The Golden Gate Bridge

                                                                                               

      

                                                                   The Golden Gate Bridge

   The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the opening of the San Francisco bay into the Pacific Ocean. As part of both U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1, the structure links the city of San Francisco, on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula, to Marin County. It is one of the most internationally recognized symbols of San Francisco, California , and the United States. It has been declared one of the Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The Frommers travel guide considers the Golden Gate Bridge "possibly the most beautiful, certainly the most photographed, bridge in the world".

    Before the bridge was built, only practical short route between San Francisco and what is now Marin County was by boat on the San Francisco Bay. The ferry service began in 1820, with regularly scheduled service beginning in the 1840s for purposes of transporting water to San Francisco. Sausalito Land and Ferry Company service, launched in 1867, eventually became the Golden Gate Ferry Company, a Southern Pacific Railroad child, the largest ferry operation in the world by the end of 1920 Once for railroad passengers and customers only , Southern Pacific car ferries became very profitable and important to the regional economy.  ferry crossings. between the Hyde Street Pier in San Francisco and Sausalito in Marin County took approximately 20 minutes and costs U.S. $ 1.00 per vehicle, a price later reduced to compete with the new bridge. journey from San Francisco Ferry Building took 27 minutes.
Many wanted to build a bridge to connect San Francisco to Marin County. San Francisco was the largest American city still served primarily by ferry boats. Because it does not have a permanent link with communities around the bay, the city's growth rate was below the national average. Many experts said that a bridge can not be built at 6,700 ft (2,042 m) strait. It was strong, swirling tides and currents, with water 372 ft (113 m) in the middle of the channel, and frequent strong winds. Experts said that ferocious winds and blinding fog would prevent construction and operation.

  
   The Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District, authorized by an act of the California Legislature, was incorporated in 1928 as the official entity to design, construct, and finance the Golden Gate Bridge.^[However, after the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the District was unable to raise the construction funds, so it lobbied for a $30 million bond measure. The bonds were approved in November 1930,by votes in the counties affected by the bridge.The construction budget at the time of approval was $27 million. However, the District was unable to sell the bonds until 1932, when Amadeo Giannini, the founder of San Francisco–based Bank of America, agreed on behalf of his bank to buy the entire issue in order to help the local economy.^[
   Construction began on January 5, 1933. The project cost more than $35 million. The Golden Gate Bridge construction project was carried out by the McClintic-Marshall Construction Co., a subsidiary of Bethlehem Steel Corporation founded by Howard H. McClintic and Charles D. Marshall, both of Lehigh University. The project was finished by April 19, 1937.and opened May 27,1937. 75 year ago $1.3 million under budget. With the death of Jack Balestreri in April 2012, all workers involved in the original construction are now deceased.
     Until 1964 the Golden Gate Bridge had the longest suspension bridge main span in the world, at 4,200 feet (1,280.2m). Since 1964 its main span length has been surpassed by ten bridges; it now has the second longest main span in the United States, after the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in New York City.Total length of the Golden Gate Bridge from abutment to abutment is 8,981 feet (2,737 m).At 746 feet (227m) above water the Golden Gate Bridge had the world's tallest suspension towers until 1998 when bridges in Denmark and Japan were completed.
     The weight of the roadway is hung from two cables that pass through the two main towers and are fixed in concrete at each end. Each cable is made of 27,572 strands of wire. There are 80,000 miles (129,000 km) of wire in the main cables The bridge has approximately 1,200,000 total rivets.and Carries 6 lanes pedestrians and bicycles.