Golden Gate Bridge: A Depression-Era Bet on Connection
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Transcript
The Golden Gate Bridge looks inevitable only because it succeeded.
Before construction, the entrance to San Francisco Bay was crossed by ferry. A bridge faced enormous obstacles: deep water, strong currents, fog, wind, military land, financing problems and opposition from interests that benefited from ferry traffic.
Construction began in 1933, during the Great Depression.
Chief engineer Joseph Strauss became the public face of the project, but the bridge was the work of a large engineering team and thousands of workers.
Leon Moisseiff influenced the suspension design. Charles Alton Ellis performed crucial calculations. Architect Irving Morrow shaped much of the Art Deco appearance and helped champion the International Orange color.
The bridge opened in 1937.
Its engineering achievement is inseparable from its political one.
A regional bridge district issued bonds to finance construction at a moment when private capital was cautious. Local voters backed the project with property as security.
This was a huge public bet that connection would create enough economic value to justify the risk.
It did.
Marin County and the North Bay became far more accessible. Commuting and regional development changed permanently.
For tourists, it is beauty. For locals, it may be traffic, tolls, fog and commuting.
Historically, it is both.
A city constrained by water used engineering to redraw the practical map of the bay.