The Iconic Californian Bridge:

The Golden Gate Bridge The Iconic Californian Bridge:The Golden Gate Bridge

Intro

Spanning almost two miles across the narrow strait where the San Francisco Bay opens to meet the Pacific Ocean, the Golden Gate bridge hovers over the Golden Gate. It is one of California’s most visited sites and connects the city of San Francisco to Marin County, California. It made its grand opening in the year 1937 after taking 4 years to build and as seen in figure 1, remains an important part of California’s transportation system to this day. The bridge makes room “for more than 100,000 cars crossing daily, as well as pedestrians, bikers and people riding the bridge’s ferries and buses (CNN, 2018).” Initially, there was great controversy about the building of this bridge as the expected cost was about $100 million and the span needed to build the bridge was much greater than any suspension bridge built before. Impressive in its simplicity and modern in its concept, the golden gate bridge was a challenge to build not because it had to be built over a body of water, but because the body of water was like none other before: an arm of the ocean (Airboyd, 2012).

Length, Width, Height, Weight

When the Golden Gate Bridge was constructed in 1937, it was declared to be the bridge with the longest bridge span and the tallest towers at the time. There was a lot of thought and effort that went into the engineering of the Golden Gate bridge. The total length of the bridge, including the ends of the bridges, call the abutments, is 1.7 miles or 8,981 ft (goldengatebridge.org). If the distance to the Toll Plaza is added, then it becomes 9,150 ft or 1.73 miles(goldengatebridge.org). The length of the suspension spans, which includes the main and side spans, is 1.2 miles while the length of the suspended structure alone, located between the towers, is 4,200 ft as can be seen in figure 2.  The width of the bridge is 90 ft, which includes the width of the roadways (62 ft) and the width of the sidewalks (10 ft) (goldengatebridge.org).

Anchorage Stats, Tower Stats, and Cable Stats

 Figure 3. All parts of the bridge are labeled for reference (http://sitescan.net/san-francisco-bay-area-gpr-concretecanning-utility-location/)

The total weight of each anchorage on the two sides of the bridge is 60,000 tons(goldengatebridge.org). Additionally, the original weight of the bridge, anchorages, and approaches on the bridge was a total of 894,500 tons; however, after repairs done to the bridge every 4 years by workers, the total weight of the bridge, anchorages, and approaches combined is 887,000 tons since 1986(goldengatebridge.org). If the combined weight of the anchorage and approaches is removed, then the weight of the bridge, the suspended structure, the main tower, and piers and fenders is 419,800 tons(goldengatebridge.org). All features are labelled in figure 3.        The Golden Gate Bridge has two main towers that hold two main cables, which weigh up to 61,500 tons. The height of one tower above water level is 746 ft and the height of the tower from the roadway up is 500 ft(goldengatebridge.org). The dimension of each tower leg is 33 ft x 54 ft and the weight of both main towers combined it 44,000 tons(goldengatebridge.org). The Golden Gate bridge has two main cables that hover over the tops of the two 746-ft-tall towers and each one is secured at ends of the giant anchorages. The diameter of one main cable including the exterior wrapping is 36 3/8 inches, while the length of one main cable is 7,650 ft(goldengatebridge.org). The total length of galvanized steel wire used to cover and protect the main cables is 80,000 miles(goldengatebridge.org). Conclusion While it may not seem like it, the Golden Gate bridge was built through many complications. Critics would claim that it is too expensive of a process and that it would be impossible to build over such a strong and deep body of water. Nonetheless, the job was done only with about $17 million (goldengatebridge.org). Now it is an extremely popular sightseeing location that justifies not only the beauty of California but also provides ease to the population as well. Citations AIRBOYD. (2012, May 08). Building The Golden Gate Bridge (1930’s). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKU1PTyHtbM (n.d.). Retrieved from (n.d.). Retrieved from http://goldengatebridge.org/research/factsGGBDesign.php 10 secrets of the Golden Gate Bridge. (2018, October 04). Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/golden-gate-bridge-secrets-california/index.html