Golden Gate Bridge

Golden Gate Bridge
Coordinates	37°49′11″N 122°28′43″W
Carries	Motor vehicles, pedestrians and bicycles
Crosses	Golden Gate
Locale	San Francisco, California
Official name	Golden Gate Bridge
Maintained by	Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District [1]
Characteristics
Design	Suspension, Truss Arch & Truss Causeways
Total length	1.7 miles (2.7 km)
Width	90 feet (27 m)
Longest span	4,200 feet (1,280 m)
Clearance above	14 feet (4.3 m) at toll gates, higher truck loads possible
Clearance below	220 ft (67 m) at mean higher high water
History
Opened	May 27, 1937
Location

The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the opening into the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. It connects the city of San Francisco on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula and a portion of the south-facing Marin County headlands near the small bayside town of Sausalito, and is located at 37°49′12″N 122°28′43″W. The entire bridge (including the approach) spans 1.7 miles (2.7 km) long; the distance between the towers ("main span") is 4,200 feet (1,280 m), and the clearance below the bridge is 220 ft (67 m) at mean high water. The two towers rise 746 feet (230 m) above the water. The diameter of the main suspension cables is 36 inches (0.91 m).

The Golden Gate Bridge was the largest suspension bridge in the world when it was built in 1937 and has become an internationally recognized symbol of San Francisco.

History

The bridge was the brainchild of Joseph Strauss, an engineer responsible for over 400 drawbridges, though they were far smaller than this project and mostly inland. Strauss spent over a decade drumming up support in Northern California. Strauss's initial design[2] comprised a massive cantilever on each side connected with a central suspension segment. Other key figures in the bridge's construction include architect Irving Morrow, responsible for the Art Deco touches and the choice of color, and engineer Charles Alton Ellis and bridge designer Leon Moisseiff, who collaborated on the complicated mathematics involved.

The 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, Sonoma, Mendocino and 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. 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. The bridge was completed in April 1937 and opened to pedestrians on May 27 of that year. The next day, President Roosevelt pushed a button in Washington, DC signaling the start of vehicle traffic over the Bridge. 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.

A photograph of the bridge from a boat underneath.

The center span was the longest among suspension bridges until 1964 when the Verrazano Narrows Bridge was erected between the boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn in New York City. The Golden Gate Bridge also had the world's tallest suspension towers at the time of construction, and retained that record until more recently. In 1957, Michigan's Mackinac Bridge surpassed the Golden Gate Bridge's length between anchorages to become the world's longest suspension bridge in total length. The longest center suspension span in the world is currently the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge in Japan.

As the only road to exit San Francisco to the north, the bridge is part of both United States Highway 101 and California State Route 1. The bridge has six total lanes of vehicle traffic, and walkways on both sides of the bridge. The median markers between the lanes are moved to conform to traffic patterns. On weekday mornings, traffic flows mostly southbound into the city, so four of the six lanes run southbound. Conversely, on weekday afternoons, three lanes run northbound. While there has been discussion concerning the installation of a movable barrier since the 1980s, the Bridge Board of Directors, in March 2005, committed to finding funding to complete the $2 million study required prior to the installation of a moveable median barrier. The eastern walkway is for pedestrians and bicycles during the weekdays and during daylight hours only, and the western walkway is open to bicycles on weekends.

The speed limit on the Golden Gate Bridge was reduced from 55 miles per hour (88 km/h) to 45 miles per hour (72 km/h) on October 1, 1983. With no moveable median barrier yet, a head-on collision at 55 miles per hour (88 km/h) would create almost 1.5 times of the force than 45 miles (72 km/h) per hour.

On September 1, 2002, the toll for Southbound motor vehicles was raised from US$3.00 to $5.00. Northbound motor vehicle traffic, cycling, and pedestrian traffic remain toll free.

