January 5 in History
1933 – Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay
The Golden Gate Bridge, one of the most internationally recognized symbols of San Francisco and California, is a one-mile-wide (1.6 km) suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. Initially designed by engineer Joseph Strauss in 1917, the structure links the US city of San Francisco, California—the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula—to Marin County and has been declared one of the Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Construction on the bridge began on this day in 1933, and at the time of its opening in 1937, it was both the longest and the tallest suspension bridge in the world, with a main span of 4,200 feet (1,280 m) and a total height of 746 feet (227 m). The Frommer’s travel guide describes the Golden Gate Bridge as “possibly the most beautiful, certainly the most photographed, bridge in the world”.
-ENCL