The construction of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, a treasure of American engineering and widely recognized as a symbol of American greatness, was celebrated on this day in history on January 5, 1933, with civic pride, pomp, and atmosphere. It started inside.
“The start of construction was greeted with great joy,” the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District website states.
“Celebrations at nearby Crissy Field lasted for hours with at least 100,000 people in attendance. A celebratory parade through the Marina District began at 12:45 p.m. with Navy planes in formation. It was flown and engineering students carried an 80-foot replica of the bridge.''
On this day in history, January 4, 1965, LBJ touted his utopian “Great Society” in his State of the Union address.
This suspension bridge spans the Golden Gate, a narrow, turbulent strait that separates the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco Bay. It connects San Francisco City to the south and Marin County to the north.
When completed, the Golden Gate Bridge boasted the world's longest bridge (4,200 feet) and tallest bridge tower (746 feet). Its length was exceeded in 1964 by the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge in New York City, and by other bridges since then.
USA – January 26: Golden Gate Bridge, 1933-1937, architect Joseph Bearman Strauss, San Francisco Bay, California. (Photo courtesy of DeAgostini/Getty Images)
Astonishingly, the Golden Gate Bridge was built four years after San Francisco Mayor Angelo Rossi and Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District Commission Chairman William P. Filmer turned the first mound of dirt with a ceremonial golden plow. It opened a little later, in May 1937.
President Herbert Hoover sent a congratulatory telegram.
The Golden Gate Bridge symbolized the bold audacity of the American spirit, even in the midst of global economic disaster.
Built during the Great Depression, the Golden Gate Bridge symbolized the bold audacity of the American spirit in the midst of global economic disaster.
Joseph Behrman Strauss, a Cincinnati-born part-time poet and bridge enthusiast, was the chief engineer for this massive project.
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He was a small, strong man, of rather good build, only 5 feet 3 inches tall. Still, he tried to join the University of Cincinnati's football team, where he was seriously injured and was elected class president and class poet by his college classmates.
PBS American Experience said, “Strauss was a prolific engineer who built some 400 drawbridges across the United States. He dreamed of building 'the largest of its kind that man could build.'” writes.
October 1935 photo of the Golden Gate Bridge over San Francisco Bay under construction. Construction began on January 5, 1933, and the bridge was dedicated on May 27, 1937 by Franklin Delano Roosevelt as his button press in Washington, DC, signaling the official start of vehicular traffic on the bridge. The ceremony was held. It was the world's largest suspension bridge, the brainchild of engineer Josef Strauss. (AFP via Getty Images)
“In 1919, San Francisco city engineer Michael O’Shaughnessy approached Strauss about building a bridge across the Golden Gate. Strauss was fired up by the idea and spent the next ten years campaigning tirelessly to build the bridge. I did.”
PBS added, “In November 1930, one year into the Great Depression, voters finally supported the Strauss Bridge bond issue. This ambitious project finally got the green light.”
His plan included an innovative life-saving measure: hanging a safety net under the bridge deck.
“The internet saved 19 lives, making it an invaluable preventative measure,” History.com writes. “These people became known as members of the 'Half Way to Hell Club.' Despite these safety measures, he lost 11 people during the construction of the bridge. ”
On this day in history, December 5, 1848, President Polk ignites the California Gold Rush with his speech to Congress.
The Golden Gate Bridge is just one of the greatest feats of American art, architecture, and engineering built during the Great Depression.
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Aerial view of the Golden Gate Bridge covered in fog on October 29, 2021 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency, Getty Images)
Perhaps more than any other bridge in the world, the Golden Gate Bridge combines stunning architectural beauty with critical transportation needs.
Its stunning golden-orange color is officially known as International Orange. This reflects his dual meaning of the gold color in The Golden State.
The strait, now known as the Golden Gate, was named after the explorer and explorer. us army officer John C. Fremont, in 1846, considered this passageway to be the “golden gate to trade with the East.”
Just two years later, gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento, about 140 miles northeast of Golden Gate. The discovery of this precious metal inspired the California Gold Rush and the rise of San Francisco as a major American city.
Monument to Joseph Behrman Strauss (Cincinnati, 1870 – Los Angeles, 1938), chief engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge. There is a bridge in the background. San Francisco, California. (DeAgostini/Getty Images)
California's non-Native population grew from about 1,000 to 100,000 in 1849 alone.
The San Francisco Bay Area currently has a population of nearly 8 million people and is one of the five largest metropolitan areas in the United States.
The metropolitan area includes Oakland to the east of the bay and San Jose to the south of the bay.
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The Golden Gate Bridge forms an important transportation viaduct for the region. The bridge is part of both U.S. Route 101, the longest remaining pre-interstate highway in the United States, and California Route 1, commonly known as the Pacific Coast Highway.
The bridge itself is a major tourist attraction in the United States, visited by approximately 10 million people annually.
Strauss died on May 16, 1938. The bridge's first anniversary to the public is just 11 days away.
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Shortly after the bridge was completed, he wrote a poem in its honor called “The Great Commission Completed.”
“Ride with due pride on its broad decks / The world rides in swift parade / For evermore / Beneath it are fleets from every port / Vast inland gulfs, historic forts / And It trivializes everything – the sea.”
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