Ever since the Golden Gate Bridge opened to traffic on May 27, 1937, it’s been an iconic symbol on the American landscape.
By 1870, people had realized the necessity of building a
bridge spanning the Golden Gate Strait to connect the city of San
Francisco with Marin County. However, it was another half-century before
structural engineer Joseph Strauss submitted his bridge proposal. The
plans evolved, and the final project was approved as a suspension bridge
that ended up taking over four years to build.When the Golden Gate Bridge went up, it was the longest suspended bridge span in the world – cables hold up the roadway between two towers, with no intermediate supports. And the setting had a number of inherent challenges. It cost about US$37 million at the time; building the same structure today would cost about a billion dollars. So how has the design held up over the past 80 years – and would we do things differently if we were starting from scratch today?
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