Opened in 1937, the main span of 4200 ft was the lon­gest sin­gle span at that time and re­tai­ned this dis­tinc­tion for 29 years. Prin­ci­pal de­si­gner was Jo­seph Strauss who had pre­viouly col­la­bo­ra­ted with Am­mann on the Ge­orge Wa­shing­ton Bridge in New York City.

Gol­den Gate Bridge from the south. The south tower re­qui­red a pier foun­ded in the deep water of the har­bor entrance, and this pro­ved to be one of the major en­gi­nee­ring pro­blems. The long span was to avoid a se­cond tower also being in the chan­nel. Towers are 746 ft high, the tal­lest of their time.

De­tail of the south an­cho­r­age of Gol­den Gate Bridge, sho­w­ing cable pas­sing through the ap­proach arch span. The arch truss is 2-hinged.

Spe­ci­men of cable used in the Gol­den Gate Bridge. On dis­play at the south end of the bridge it also pro­vi­des some in­te­res­ting bridge data.

View from top of south tower of Gol­den Gate Bridge loo­king north and down on the main span.

Top of south tower of Gol­den Gate Bridge, sho­w­ing one of the cable sadd­les. Note the fi­gu­res at the base of the saddle which give a sense of scale.

Gol­den Gate Bridge du­ring the 1984 re­de­cking. Star­ting from the north (far) end, suc­ces­sive sec­tions of the road­way were re­mo­ved and re­pla­ced by units of ap­pro­xi­mately half the ori­gi­nal weight. When the worked re­ached mid-span, the re­sul­ting dif­fe­ren­tial dis­tri­bu­ted loa­ding cau­sed the S-shaped de­flec­tion of the bridge.

Close up of the de­for­med stif­fe­ning truss

This is the same basic pro­blem as that of the Chel­sea Bridge but on a much lar­ger scale. Again the ca­bles are fixed to sadd­les at the top of the towers, but the base of the co­lumn is fixed, not hin­ged. In the trans­verse di­rec­tion, the two posts of the tower are con­nec­ted by framing mem­bers which greatly in­crea­ses the trans­verse stiff­ness.

Bot­tom of the Gol­den Gate Bridge tower. In the trans­verse di­rec­tion the two posts of the tower are hea­vily X-braced below road level, greatly in­cre­a­sing the trans­verse stiff­ness of the tower at road level.