Golden Gate Bridge history/time line
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GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE
The original was posted to TripAdvisor's San Francisco Forum where there are comments. … — … — Photos ©TouringSFO
In his 1886 memoirs, John C. Fremont dropped the Greek Chrysophylae to proclaim “I named [the strait] Golden Gate.”
August 18, 1869: [Joshua] Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico, commanded that a bridge be built to span the Golden Gate.
In 1916, ex-engineering student James Wilkins, a journalist at the San
Francisco Bulletin, revived the idea of spanning Golden Gate Strait by calling for a suspension bridge with a center span of 3,000 feet.
The first design for the bridge was a hideous blend of a cantilever and suspension span. At least one observer liked the design to “two grotesque steel beetles”. It never gained popular support, but it did convince people that it was physically and fiscally possible to bridge the Golden Gate.May 23, 1923: The Golden Gate Bridge Highway District Act of California was passed.
January 5, 1933: Construction of The Bridge began in Marín County.
February 26, 1933: The Bridge's ground breaking ceremony.
November 18, 1936: The Golden Gate Bridge's main span joined.
May 27, 1937 at 06:00: The Golden Gate Bridge was dedicated and open to pedestrian traffic. At Noon, Franklin Delano Roosevelt pressed a telegraph key in the White House to signal the opening of The Bridge to motor vehicles.
July 1, 1971: The Golden Gate Bridge bonds were retired. The promise to terminate the taking of tolls was trashed.
February 22, 1985: The billionth vehicle crossed The Bridge.
May 27, 1987: The towers of the Golden Gate Bridge were illuminated eliciting a universal gasp from the thousands of people gathered to celebrate the opening of The Bridge fifty years earlier.
Although Joseph B. Strauss has taken, and been given, credit for building The Bridge, according to the Historical Review Committee of the American Society of Civil Engineers Charles Ellis and Leon Moisseiff are the “technical and theoretical brains behind the design of The Bridge”.
August 22, 1949: Charles Ellis died. It is believed he never saw his completed project.
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