Golden Gate Bridge – the Symbol of San Francisco, California
Absolute symbol of the USA, world record holder for a long time and the only bridge in the world in the color “International Orange”. The Golden Gate Bridge, which connects San Francisco and the Marin Peninsula, is definitely cult and a visit is an essential part of a vacation on the west coast of the USA.
What can you tell about the Golden Gate Bridge? A lot. The Golden Gate Bridge is located in the northwest of the United States of America in San Francisco and connects the city from north to south with Marin County and the Napa and Sonoma valleys.
The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge that spans the strait that connects San Francisco Bay to the Pacific. It is an absolutely amazing structure that requires the same maintenance work as an oil rig. The suspension bridge is the symbol of San Francisco and next to the Statue of Liberty one of the symbols of the USA.
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What makes the Golden Gate Bridge so special?
After a little more than 4 years of construction, the bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world when it was completed in 1937 and is still one of the longest suspension bridges today. If you also include the access bridges in the total length of the structure, it is 2.737 kilometers. In addition, the marvel of engineering, which quickly became the city’s landmark in California after its construction and opening, was built in just four years.
And there are also quite a few other records to be found when you look at the bridge over the Golden Gate. The pillars or pylons are tallest, the cables are the longest and the thickest. In addition, the masterpiece broke the record for the largest underwater foundations between San Francisco and Marin County.
The main cables have a diameter of 92 centimeters and a length of 2,332 meters. It is these main cables that keep the lane for road traffic, the cycle paths for the cyclists and the footpaths in suspension. The road is about 60 meters above the water surface. The clear passage height for navigation at high tide is 67 meters.
The longest suspension bridge in the United States is the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in New York City. The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is 18 meters longer than the Golden Gate Bridge.
Numbers, dates, facts about the Golden Gate Bridge
- Construction: suspension bridge
- Total length: 2,732 meters
- Width: 27 meters
- Span: 1280 meters
- Height: 227 meters
- Clearance height: 67 meters at high tide
- Start of construction: January 5, 1933
- Completion: April 19, 1937
- Opening: 27./28. May 1937
- Construction time: 4 years and 4 months
- Construction costs: $ 35 million (adjusted for inflation: $ 629 million)
- Planners: Chief engineer and builder Joseph Baermann Strauss, Charles A. Ellis, Irving F. Morrow. Specialists from the University of California were also involved in the planning.
The road over the Golden Gate Bridge has six vehicle lanes plus bicycle and pedestrian lanes. 750,000 tons of steel were used for Strauss’ structure and large amounts of concrete required the construction of a concrete plant at the foot of the bridge. 27,572 wires were required per suspension cable, which in total have a length that could span the globe three times. Each of the two carrying cables is over 90 cm thick. The bridge weighs a total of 887,000 tons. Approx. 600,000 rivets were used in the landmark, with the last rivet being made of gold.
And there was a new highlight on the bridge in 2020. Because the world-famous bridge with a span of 1,280 meters and its high towers was built with a new railing that you can hear eerily singing or howling in the wind. The sounds of the building can be heard particularly clearly in westerly winds. Maybe you are lucky and it blows while you are at the bridge.