Building the Golden Gate Bridge (1964)

for him it was the dream and the culmination of a lifetime his name was Joseph Strauss his title chief engineer Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District Joseph Strauss is the man who led a core of creative engineers and a legion of rugged men in designing and building the Golden Gate Bridge [Music] few people remember today but for 15 years before the steel was formed for the Golden Gate Bridge it was regarded by many as the bridge that could not be built in 1918 the city engineer of San Francisco approached Joseph Strauss then a Consulting engineer with a long list of bridge contracts to his credit the city engineer asked if a bridge could be built across the Golden Gate at a reasonable cost after 3 years of study Strauss replied that it could for $27 million this was in 1921 such a bridge was an obvious need San Francisco Bay formed a 50-m long barrier to highway traffic in the Cent San Francisco area and the entrance from the sea known as the Golden Gate separated the growing city on the south from the lightly populated and excellent Recreation areas of Marin County while a bridge was an obvious need it was not an obvious possibility the challenge was not to bridge a river or a valley but an arm of the ocean the proposed Bridge was this one impressive in its Simplicity modern in its concept the center span from Tower to Tower would be 4,200 ft long the longest ever attempted in that time the sides spans would each be 1125 ft long the roadway would be some 250 ft above the choppy Waters of the bay that was how matters in 1921 11 years of Stormy controversy followed the opponents raised many objections some said the bridge couldn't possibly be built other critics said the bridge would cost an exorbitant sum almost $100 million and to a city that remembered a disastrous earthquake there was an ominous note the bridge would be only a few miles from the San Andrea's fault the battle was fought vigorously in the courts and in the newspaper columns but the dreamers and the builders won Out Construction began officially on January 5th 1933 the film you're about to see is old but these flickering scenes still portray the story of building this great bridge in the fabricating shops of the Bethlehem Steel company at Pottstown and Steelton Pennsylvania the fabrication work begins Bethlehem the major contractor will build the steel towers and suspended span of the bridge huge sections formed and temporarily assembled at the shops are disassembled and shipped by rail to the Philadelphia Ducks it takes miles of railroad cars to carry the steel for the towers and suspended span [Music] at Philadelphia the sections are loaded aboard ships of bethlehem's Calmar line for the long trip to San Francisco by way of the Panama Canal and finally through the Golden Gate into San Francisco Bay the steel work is unloaded at bethlehem's facilities at Alam across the bay from San Francisco here the sections of the bridge are stored to be shipped out to the construction site in sequence fabricating the steel work and transporting it to Alam will extend over a period of almost 4 years this scene was taken during the erection of the roadway Le members are only a fraction of the nearly 70,000 tons of steel that Bethlehem fabricated for the bridge [Music] at the Golden Gate construction begins with a Marin Pier which is built on Bedrock on the North Shore the work being protected by a sheet piling Coffer Dam when the last of the concrete has been port on the North Pier it surfaces ground to a true plane this is to ensure that the steel super structure will start true and Plum the surface is made plain to within less than 132 of an inch the towers which will be erected on each Pier are identical 702 ft of Steel rising to an elevation of 746 ft above sea level two legs joined together by six cross braces the legs are 90 ft apart on centers clearance between the legs at deck level is 60 ft the width of the six lane roadway when the bridge is completed there will be no other structure This Tall between San Francisco and New York City first step in erecting the North Tower is the Assembly of the erection traveler which will climb upwards between the legs of the tower building as it goes when the traveler Dereck are ready the 5-in thick steel base plates are placed by precise [Music] measurement the steel sections arrive on a carefully planned schedule at this time bethlehem's fabricated steel Construction Division is known as the mclinic Marshall Corporation moving the steel from storage at Alam to the bridge site is a sizable effort in logistics the distance is 5 mil across the Open Water of the bay the obstacles to navigation are wind tide storm and the famous San Francisco fog to avoid delays in erection whenever bad weather prevents deliveries a small store storage area is prepared at the tower site to hold enough materials for several days [Music] worth the lowermost sections of the tower are anchored to Vertical steel angles which have their Roots 53 ft below the surface of the [Music] pier these angles are free stressed before riveting to the tower legs so they will exert a downward pull on the tower a safeguard against the stresses of wind and earthquake as the year 1933 unfolds the Marine Tower climbs