The Golden Gate Bridge
Possibly the most beautiful, certainly the most photographed, bridge in the world.
Last updated
Daniel L. Lu (user:dllu) · CC BY-SA 4.0
Where it is
Coordinates: 37°49′12″N 122°28′44″W (37.8200, -122.4790) · Open in OpenStreetMap
Coordinates and connected clubs: the infobox of Wikipedia: Golden Gate Bridge (CC BY-SA 4.0). Map: drawn by Codexery from OpenStreetMap tiles.
The American Society of Civil Engineers recognizes it as one of the Wonders of the Modern World.[1] The Golden Gate, a one-mile strait connecting San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean, is crossed by a suspension bridge.[1] U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1 are carried by the bridge, which also provides passage for pedestrians and bicycles, linking San Francisco to Marin County.[1]
Geography and history
Former engineering student James Wilkins proposed a suspension bridge in a 1916 San Francisco Bulletin article.[2] Construction began on January 5, 1933, and the bridge opened to the public on May 27, 1937.[3][2] At its opening, it was the longest and tallest suspension bridge in the world.[4] Travel by boat across a portion of San Francisco Bay was the sole viable short-distance option for moving between San Francisco and what is now Marin County prior to the bridge's existence.[5]
Transporting water to San Francisco was the purpose of a regularly scheduled ferry service that began in the 1840s, following an earlier ferry service that started in 1820.[5] A pure suspension bridge design was selected, leveraging contemporary progress in metallurgy and bridge engineering.[2] The project's final cost exceeded $35 million, yet it was finished both earlier than scheduled and $1.3 million below its budget.[2][6]
What the cited sources add
A 1938 brochure lists the Round House Café as an Art Deco design by Alfred Finnila completed that year.[7] The U.S. Department of Transportation account describes how Strauss completed the bridge under budget by about $1.3 million.[2] The same source reports that the first person to drive across the bridge was William McCarthy, an aide to Mayor Angelo Rossi.[2] The FasTrak website lists current toll rates, with FasTrak users paying $10.25 and license plate account users paying $10.50.[8]
References
- Wikipedia, "Golden Gate Bridge" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "American Society of Civil Engineers Seven Wonders", Asce.org, July 19, 2010 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- "Two Bay Area Bridges", US Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration. facts only, no text reused. fhwa.dot.gov
- Wikipedia, "Golden Gate Bridge" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Key Dates - Moments & Events | Golden Gate", www.goldengate.org (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Golden Gate Bridge" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Levine, "Frommer's comprehensive travel guide, California '93", Prentice Hall Travel, 1993, p. 118; McGrath, "Frommer's 1985-86 guide to San Francisco", Frommer/Pasmantier Pub., 1985, p. 10 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Golden Gate Bridge" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Two Bay Area Bridges", US Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Golden Gate Bridge" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Two Bay Area Bridges", US Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration; "Bridging the Bay: Bridges That Never Were", UC Berkeley Library; "72 years ago today, iconic Golden Gate Bridge finished construction ahead of schedule & $1.3 million under budget", May 27, 2009 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Golden Gate Bridge" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: King, "Golden Gate Bridge's Plaza Flawed but Workable", San Francisco Chronicle, May 25, 2012; Kligman, "From Sea to Shining Sea: PG&E's Earley Joins Tribute to Golden Gate Bridge", Currents, May 25, 2012; King, "Golden Gate Bridge's Plaza Flawed but Workable", San Francisco Chronicle, May 25, 2012; Kligman, "From Sea to Shining Sea: PG&E's Earley Joins Tribute to Golden Gate Bridge", Currents, May 25, 2012 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- "Golden Gate Bridge", www.bayareafastrak.org. facts only, no text reused. bayareafastrak.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Golden Gate Bridge (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Golden Gate Bridge (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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