GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE

Construction began on January 5, 1933. The project cost more than $35 million, completing ahead of schedule and under budget. 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.

The project was finished by April 1937, $1.3 million under budget. The Bridge Round House diner was then included in the southeastern end of the Golden Gate Bridge, adjacent to the tourist plaza which was renovated in 2012. The Bridge Round House, an Art Deco design by Alfred Finnila completed in 1938, has been popular throughout the years as a starting point for various commercial tours of the bridge and an unofficial gift shop.^[ The diner was renovated in 2012 and the gift shop was then removed as a new, official gift shop has been included in the adjacent plaza renovations.Strauss remained head of the project, overseeing day-to-day construction and making some groundbreaking contributions. A graduate of the University of Cincinnati, he placed a brick from his alma mater's demolished McMicken Hall in the south anchorage before the concrete was poured. He innovated the use of movable safety netting beneath the construction site, which saved the lives of many otherwise-unprotected steelworkers. Of eleven men killed from falls during construction, ten were killed (when the bridge was near completion) when the net failed under the stress of a scaffold that had fallen. Nineteen others who were saved by the net over the course of construction became proud members of the (informal) Half Way to Hell Club.

During the bridge work, the Assistant Civil Engineer of California Alfred Finnila had overseen the entire ironing work of the bridge as well as half of the bridge's road work. With the death of Jack Balestreri in April 2012, all workers involved in the original construction are now deceased.

Structure

The weight of the roadway is hung from two cables that pass through the two main towers and are fixed in concrete at each end. Each cable is made of 27,572 strands of wire. There are 80,000 miles (129,000 km) of wire in the main cables. The bridge has approximately 1,200,000 total rivets.

Traffic

The bridge is part of the National Highway System, not U.S. Highway 101 or State Route 1, contrary to popular belief. The median markers between the lanes are movedto conform to traffic patterns. On weekday mornings, traffic flows mostly southbound into the city, so four of the six lanes run southbound. Conversely, on weekday afternoons, four lanes run northbound. During off-peak periods and weekends, traffic is split with three lanes in each direction, or three and two lanes with one buffer lane.

Aesthetics

The color of the bridge is officially an orange vermillion called international orange. The color was selected by consulting architect Irving Morrow because it complements the natural surroundings and enhances the bridge's visibility in fog. 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 Architect.

As a prominent American landmark, the Golden Gate Bridge has been used in numerous media, including books, films and video games.

The Golden Gate is featured prominently in the opening sequences of at least two sitcoms; beginning in season two (1969–1970) of the 1968–1973 CBS series The Doris Day Show. In this scene, character Doris Martin is driving a 1969 Plymouth Barracuda convertible across the bridge; and the 1987–1995 ABC series Full House, the Golden Gate Bridge is featured in the title card, and was also featured in the title card for Seasons 2 - 8 of the USA Network series Monk (TV Series). The bridge is also featured in the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops II as a playable area in the downloadable Zombies map "Mob of the Dead."

Source From : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Gate_Bridge