On This Day - May 27th 1937
The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is opened to pedestrian traffic.
The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the opening into the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. It connects the city of San Francisco on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula and a portion of the south-facing Marin County headlands near the bayside city of Sausalito.
The bridge, including the approach, spans 2.7 km long; the main span, or distance between the towers, is 1,280 m, and the clearance below the bridge is 67 m at mean high water. Each of the two towers rises 230m above the water. The diameter of the main suspension cables is 0.91m, just under a metre. The Golden Gate Bridge was the largest suspension bridge in the world when it was built in 1937. Begun in 1933, it was completed on 27 April 1937 and opened to pedestrians on 27 May 1937. The following day, President Roosevelt pushed a button in Washington DC, signalling the start of vehicular traffic over the Bridge.
During the bridge's construction, a safety net was set up beneath it, significantly reducing the expected number of deaths for such a project. 11 men were killed from falls during construction, and approximately 19 men were saved by the safety net. 10 of the deaths occurred near completion, when the net itself failed under the stress of a scaffold fall.
An internationally recognised symbol of San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge has been declared one of the modern Wonders of the World by the American Society of Civil Engineers.