Opening and Early Glory
On May 27, 1937, roughly 200,000 pedestrians streamed across the bridge on its first public day, and it opened to automobile traffic the following morning. The International Orange towers instantly became the most recognized symbols of San Francisco and the American West. During World War II, the bridge served as a powerful emotional landmark for millions of soldiers shipping out to the Pacific Theater, many seeing it as their last glimpse of home.
Before a single car crossed, San Francisco threw the greatest walking party in American history.
Just ten weeks after opening, a veteran's leap began the Golden Gate Bridge's longest and most painful legacy.
The Golden Gate Bridge's iconic mid-span foghorns became the sonic signature of San Francisco, blasting through fog that blankets the strait over 300 days a year.
Joseph Strauss died just one year after his bridge opened, broken by the very fight that made him famous.
Hours after Pearl Harbor, the Golden Gate Bridge's lights were extinguished for the first time — and would not return for years.
After Pearl Harbor, the Navy stretched a massive anti-submarine net across the Golden Gate, turning the bridge into the gateway of a fortress.