Taking a Close Look at the Golden Gate Bridge

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AESTHETICS
Golden Gate Bridge held the title as one of the longest bridges for a reason. It has a total length of 2,737 meters with a width of 27 meters. It also has a clearance of 67 meters for ships to pass by. Besides its incredible dimension, its architecture also plays a tremendous role for its beauty. The bridge employs art deco style, a chevron or beveled shape, used to add visual effect. The concrete structures at the ends of the bridge have chevron form as well as the concrete at the base of the towers. There are two shafts in each tower, 90 feet apart decreasing in width as they go up. The two shafts are connected by cross bracing and having four horizontal struts above. The bridge’s art deco design and towers were designed by architect Irving F. Morrow.
HISTORY
San Francisco, where the Golden Gate Bridge is, was founded by the Native Americans 4,000 years ago. Then came the Spanish explorers who established a town named Yerba Buena, later changed the name to San Francisco. That is how the city of San Francisco came to be. Decades later, the population kept growing and growing, requiring a bridge to connect the isolated parts of California to San Francisco. For this reason, the Golden Gate Bridge was built, a construction period of four years. During construction, 11 fatalities occurs, of whom 10 fell through the safety net of the scaffold on February 17, 1937.
As previously stated, the architect Irving Morrow was responsible for the beauty of the bridge. The bridge was painted orange vermilion, now called “International Orange” because Morrow thought it blended well with the natural environment surrounding the bridge. Orange, being a warm color, is different than the cool colors of the sky, therefore visible for passi...

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...d inspection was $2,050,000 and $423,000 for preliminary expenses. Also, there was a $4,068,000 cost for financing and in the end a surplus of $1,334,000.
PUBLIC OPINION
Joseph B. Strauss, a famous designer of movable spans became interested in building a bridge at the Golden Gate so he submitted a proposal. His design was a hybrid structure that included a suspension span of 2,640 feet long along with a cantilevered truss span of 685 ft. on each end. However, his design was rejected by the public because they thought such a bridge would ruin the beauty of the area. Therefore, Strauss had to work with Othmar Ammann, Charles Derleth Jr., and Leon Moisseiff, consulting engineers, who together created a new design. They created a suspension bridge with a length of 4,000 ft. Their new design was approved by the U.S. War Department in 1930 and construction proceeded.

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