Contents
1 History
1.1 Ferry service
1.2 Conception
1.3 Design
1.4 Finance
1.5 Construction
1.6 Opening festivities, 50th, and 75th anniversaries
2 Description
2.1 Specifications
2.2 Structure
2.3 Traffic
2.4 Visiting the bridge
2.5 Aesthetics
2.6 Paintwork
3 Current issues
3.1 Economics and tolls
3.2 Congestion pricing
3.3 Suicides
3.3.1 Suicide barrier
3.4 Wind
3.5 Seismic retrofit
3.6 Doyle Drive replacement project
4 Golden Gate Bridge in popular culture
5 See also
6 References
7 External links
History
Ferry service
Golden Gate with Fort Point in foreground, c. 1891
Before the bridge was built, the only practical short route between San Francisco and what is now Marin County was by boat across a section of San Francisco Bay. Ferry service began as early as 1820, with regularly scheduled service beginning in the 1840s for purposes of transporting water to San Francisco.[9]
The Sausalito Land and Ferry Company service, launched in 1867, eventually became the Golden Gate Ferry Company, a Southern Pacific Railroad subsidiary, the largest ferry operation in the world by the late 1920s.[9][10] Once for railroad passengers and customers only, Southern Pacific's automobile ferries became very profitable and important to the regional economy.[11] The ferry crossing between the Hyde Street Pier in San Francisco and Sausalito in Marin County took approximately 20 minutes and cost US$1.00 per vehicle, a price later reduced to compete with the new bridge.[12] The trip from the San Francisco Ferry Building took 27 minutes.
Many wanted to build a bridge to connect San Francisco to Marin County. San Francisco was the largest American city still served primarily by ferry boats. Because it did not have a permanent link with communities around the bay, the city's growth rate was below the national average.[13] Many experts said that a bridge couldn’t be built across the 6,700 ft (2,042 m) strait. It had strong, swirling tides and currents, with water 372 ft (113 m) deep[14] at the center of the channel, and frequent strong winds. Experts said that ferocious winds and blinding fogs would prevent construction and operation.[13]