The total length of the Golden Gate Bridge from abutment to abutment is 8,981 feet (2,737 m). The Golden Gate Bridge's clearance above high water averages 220 feet (67 m) while its towers, at 746 feet (227 m) above the water, were the world's tallest on a suspension bridge until 1993 when it was surpassed by the Mezcala Bridge, in Mexico.
Full Answer
How many feet is the Golden Gate Bridge from water?
The Golden Gate Bridge is about 9,000 feet long (nearly two miles) and is one of the most iconic bridges in the United States. ... The bridge spans about 220 feet above the water.
How high is the Golden Gate Bridge above the water?
The total length of the Golden Gate Bridge from abutment to abutment is 8,981 feet (2,737 m). The Golden Gate Bridge's clearance above high water averages 220 feet (67 m) while its towers, at 746 feet (227 m) above the water, were the world's tallest on a suspension bridge until 1993 when it was surpassed by the Mezcala Bridge, in Mexico.
How much water is under the Golden Gate Bridge?
When the giant ships dock in San Francisco Bay they have to go under the Golden Gate Bridge and sometimes the Bay Bridge. Consequently, how deep is the water under the Golden Gate Bridge? 300 feet
What are the measurements for the Golden Gate Bridge?
• Deformation bridge, load capacity:
- The maximum deviation of the cross in the center includes: 8,4 m
- The maximum downward deflection in the center includes: 3.3 m
- Maximum upward deviation in the center includes: 1,77 m
How much did the Golden Gate Bridge cost?
Construction began on January 5, 1933. The project cost more than $35 million ($523 million in 2019 dollars ), and was completed ahead of schedule and $1.3 million under budget (equivalent to $24.5 million today). The Golden Gate Bridge construction project was carried out by the McClintic-Marshall Construction Co., a subsidiary of Bethlehem Steel Corporation founded by Howard H. McClintic and Charles D. Marshall, both of Lehigh University .
How much did it cost to build the Golden Gate Bridge?
Although the idea of a bridge spanning the Golden Gate was not new, the proposal that eventually took hold was made in a 1916 San Francisco Bulletin article by former engineering student James Wilkins. San Francisco's City Engineer estimated the cost at $100 million (equivalent to $2.4 billion today), and impractical for the time. He asked bridge engineers whether it could be built for less. One who responded, Joseph Strauss, was an ambitious engineer and poet who had, for his graduate thesis, designed a 55-mile-long (89 km) railroad bridge across the Bering Strait. At the time, Strauss had completed some 400 drawbridges —most of which were inland—and nothing on the scale of the new project. Strauss's initial drawings were for a massive cantilever on each side of the strait, connected by a central suspension segment, which Strauss promised could be built for $17 million (equivalent to $404 million today).
What bus line runs through Golden Gate?
Muni offers Saturday and Sunday service on the Marin Headlands Express bus line, and Golden Gate Transit runs numerous bus lines throughout the week. The southern end of the bridge, near the toll plaza and parking lot, is also accessible daily from 5:30 a.m. to midnight by Muni line 28.
What was the Golden Gate Bridge's first day of celebration?
The bridge-opening celebration began on May 27, 1937, and lasted for one week. The day before vehicle traffic was allowed, 200,000 people crossed either on foot or on roller skates. On opening day, Mayor Angelo Rossi and other officials rode the ferry to Marin, then crossed the bridge in a motorcade past three ceremonial "barriers," the last a blockade of beauty queens who required Joseph Strauss to present the bridge to the Highway District before allowing him to pass. An official song, " There's a Silver Moon on the Golden Gate ," was chosen to commemorate the event. Strauss wrote a poem that is now on the Golden Gate Bridge entitled "The Mighty Task is Done." The next day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt pushed a button in Washington, D.C. signaling the official start of vehicle traffic over the Bridge at noon. As the celebration got out of hand there was a small riot in the uptown Polk Gulch area. Weeks of civil and cultural activities called "the Fiesta" followed. A statue of Strauss was moved in 1955 to a site near the bridge.
