Golden Gate Bridge: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 23:57, 4 June 2007

Revision as of 00:26, 5 June 2007

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The [[Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District|Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District]] was incorporated in 1928 as the official entity to design, construct, and finance the Golden Gate Bridge. The District includes not only the City & County of San Francisco, and Marin County, in whose boundaries the bridge sits, but also [[Napa County, California|Napa]], [[sonoma County, California|Sonoma]], [[Mendocino County, California|Mendocino]] and [[Del Norte County, California|Del Norte]] counties. Representatives from each of the six counties sit on the District's Board of Directors. Voters within the District approved funding for the project in 1930 through a special bond issue that put their homes, farms and business properties up as collateral. This bond issue raised the initial $35 million to finance the building of the Bridge. Construction began on [[January 5]], [[1933]].<ref>Jackson, Donald C. (1995) "Great American Bridges and Dams" ''John Wiley and Sons''. 360 pp. ISBN 0-471-14385-5</ref> The construction budget at the time of approval was $30.1 million. Actual construction costs turned out to be $36.7 million, resulting in a [[cost overrun]] of 22%. The last of the construction bonds were retired in 1971, with $35 million in principal and nearly $39 million in interest being financed entirely from tolls. Strauss, a graduate of the [[University of Cincinnati]], placed a brick from his [[alma mater]]'s demolished McMicken Hall in the south anchorage before the concrete was poured. A unique aspect of the bridge's construction was the safety net set up beneath it, significantly reducing the expected number of deaths for such a project. 11 men were killed from falls during construction, and approximately 19 men were saved by the safety net. 10 of the deaths occurred near completion, when the net itself failed under the stress of a scaffold fall. The 19 workers whose lives were saved by the safety nets became proud members of the (informal) ''Halfway to Hell Club''.<ref>http://goldengatebridge.org/research/facts.php#HalfwayHell</ref>

[[Image:GG-bridge-cable.jpg|thumb|left|On the south side of the bridge, a 36 3/8.5" wide cross section of the cable containing 27,572 separate wires is on display.]]The bridge has approximately 1,200,000 total rivets. Upon comletioncompletion, Joseph Strauss wrote a poem now on the Golden Gate Bridge entitled "The Mighty Task is Done." Weeks of civil and cultural activities called "the Fiesta" surrounded the opening of the bridge, completed in April 1937 and opened to pedestrians on [[May 27]] of that year, Mayor [[Angelo Rossi]] presiding. The next day, President Roosevelt pushed a button in [[Washington, DC]] signaling the official start of vehicle traffic over the Bridge at noon. When the celebration got out of hand, the [[SFPD]] had a small riot in the uptown [[Polk Gulch]] area.

[[Image:Golden Gate Bridge from underneath.jpg|thumb|right|A photograph of the bridge from a boat underneath.]]