Golden Gate Bridge Investigation

Joseph Strauss is the one who came up with the idea of the Golden Gate Bridge because it was taking people to long to get to work and such in SF by taking the ferry across. He spent more than a decade gaining support and approval for the bridge. The project itself cost $27 million, during the Great Depression. In 1933 that gate design was approved and many people managed to raise 27 million dollars that was needed to build the bridge. In February of 1933, the bridge was started and it lasted for four years. Ten men were killed by falls and around nineteen were saved my saftey nets, ten of those deaths occurred near the end of construction.

The bridge was finished on may 26, 1937 and the next day it was opened to pedestians, on the first day nearly 300,000 people walked across. Then on May 28, the bridge was opened for cars and that day 32,300 cars went across that bridge. For every car that passed, they each had to pay 50 cents for the driver and up to three passengers, if the car had more than three passengers they had to pay 5 cents. The money earned helped pay for the improvements and repairs on the bridge.

At the time the bridge was being built many people were out of work, so working on the bridge was a job for many people who needed money and job to support their family.The bridge has 1,200,000 total rivets. The in front of the bridge

main span of the bridge is 4,200 feet. The legnth and diameter if one cable is 7650 (legnth) and 36 3/8 inches (diameter). The number of wire in each cable is 27,572 and the total num ber of wires used is 80,000 miles. The weight of the cable is 24,500 tons. The towers are the tallest in the world at 746 feet.

The towers were designed so that the towers would let the sun go through and give a nice sparkle. The walkway was made slicker and thinner so that the cars that were driving on the bridge could see the view. Also, the window-like towers openings got smaller as the tower got higher which makes the towers look taller than they really are. For the colorm the U.S. Navy wanted to paint it black and yellow so it would be easier for boats to see when they are passing underneath, but Morrow wanted it painted a shade of orange called vermillion. The first time it was painted lasted for 27 years before needing another paint job.