History of the Golden Gate Bridge

The Marin County Board of Supervisors eventually dropped Crocker's plans for a bridge in 1872. Finally in 1916 James Wilkins, a newspaper reporter, began an editorial campaign to build the bridge. His campaign eventually reached the Chicago bridge builder, Joseph Baerman Strauss. This man built more than four hundred bridges around the world, and he was convinced that a bridge could be built across the Golden Gate. Many other engineers believed that building a bridge would cost near a hundred million dollars. However, Strauss believed that it could be built for only thirty million. Strauss' first design was a combination of a cantilever and a suspension bridge, which was not the best-looking bridge, but would work to span the gate. Since the United States Department of War owned the land where the bridge was purposed to be built, Strauss needed the approval from them. On December 20, 1924, the department approved the bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge and the Highway District was created in 1928 to oversee the construction. On November 4, 1930, the public voted for the project to start for various reasons, including the fact that the bridge construction would provide economic relief from the Great Depression. Strauss, the Chief Engineer of the project and junior partner, Clifford E. Paine, decided to redesign the bridge plans to a suspension only because of technological advances. This new design would bend under stress from wind and temperature instead of breaking like traditional bridges. Furthermore, Bank of America under the leadership of Amadeus P. Giannini bought the construction bonds needed to fund the building, which cleared the way for construction. .
             Construction of the bridge across the Golden Gate began on January 5, 1933, but the official ceremony occurred on February 26. The first part of the bridge was built on the north pier, one of the two towers that would be made.