File:Golden Gate Bridge 2003.jpg

Golden Gate Bridge, with its approach arch over Fort Point at the San Francisco terminus (right). Behind the arch is Angel Island, and to the left of that, Tiburon, California, mostly obscuring the East Bay hills.

View from Fort Mason showing northern approach at right

Aesthetics

The color of the bridge is orange vermilion, deemed International Orange. The color was selected by consulting architect Irving Morrow because it blends well with the natural surroundings yet enhances the bridge's visibility in fog.

The Golden Gate Bridge by night, with downtown San Francisco in the background at far left.

The bridge is widely considered one of the most beautiful examples of bridge engineering, both as a structural design challenge and for its aesthetic appeal. It was declared one of the modern Wonders of the World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. According to Frommer's travel guide, the Golden Gate Bridge is "possibly the most beautiful, certainly the most photographed, bridge in the world." [3] (although Frommers also bestows the "most photographed" honor on Tower Bridge [4])

Paintwork

The bridge was originally painted with red lead primer and a lead-based topcoat, which was touched up as required. In the mid-1960s, a program was started to improve corrosion protection by stripping the original paint off and repainting the bridge with zinc silicate primer and, originally, vinyl topcoats [5] [6]. Acrylic topcoats have been used instead since 1990 for air quality reasons. The program was completed in 1995, and there is now ongoing maintenance by 38 painters [7] to touch up the paintwork where it becomes seriously eroded.

Suicides

A golden sunset

The official suicide count ended in 1995 when the number approached 1,000. Through the five years ending 2003, on average there was one suicide jump every two weeks, which brought the unofficial total to over 1,300 suicides. The 220-foot (67 m) fall takes four seconds and jumpers hit the water at 75 miles per hour (120 km/h). As of 2003, only 26 people have survived the jump. The survivors, all struck the water feet first and most suffered multiple internal injuries and broken bones. One young man supposedly jumped off the bridge in the 1980s swam ashore and walked up on the beach. The doctor who examined him was then reported to have said that the man was in the best shape of anyone he had ever seen.

In January 2005, an excerpt from the script of Jenni Olson's film, The Joy of Life (2005), in part a history of suicide and the Golden Gate Bridge, appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle. The following week Phil Matier of the San Francisco Chronicle revealed that documentarian Eric Steel had misrepresented the intent of his film to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area when he filed his film permit application with them. He stated that he was making a film about the wonders and beauty of the Bridge as a famous landmark, but instead captured 19 suicides on tape.

Several attempts to introduce a suicide barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge have been thwarted by engineering difficulties, high costs, and public opposition. On January 27, 2005, Bridge District staff re-introduced for the eighth time the topic of a suicide barrier to the Bridge’s Building and Operations committee, citing "the high profile of this issue in recent press and community conversations." On March 11, 2005, the Board of Directors of the Golden Gate Bridge voted 15-1 to approve a two-year, $2 million plan to explore the feasibility of a barrier. Proponents of the barrier cite the example of the Empire State Building and the Eiffel Tower, where suicides dropped to zero after a barrier was put up. Those against the barrier argue that a barrier would be unsightly, too costly, and would simply move suicides elsewhere. Jump for Life, a creative alternative to a suicide barrier, was introduced in late 2005.

Due to too many people jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge to attempt suicide, which have caused major safety and security problems, the bridge has been closed to pedestrians during nighttime. Bicyclists are still permitted across, but they have to be buzzed in and out through the remotely controlled security gates during nighttime. [8]

