On Jan. 5, 1933, construction began on San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge before it became what was then the world's longest suspension bridge, and what was yet to become one of the wonders of the modern world by the American Society of Civil Engineers. On May 27, 1937, a bridge-opening celebration began, lasting for a week.
On Jan. 5, 1933, construction began on the Golden Gate Bridge before it would become the longest bridge in the world at the time and one of the Wonders of the Modern World. In 1935, a worker can be seen standing on the first cables during the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge with the Presidio and San Francisco in the background.
The Golden Gate Bridge is photographed under construction with two workers on the saddle atop the Marin Tower, 746 feet above the water, in San Francisco, Calif. circa 1934.
A view of the Marin Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge under construction in San Francisco, Calif. in 1934.
A worker is pictured running up one of the catwalks being built for the construction of a cable of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Calif. on Sept. 19, 1935.
After five years of construction, the Golden Gate Bridge was finally opened to the public on May 27, 1937. The official grand opening celebration with klieg lights and fireworks marked the historic day before the bridge became an internationally recognized symbol of San Francisco.
Two hundred thousand people flocked to the newly completed bridge on foot the day before vehicles were allowed to cross during a week-long celebration to mark its opening.
Military biplanes fly between the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge as pedestrians walk across the span during opening ceremonies in San Francisco on May 27, 1937. The bridge was heralded as an engineering marvel when it opened in 1937. It was the world’s longest suspension span and had been built across a strait that critics said was too treacherous to be bridged.
Press make their way across the about-to-be-opened new Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Calif. on May 24, 1937. While Joseph Strauss was chief engineer in charge of the overall design and construction, it was Irving Morrow, a relatively unknown residential architect who designed the overall shape and bridge towers, the lighting scheme and overall Art Deco elements.
Traffic police on motorbikes riding over the Golden Gate Bridge to mark the opening of the bridge to traffic.
Spanning across the Golden Gate strait, the mile wide, three-mile-long channel between San Francisco and the Pacific Ocean, the Golden Gate Bridge at the time of its opening became the biggest suspension bridge in the world. The project was completed 1.3 million dollars under budget.
The Golden Gate Bridge is pictured under construction with riveters at work in cages on the South Tower in San Francisco, Calif. in 1935. Construction began on Jan. 5, 1933, and cost more than $35 million.
Workmen wearing steel helmets lay the catwalks for the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Calif. on Sept. 19, 1935. Spinning of the big suspension cables will start after the two catwalks are laid high above the Golden Gate Strait.
High in the fog, structural steel workers staged the traditional ceremony of raising flags when the structural steel work on the Marin County Towers of the Golden Gate Bridge was completed on May 4, 1934. A group of steel workers pose atop one of the two towers, which rise 734 feet above the water.
Workers complete the catwalks for the Golden Gate Bridge, spanning the Golden Gate Strait, prior to spinning the bridge cables during construction in San Francisco, Calif. on Oct. 25, 1935.
U.S. Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, center, wears a steel helmet during an inspection tour of the San Francisco tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, California on March 25, 1935. Perkins, who is the first female cabinet officer in American history, talks with G.A. McClain, bridge superintendent, left, and S.E. Stanley, rivet foreman.
Morning commute traffic from Marin County en route to San Francisco over the Golden Gate Bridge on July 1, 1952.
A couple is silhouetted sitting on a bench atop the Marin Headlands while viewing the fog-covered Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco skyline in Sausalito, Calif. on Aug. 14, 1989.
Framed by Russian Hill, at left, and the Marin Headlands, right, fog rolls in and covers the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco on Sept. 9, 1996.
Tourists watch the fog come in over the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco on June 16, 1997. Temperatures drop at least 10 degrees as the wind brings in the fog.
Summer fog rolls through the Golden Gate as the north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, the San Francisco skyline, and Bay Bridge towers remain visible from the Marin headlands in Sausalito, Calif. on Sept. 4, 1998. Warm inland temperatures have brought the onset of thick summer fog.
The north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge is blanketed by fog as the sun rises on Oct. 8, 2007, in Sausalito, Calif.
The Golden Gate Bridge at Golden Gate National Park is viewed from a nearby hiking trail on April 2, 2014, in San Francisco, Calif.
