Fog and fierce currents guard the strait beneath you, one of the most dangerous stretches on the Pacific coast. The Golden Gate Bridge was completed in 1937, after four years of construction that many engineers said could not be done. The strait below you is one of the most dangerous waterways on the Pacific coast — swept by tidal currents, shrouded in fog for much of the year, battered by winds that exceed 60 miles per hour.
Chief engineer Joseph Strauss and designer Charles Ellis overcame all of it. The bridge stretches 1.7 miles, and when it opened it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. The distinctive International Orange color was chosen not for aesthetics but because it made the bridge visible in the fog.
More than ten million pounds of steel cable were used in the two main cables, each of which contains 27,572 individual wires. Look at the towers rising 746 feet above the water; they are taller than the Washington Monument. During construction, Strauss installed a safety net below the deck — a first in bridge construction — which saved nineteen lives and created an informal fraternity among the workers called the Halfway to Hell Club.
The bridge has been crossed by more than two billion vehicles since it opened.