59 Fun Facts About Golden Gate Bridge

In X-Men: The Last Stand, Magneto rips the Golden Gate Bridge loose to reach which island?

Alcatraz was recreated for the film near Vancouver, where the crew built the island's exterior for the battle scenes.

The Golden Gate Bridge links San Francisco to which county across the strait?

Marin County's voters were among those who pledged their homes, farms and businesses as collateral for the 1930 bond issue that paid for the bridge.

Why was the Golden Gate Bridge's south tower harder to build?

Open ocean: the south pier rose over 1,000 feet offshore, where divers had to blast rock through strong currents.

During the last Ice Age, which river, joined by the San Joaquin, scoured the Golden Gate's deep channel?

The Sacramento cut the channel when sea level stood several hundred feet lower; as the ice melted, the rising sea flooded the valley behind it.

What is the official name of the Golden Gate Bridge's colour?

International orange won because it blends with the nearby hills yet stands out against sea, sky and fog.

Who chose the Golden Gate Bridge's famous colour?

Irving Morrow, a little-known residential architect, had written lovingly about the strait years before he was hired to design the bridge's look.

What paint scheme did the US Navy suggest for the Golden Gate Bridge so passing ships could see it?

Black and yellow stripes were passed over, and plain grey was a serious contender before the final colour won out.

In 1872, which railroad magnate proposed a bridge across the Golden Gate?

Charles Crocker even had plans and cost estimates drawn up, yet no serious design followed for more than four decades.

As a student, future Golden Gate Bridge engineer Joseph Strauss designed a railroad bridge across which stretch of water?

The Bering Strait bridge was a student's dream; Strauss later left engineer Ralph Modjeski's firm to start his own drawbridge company.

Which Golden Gate Bridge design engineer did Joseph Strauss dismiss in 1931, leaving him uncredited when it opened?

Charles Alton Ellis kept working about 70 hours a week unpaid after he was let go, filling ten volumes with calculations.

Which engineer of New York's Manhattan Bridge conceived the Golden Gate Bridge's final suspension design?

Leon Moisseiff's later Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed in a windstorm soon after it opened in 1940.

Whose 1916 newspaper proposal for spanning the Golden Gate caught the eye of San Francisco's city engineer?

James Wilkins's columns stirred public interest, and within a few years a Navy ship was sounding the channel's depths.

Which powerful company opposed the Golden Gate Bridge because it would cut into its ferry business?

Southern Pacific Railroad's car ferries had become very profitable, and the bridge promised to take their traffic.

Which North Coast county refused to join the Golden Gate Bridge District because its residents opposed the bridge?

Humboldt County stayed out because residents feared the change the bridge would bring, from extra traffic to newcomers.

Which banker agreed in 1932 to buy bonds so construction of the Golden Gate Bridge could finally begin?

Amadeo Giannini's Bank of America stepped in after the Depression left the district struggling to sell its bonds.

How did the Golden Gate Bridge's final cost compare with its budget?

Came in under budget by about $1.3 million, even though engineers had guessed a bridge there would cost over $100 million.

The Golden Gate Bridge's steelwork was built by McClintic-Marshall, a subsidiary of which corporation?

Bethlehem Steel manufactured the bridge's steel in sections, which ironworkers riveted together with roughly 600,000 rivets in each tower.

What did workers saved by the Golden Gate Bridge's safety net call themselves?

The Half Way to Hell Club owed its members to a net that also let crews work faster and more confidently.

What broke through the Golden Gate Bridge's safety net in 1937?

A falling scaffold broke through the net near the end of construction, shattering a safety record of just one death until then.

Joseph Strauss, chief engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge, graduated from which university in his hometown?

University of Cincinnati is where Strauss, hurt trying out for football, is said to have gazed at a big bridge from the infirmary, sparking his fascination with bridges.

Which bridge lost its longest-span record to the Golden Gate Bridge in 1937?

George Washington Bridge designer Othmar Ammann also advised on the Golden Gate Bridge, the span that took his record.

Which Moore-era Bond film climaxes atop the Golden Gate Bridge?

A View to a Kill's crew went up on the real bridge to film the fight between Bond and the villain.

Roughly how many miles of steel wire went into the Golden Gate Bridge's two main cables?

80,000 miles of wire were spun into the cables high in the air, by crews working from catwalks strung across the strait.

Which New York span took away the Golden Gate's title of longest suspension span in 1964?

Verrazzano-Narrows beat it by just 60 feet, then lost the record in 1981 to England's Humber Bridge.

Which Japanese span, opened in 1998, overtook the Golden Gate as the world's tallest suspension bridge?

Akashi Kaikyo's towers were already up when the 1995 Kobe earthquake reportedly pushed them apart, lengthening its span by about a metre.

Which pre-Civil War fort did the Golden Gate Bridge's builders save by carrying the roadway over it on an arch?

Fort Point was spared because its brick masonry was already prized as architecture, and it is now a National Historic Site.

Which fitness pioneer swam the length of the Golden Gate strait in 1954 with 140 pounds of gear strapped on?

Jack LaLanne topped it a year later by swimming to San Francisco while handcuffed.

Which president pushed a button in Washington to signal the official start of vehicle traffic?

Weeks of civic celebrations called the Fiesta followed.

What did chief engineer Joseph Strauss write to celebrate finishing the Golden Gate Bridge in 1937?

A poem, 'The Mighty Task Is Done', which Strauss read out during the opening festivities.

How did the Golden Gate Bridge's car toll change between 1937 and 1955?