Why did the Golden Gate Bridge collapse?
Although the Golden Gate Bridge design has proved sound, a later Moisseiff design, the original Tacoma Narrows Bridge, collapsed in a strong windstorm soon after it was completed, because of an unexpected aeroelastic flutter.
How long did it take to get to San Francisco from the Ferry Building?
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.
How was the original bridge deck replaced?
From 1982 to 1986, the original bridge deck, in 747 sections, was systematically replaced with a 40% lighter, and stronger, steel orthotropic deck panels, over 401 nights without closing the roadway completely to traffic. The roadway was also widened by two feet, resulting in outside curb lane width of 11 feet, instead of 10 feet for the inside lanes. This deck replacement was the bridge's greatest engineering project since it was built and cost over $68 million.
How long is the Golden Gate Bridge?
The Golden Gate Bridge is an iconic structure connecting the city of San Francisco to Marin County, California. It spans almost two miles across the Golden Gate, the narrow strait where San Francisco Bay opens to meet the Pacific Ocean. The dream of connecting San Francisco to its northern neighbors became a reality when construction commenced in ...
When was the Golden Gate Bridge opened?
The Golden Gate Bridge, opened to the public in 1937, has endured as a picture-perfect landmark and an engineering marvel.
Overview
Structural specifications
Until 1964, the Golden Gate Bridge had the longest suspension bridge main span in the world, at 4,200 feet (1,300 m). Since 1964 its main span length has been surpassed by seventeen bridges; it now has the second-longest main span in the Americas, after the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in New York City. The total length of the Golden Gate Bridge from abutment to abutment is 8,981 feet (2,73…
History
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. A ferry service began as early as 1820, with a regularly scheduled service beginning in the 1840s for the purpose of transporting water to San Francisco.
Aesthetics
Aesthetics was the foremost reason why the first design of Joseph Strauss was rejected. Upon re-submission of his bridge construction plan, he added details, such as lighting, to outline the bridge's cables and towers. In 1999, it was ranked fifth on the List of America's Favorite Architecture by the American Institute of Architects.
Traffic
Most maps and signage mark the bridge as part of the concurrency between U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1. Although part of the National Highway System, the bridge is not officially part of California's Highway System. For example, under the California Streets and Highways Code § 401, Route 101 ends at "the approach to the Golden Gate Bridge" and then resumes at "a point in Ma…
Issues
The Golden Gate Bridge is the most used suicide site in the world. The deck is about 245 feet (75 m) above the water. After a fall of four seconds, jumpers hit the water at around 75 mph (120 km/h; 30 m/s). Most die from impact trauma. About 5% survive the initial impact but generally drown or die of hypothermia in the cold water.
See also
• 25 de Abril Bridge, a bridge with a similar design in Portugal
• The Bridge, a 2006 documentary on suicides from the Bridge
• Golden Gate Bridge in popular culture
• List of Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks
Further reading
• Cassady, Stephen (1979). Spanning the Gate (Commemorative edition, 1987 ed.). Squarebooks. ISBN 978-0916290368.
• Dyble, Louise Nelson; the Golden Gate Bridge (2009). Paying the Toll: Local Power, Regional Politics. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 9780812222784.
• Friend, Tad (October 13, 2003). "Jumpers: The fatal grandeur of the Golden Gate Bridge". The New Yorker. Vol. 79, no. 30. p. 48. Archived from the original on Nove…
• Cassady, Stephen (1979). Spanning the Gate (Commemorative edition, 1987 ed.). Squarebooks. ISBN 978-0916290368.
• Dyble, Louise Nelson; the Golden Gate Bridge (2009). Paying the Toll: Local Power, Regional Politics. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 9780812222784.
• Friend, Tad (October 13, 2003). "Jumpers: The fatal grandeur of the Golden Gate Bridge". The New Yorker. Vol. 79, no. 30. p. 48. Archived from the original on November 8, 2006.