 35 million on the construction of the Golden Gate. All the metal structures of the bridge are covered with anticorrosive orange-red paint, which makes it seem really golden.
Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of the President of the United States, was the first to drive in the limousine on the bridge on the grand opening day. Today, over 100,000 vehicles pass the Golden Gate Bridge daily in both directions, but their speed should not exceed 70 km per hour.

Great Golden Gate Bridge