The Golden Gate Bridge

The Golden Gate Bridge, built in 1937, remains an indispensable link in the Bay Area's transportation network and a historical monument of civil engineering and construction. Named for the Golden Gate Strait, where the mouth of San Francisco Bay meets the Pacific Ocean, it emerged from a dream of spanning the strait that had been expressed as early as the 1850's. Michael O'Shaughnessy, San Francisco's city engineer and engineer for the Hetch Hetchy water system, was the first to seriously consider and champion the bridge's construction, proposing the idea in 1915 to Joseph B. Strauss, who became its chief engineer and foremost proponent. The design was realized through the expertise of engineers Charles Ellis, Charles Derleth, Leon Moisseiff, and O.H. Amman, and architect Irving F. Morrow, who shaped its aesthetic details, including its International Orange color, which he believed complemented the bay's cool gray and blue skies and enhanced the bridge's dramatic scale and setting. Over four years, countless laborers known as bridgemen worked at extreme heights with massive materials to turn drawings into one of the world's most beloved suspension bridges.

San Francisco, California · United States