Virtual Bridge Tour
Virtual Bridge Tour on the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District web site.
These images are the property of the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District and are really cool to check out..
goldengate.org/multimedia/index.php
The Golden Gate National Recreation Area(GGNRA) is one of the largest urban national parks in the world. Established in 1972, as part of a trend to make national park resources more accessible to urban populations and bring “parks to the people”, GGNRA’s 75,398 acres of land and water extend north of the Golden Gate Bridge to Tomales Bay in Marin County and south to San Mateo County, encompassing 59 miles of bay and ocean shoreline. These lands represent one of the nation’s largest coastal preserves and attract 16 million visitors each year, making GGNRA one of the National Park Service most highly visited units.
The Golden Gate Bridge has an Art Deco architectural style which was mainly the
reslult of Irving F. Morrow and his wife Gertrude C. Morrow, consulting architects.
The lighting emphasized the deco style and followed the designers concept of making the towers appear to melt in the night.
The Golden Gate Bridge's Art Deco design was carried out in every detail of the bridge, from the rectangular ascending forms of the towers, to the
rivets, to the tollhouse and the railings. It is truly a spectacular execution of an Art Deco theme.
The bridge spans San Francisco Bay from the San Francisco side to the marin side about two miles in from the mouth of the Bay.
The Golden Gate Bridge is 1.7 miles (2,727 m) long
Latitude and Longitude: 37°49' N 122°29' W.
The Bridge is 746 feet (230 m) above the water.
It takes at least an hour to walk from the Vista Point to the San Francisco side and back.
It is cold and windy most of the time on the bridge.
Sausalito is the small historic fishing town that is the North Terminus of the Bridge
Sausalito means little willow, willows being a sign of fresh water and important to early sailors.
The cranes for Oakland imported from China barely fit underneath and the tides need to be calculated in order to optimize on extreme
low tides to insure the cranes fitting under the span.
No one jumps off the West side of the bridge.
The bridge is continually being painted and maintained.
The Golden Gate Bridge opened May 27, 1937, after nearly four-and-a-half years of construction. Approximately 18,000 people were waiting to walk across the architectural woonder when it opened at 6 a.m.
Directly under the bridge from the North side, you can honk your boat horn or sing and there is an echo.
The bridge was built around Fort Point, the Civil War era Fort on the South Terminus of the Bridge.
Along with being a Fort, Fort Point serves as a navigational aid to mariners as a light station.
In theory Fort Point was used in World War Two as stategic defense station.
Fort Point has a moveable lighthouse designed to aid mariners in navigation, but to be able to fold up or extinguish from view of enemies.