File:108972157 l.jpg

The Golden Gate Bridge on a foggy day in San Francisco

In fiction and film

Film

• Bicentennial Man - takes place in San Francisco, the bridge is glimpsed several times across the future, including a view in which it has a double deck structure.
• The Core - deadly microwaves from the sun break through the magnetic field and melt the bridge before frying the rest of San Francisco.
• Dirty Harry - "Scorpio" hijacks a school bus full of children and forces the driver to head North across the bridge.
• Herbie Rides Again' - Herbie is chased by Hawk's lawyers along the main cables of the bridge
• Hulk - Hulk jumps off the bridge to save a fighter jet.
• The Joy of Life - this Jenni Olson's film offers a history of suicide and the Golden Gate Bridge and features gorgeously shot images of the bridge as well as a personal reflection on the production history of Alfred Hitchcock's film Vertigo (1958).
• Mothra - In this Japanese science fiction film, the bridge is destroyed by the collision of a large nuclear mutant monster.
• The Rock - bridge can be regularly seen in the background as film was shot near Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay.
• So I Married an Axe Murderer - newly married couple travel over the bridge en route to their honeymoon.
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home - the Klingon bird-of-prey used by the crew of the Starship Enterprise flies under the Golden Gate Bridge on its way to crashing into the Bay.
• Superman - Superman saves a school bus about to fall from the bridge.
• Vertigo - In this Alfred Hitchcock film, the bridge is a prominent backdrop in a scene set just east (bayside) of Fort Point.
• A View to a Kill - In this James Bond film, Bond and Max Zorin fight on top of one of the bridge's towers .
• X3 - the bridge is used in a prison break sequence from Alcatraz.
• The Love Bug- Herbie attempts to commit "suicide" by trying to drive over the barrier.

Television

• 10.5 - bridge collapses during an earthquake.
• Charmed - scenes of the bridge can regularly be seen.
• Full House - seen in the opening credits being traveled by a car full of the program's main characters.
• Love is a Many Splendored Thing - bridge is seen prominently in the opening sequence of the soap opera , which was set in San Francisco.
• "Sliders" - in one of the alternate timelines the bridge is an electric blue, the sole factor distinguishing that San Francisco from ours.
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - bridge is destroyed during the Dominion War in an attack by the Breen.
• Star Trek: Enterprise - the original location of Starfleet Command is located NE of the bridge. Instead of a direct view of traffic lanes and whatever transportation technology is employed, there is an obscuring weatherproof glass arch cover.
• Star Trek: Voyager - Voyager is shown flying underneath the bridge upon finally returning to Earth
• The Ted Knight Show - bridge is seen in the opening credits
• Too Close for Comfort - bridge is seen in the opening credits
• The West Wing - a terrorist attempt to blow up the Golden Gate Bridge sparks a plot line involving the US assassination of the Qumari intelligence minister (who masterminded the plot to blow up the bridge).
• Nash Bridges - The series is set in San Francisco and there are several shots of the bridge placed throughout the show. The series ran for 6 years and is now in syndication.

Books

• The Golden Gate - Alistair MacLean's novel is a kidnapping story set almost exclusively on the bridge.

Games

• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - a model of this bridge is featured in the city San Fierro, San Andreas. It is called Gant Bridge in the game.
• Red Alert 2 : Yuri's Revenge - had the bridge destroyed in some of the first missions by Soviet invaders.
• Midtown Madness 2 - in San Fransico city

Other

• Star Trek universe - in both the 23rd and 24th Centuries, Starfleet Headquarters and Starfleet Academy are located in San Francisco's Presidio, with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge.
• Voyager Golden Record - the bridge appears as one of the pictures on the record.

External links

• The Official website of the Golden Gate Bridge
• Structurae: Golden Gate Bridge
• The New Yorker: Fatal Grandeur of the Golden Gate Bridge
• The Museum of San Francisco's Story Behind the Construction of the Span
• PBS American Experience
• Golden Gate Bridge Virtual Tour
• The story of Golden Gate Bridge - by CBS Forum
• Photographs of the Golden Gate Bridge
• Photos of the Golden Gate Bridge
• 3D plug-in of the Golden Gate Bridge for Google Earth

References

• Tad Friend: Jumpers: The fatal grandeur of the Golden Gate Bridge, The New Yorker, Oct 13, 2003 v79 i30 page 48