BRIDGING SAN FRANCISCO’S GOLDEN GATE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 181, 5 August 1935, Page 10

BRIDGING SAN FRANCISCO’S GOLDEN GATE

AFTER HALF A CENTURY Or DREAMING WORLD’S LONGEST ;UsFENSIO.N BRIDGE REACHES UPWARDS AND ACROSS HARBOUR ENIKANCE

(-JOLDEN Gate Bridge is almost 40 per cent completed. B.v

May of 1937, if present plans hold, this greatest of suspension structures will be ready to carry a teeming population of commuters between offices in San Francisco and homes in “Marvellous Marin.”

Already it towers high above anything else built by the hand of man in western America. Already it descends into the boiling currents of the Gate more than 100 feet. Relentless tides, fog-blinded steamers, popular scepticism, political apathy, engineering problems of unprecedented magnitude and financial difficulties in the midst of depression have been unable to dim the enthusiasm of its backers and builders. Bridge men, it seems, are a type apart, combining qualities of the pioneer and the crusader. What if jt has not yet been decided whether their pride and glory is to be a simple highway bridge, or a double-decker carrier of inter-urban rail lines as well as motors? A mere technical detail, this, involving a little more steel here or less cable there, with plenty of time left to decide unhurriedly. In the meantime, let the divers descend and the riveters climb and the concrete barges pour!

And why not? There was nothing wrong with San Francisco as a home site, but there were those who preferred the Tvafmer and sunnier climate which a short trip out of town offered. Some went down the peninsula, others ferried across to Oakland and Berkeley. A, few hardy mariners undertook to cross the Golden Gate twice daily that they might live in a delightful wilderness of natural beauties within sight of the buildings of their metropolis.

So when engineering dreams materialised in the great Brooklyn Bridge many years ago, it was natural enough that these people looked wishfully toward the two jutting headlands between which a turbulent ocean gateway swirled, and made tentative plans for a bridge of their own. But, however they wore out their pencils, all figures showed that a structure almost thriee as long as Brooklyn Bridge would be required to span tho Golden Gate. Engineering problems, as well as the cost, seemed insurmountable. Many schemes were brought forward, but, after a brief'period of discussion, cadi was forgotten. So it went until 1919, when Mr Joseph B. Strauss looked across the Golden Gate and felt the challenge which had come to many another engineer before him. From Fort Point in the Presidio of San Francisco to the beetling cliffs of Marin County seemed to him no distance which the skill of man might not conquer. He had to his credit many notable bridges in many parts of the world, and he felt he could throw a span across this almost 9000-foot expanse.

So he talked with Mr M. M. 0 Shaughnessy, late city engineer of San Francisco, who thought his idea might be feasible, and set to work planning a project which would meet all reasonable requirements, and yet be practicable financially. Mr O’Shaughnessy’s findings were rosy, and enlisted the enthusiastic support of a number of residents on both sides of the proposed span. A “Bridging of the Golden Gate Association” was formed, and in 1923 the State Legislature created a bridge district to supervise construction of the project.

For 10 years, however, I Here were iiinu’iierable legal u<lays, though each decision reached was in favour of the bridge So many hindrances, so many objections, so many doubts - from citizens, army engineers, politicians—might have discouraged less hardy sponsors. But the bridge builders were not to be denied, and they fought on unfalteringly. Businessmen of Marin County, and further north in (Sonoma County, and further still through all the great “ Redwood Empire,” became convinced that a bridge from San Francisco lo their shores would open their area to every citizen of the metropolis and lo every visiting tourist. Gradually, most of those who Imd gone lo live in this land of surpassing natural beauty and rivli natural resources enlisted in the bridge fight. The Redwood Highway was already being straightened and improved to lure the motorist into a wonderland of mammoth trees, high mountains and wide vistas along several hundred miles of Pacific shoreline. Hordes of vacationists already canto each summer to enjoy unspoiled nature within a few short miles of San Francisco, but the residents argued that with a bridge offering never-interrupted access to their region, the opportunities for development would be greatly increased. Commuters, they felt, would come in augmented numbers to all the delightful little cities of this region, which were otherwise largely cut off by water and mountains from the rest of California. But there were others who argued in favour of the ferries, and even after actual work on the bridge started in 1933. and a Bridge promises to be northern California's Maypole in 1937.

tower 746 feet high began to rise on the Marin shore, there were still scoffers who predicted that the bridge would never be completed.

More serious charges were involved in the “pink cement scandal,” the questioning of foundational safety by an eminent seismologist, and the delays of locating approach roads on both sides of the Gate. But while the public was being alternately worried and diverted by settlement of these side issues, Chief Engineer Strauss was busy, and the bridge was being built. What if a blundering steamer did tear away the fender precariously constructed in the nine-knot rapids of the stream, where the surface water of a 457-square-niile bay rush in and out with each turn of the tide? The work might be set back several months, but it would go on. And it did.

Moreover, local scepticism is rapidly giving way to enthusiasm as the magnitude of the bridge becomes better known. Great crowds go on Sundays to vantage points where the, may watch .progress on the structure. Influential sections of the Press have taken an interest in the bridge, and defend it against unjustified criticism. Loyal employees of the Golden Gate Bridge and Highway district spend their nights lecturing on the span, showing motion pictures of its building, answering questions concerning it, and gradually spreading a pride in San Francisco’s suspension wonder.

So, with its financing completed, its payment assured through decreasing toll charges over a period of years, and public support turning overwhelmingly toward it, the Golden Gate

GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE FACTS. Length of main structure .... 8910 ft. Height of towers above water 746 ft. Depth of pier on San Francisco side, below water 100 ft. Length of main span, between towers 4200 ft. Total cost of bridge £6,700,000 Minimum vertical clearance at centre above niea. high water 220 ft

GREAT BRIDGE-BUILDING CONTRACT AT SAN FRANCISCO.

The Oakland end of the seven-niilo bridge which will link the cities of San Francisco and Oakland. The first span is seen under construction.