Depression-Era Construction
Financed by a $35 million bond issue sold during the darkest years of the Great Depression, construction began on January 5, 1933. Workers battled dizzying heights, violent tides, and thick fog while chief engineer Strauss introduced unprecedented safety measures, including a revolutionary safety net that saved nineteen men. The bridge was completed ahead of schedule and under budget, a defiant triumph of ambition during America’s bleakest economic era.
Irving Morrow transformed a utilitarian span into an Art Deco masterpiece through stepped towers, geometric railings, and theatrical lighting — yet history nearly forgot him.
In the teeth of the Great Depression, voters in six counties approved a massive bond measure to build a bridge many engineers said was impossible.
When no financier in America would touch the bridge bonds during the Depression, A.P. Giannini's Bank of America bought the entire issue and saved the project.
On January 5, 1933, construction officially began at Crissy Field as the Great Depression raged — putting a thousand desperate men to work on the impossible.
Rather than demolish a Civil War fortress, engineers redesigned the Golden Gate Bridge to arch over it — creating the span's most dramatic feature.
Building the south tower's foundation 1,100 feet offshore in raging open ocean nearly doomed the entire bridge project.
Architect Irving Morrow fought the U.S. Navy and Army to paint the bridge International Orange instead of battleship gray or candy-cane stripes.
Over six months, workers shuttled individual steel wires back and forth across the Golden Gate strait to spin the bridge's two massive main cables by hand.
A revolutionary safety net beneath the Golden Gate Bridge saved 19 workers' lives during construction, creating an unprecedented brotherhood of survivors.
A collapsed scaffold sent twelve men plunging through the Golden Gate's famous safety net, killing ten and ending the bridge's remarkable safety record just months before completion.