The first day we crossed the 6 lane, 1.7 mile Golden Gate that now ‘bridges’ the communities of San Francisco & Marin County, we were lucky enough that @KarlTheFog had taken the day off so we could see it in all it’s suspension bridge glory. This is one of the seven wonders of the modern world & opened in 1937 after four years of struggling to build against winds, rock, treacherous tides & of course #KarlTheFog. 11 workers’ lives were lost during the construction (10 on the same day) & over $35 million was spent in principal. Pedestrians can walk, bicycle, jog, go in a wheelchair or stroller on either side of the Golden Gate (but no roller skating, roller blading or skateboarding please).
Some crazy stats are:
• 5,000 – 10,000 gallons of paint are used to repaint the Golden Gate Bridge each year
• three babies have been born on the Golden Gate Bridge – all three were boys
• it’s named after the Golden Gate Strait at the entrance to San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean
• International Orange was actually the color of the primer but then was chosen as the finished
colour as it provides visibility in the fog for passing ships & suits the environment
• the bridge has only been closed three times due to weather since it was built – all three times due to
high winds gusting close to over 70 miles per hour
• the bridge has also been closed for the visits of President Franklin D. Roosevelt & President
Charles De Gaulle of France and also on its 50th & 75th anniversaries.
• the chief engineer Joseph Strauss’ first design was rejected as being too ugly
• the bridge has lost some weight! 12,300 tons to be exact! How? when the roadway was replaced in
the 1980s
• The twin towers are 746 feet high, with 2 cables, each more than 7,000 feet in length, both
containing 80,000 miles of wire. This looped around the Earth’s equator in a single strand would
circle the planet three times!
• more than 2 billion motor vehicles had passed over the Golden Gate Bridge by 2015