Halved: the 50-cent toll each way fell to 25 cents by 1955, yet tolls still paid off the construction bonds by 1971.

Until 1970, how did the Golden Gate Bridge collect a fee from walkers?

Coin turnstiles took the sidewalk fee until December 1970; in 2014, facing a budget deficit, the district's board voted to study a walker and bike toll again.

How did the Golden Gate Bridge's construction bond interest compare with the principal?

Slightly more: nearly $39 million in interest against $35 million of principal, all of it paid from bridge tolls.

Since 1968, in which direction have tolls been collected on the Golden Gate Bridge?

Southbound only: the round-trip toll is collected once, so drivers can cross the other way without stopping to pay.

Whose raiders sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge in 1942?

Doolittle's raiders rode USS Hornet with 16 Army B-25 bombers lashed to its deck, then launched them to bomb Tokyo.

Which 1989 earthquake did the Golden Gate Bridge ride out?

Loma Prieta struck just before Game 3 of the World Series, which did not resume for ten days.

What was installed on the Golden Gate Bridge in January 2015 during the longest closure in its history?

A movable median barrier replaced plastic tubes that had long left opposing lanes open to head-on collisions.

What happened when crowds packed the Golden Gate Bridge for its 50th anniversary walk in 1987?

The centre span flattened out under roughly 300,000 people, since the bridge is built to flex under heavy loads.

What replaced the Golden Gate Bridge's original concrete roadway deck in the 1980s?

Lighter steel orthotropic panels went in section by section over 401 nights, without ever closing the roadway to traffic.

After a 1951 windstorm closed the Golden Gate Bridge, what retrofit was added in 1953–54?

Torsional bracing of the deck was added because a 69 mph gale had set the roadway swaying and rolling.

Which fault line's proximity prompted the bridge's $392 million seismic retrofit?

Engineers found the arch at the southern end could have triggered total collapse in a big quake.

Why did residents start hearing the Golden Gate Bridge hum in June 2020?

New railing slats whistling in the wind were a side effect of a retrofit meant to make the bridge steadier in high winds.

Which agency sets the tones and timing pattern of the Golden Gate Bridge's foghorns?

Coast Guard rules give each horn its own pitch and pattern, so ships in thick fog can tell the horns apart.

Which explorer nicknamed the Pathfinder named the strait Chrysopylae, or Golden Gate, after Byzantium's Golden Horn?

John C. Frémont named it in 1846, two years before gold was found in California, calling it a golden gate to trade with the Orient.

Whose ship San Carlos carried the first Europeans known to sail through the Golden Gate, in 1775?

Juan de Ayala's crew anchored behind Angel Island, in a cove that still bears his name.

Which other California bridge opened in 1936, months before the Golden Gate Bridge?

The San Francisco-Oakland Bay bridge later had its eastern span replaced over earthquake concerns, with the new span opening in 2013.

How is the Golden Gate Bridge's paint maintained?

Spot touch-ups, chosen by inspections, mean painting the bridge is a continuous job rather than a scheduled full repaint.

On the Golden Gate Bridge's 1937 opening day, who formed the last ceremonial blockade that officials had to pass?

Beauty queens garlanded with flowers made a living gate that opened only after Strauss formally handed the bridge to the district.

Which rail system's planners argued over running trains across the Golden Gate Bridge in the early 1960s?

BART never crossed it: the engineering doubts helped sink plans for a line north of San Francisco.

In which 1958 Alfred Hitchcock film does Scottie rescue Madeleine after she jumps into the bay beneath the Golden Gate Bridge?

Vertigo topped Sight & Sound's 2012 critics' poll, ending Citizen Kane's 50-year reign as the greatest film ever made.

Which actor joined protesters who climbed the Golden Gate Bridge in 1996 to hang an anti-logging banner?

Woody Harrelson's banner accused the boss of timber firm Maxxam of putting gold ahead of ancient redwoods.

Which warship sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge carrying parts of the Hiroshima bomb?

USS Indianapolis delivered its cargo to Tinian, and days later a Japanese submarine torpedoed and sank it.

What did University of British Columbia engineering students dangle off the Golden Gate Bridge in 2001?

A VW Beetle shell went over the side in the early-morning prank, which tied up commuter traffic for hours.

Which company spun the Golden Gate Bridge's main cables, finishing months ahead of schedule?

John A. Roebling's Sons, from Trenton, New Jersey, carried the wire back and forth across the strait on spinning wheels.

What toxic metal did the Golden Gate Bridge's original 1930s paint contain?

Lead-based paint was stripped off from the mid-1960s to 1995 and replaced with a zinc primer and new topcoats.

What smashed into the Golden Gate Bridge's construction trestle in August 1933, damaging it?

A steamship plowed into the trestle, and a powerful storm wrecked it again later that year.

What design did Joseph Strauss first propose for the Golden Gate Bridge?

A cantilever-suspension hybrid was the design Strauss showed at public meetings across northern California to win support.

Roughly how many people crossed the Golden Gate Bridge on foot or roller skates the day before cars were allowed?

200,000 people turned out for Pedestrian Day, and some raced to be first across, running or on roller skates.

Which design style shaped the Golden Gate Bridge's towers?

Art Deco styling shaped its towers and streetlights, a long way from a first design that critics called ugly.

Which federal department, owner of the land on both sides of the strait, had to approve the Golden Gate Bridge?

The War Department's final 1930 permit fixed a 220-foot clearance at midspan so ships could still pass beneath.