toward the roadway [Music] level even in this early stage there appears the beauty of line that will make the Golden Gate Bridge famous as the erection traveler raises itself on the lower Tower sections its spider-like shape stands out against the water each of its two electric powered stiffle dcks is rated at 85 tons about the weight of the heaviest Tower section the booms are 90 ft long once the traveler clears the pier by a sufficient margin the workmen begin erection of the first first diagonal brace and so the technique of building the tower proves its workability as the tower progresses upward The Traveler erects the tower legs then raises itself and builds the braces behind it each time the traveler is raised its weight must first be shifted to cat heads placed at top the tower legs then the four plungers which the support the traveler are withdrawn from reinforced slots in the tower [Music] legs The Traveler moving upwards in about 10 minutes gains another 40 ft of Headway on the [Music] towers one red hot rivet coming up special delivery to men working by the light of miners lamps inside the tower the rivers work on double platform scaffolding driving simultaneously on several [Music] levels 600,000 field rivets will be needed to complete each of the towers one writer will later describe the towers of the golden Gate Bridge as Riveter [Music] paradise and so the work continues and a new form Rises against the sky in the beautiful Bay Area a form which fits well in a Land of massive Hills and spans of water but which dwarfs the men who are building it in time the only practical way up and down this open skyscraper is by elevator and it's a sensational [Music] ride by 1934 the legs of the North Tower are some 500 ft above the water about 50 stories high from bottom to top the cellular PR principle of construction Remains the Same flates of Steel riveted to angles forming a beehive of [Music] cells this construction principle creates a maze of passages in which men will occasionally become lost for short periods but it is a principle which helps explain the immense strength of The Two Towers as the year 1934 unfolds a bold silhouette rises above the Golden Gate the horizontal cross struts above the roadway level will help the tower legs act as a unit in resisting lateral [Music] forces for the top of each Tower leg there is a massive cable saddle cast at Bethlehem Pennsylvania each saddle is a three-piece Steel casting they are mounted on rollers to allow movement during erection of the span later they will be fixed in position placing the cable settles in November 1934 essentially completes the North Tower however long before the first Tower reaches completion workmen across the bay begin building the second concrete pier for the south of San Francisco Tower the San Francisco Pier and fender wall were built 1125 ft offshore in 100 ft of rushing Tidewater silencing the critics who regarded this as the Achilles heel of the bridge but the work didn't go without incident a steamer groping in the fog demolished 400 ft of The Trestle which led from the shore to the pier site The Trestle was rebuilt later a storm took out 800 feet of it at such times the people who said the bridge couldn't be built sounded as if they might be right but a new tressle went up and the work continued All Things Considered this pier and fender wall represent one of the most difficult underwater construction Feats ever attempted the pier was successfully completed in January of 1935 it took about a year and a half on January 10th 1935 the San Francisco Tower is begun The Traveler Derek lowered from the North Tower is reassembled on the second pier and begins another climb Skyward as the tower progresses upward Calmar line ships continue their deliveries of fabricated steel workor to Alam the pattern of of erecting the San Francisco Tower is the same as that used in building the Marin Tower the San Francisco Tower is completed by late June 104 days ahead of schedule on November 11th 1935 the task of spinning the two great cables is begun from then on the Golden Gate is steadily brid Wire by wire the Workman of the cable contractor stitched the North and South Shores together with 880,000 M of wire each wire measures just under 1/5 of an inch in diameter slightly smaller than a lead pencil spinning carriages shuttle from Anchorage to midspan playing out as many as six wires on each [Music] trip the cables when completed will weigh 22,000 tons a piece it's interesting to note that each cable weighs approximately as much as each Tower [Music] the wires 27,578 of them per cable build up to a compacted cable slightly over 3 ft in diameter later as the roadway takes shape the cables will be wrapped with galvanized wire and painted to protect them against the [Music] elements the spinning of the cables is completed in May of 1936 Bethlehem builder of the towers begins erecting the suspended span on June [Music] 18th the engineering problems in erecting the roadway were challenging the main span was the longest ever attempted 4,200 ft from Tower to Tower with side spans of 1125 ft as every engineer knows there was the delicate problem of making sure that the two sections of roadway moving out from each Tower would meet at the center within exacting tolerances the entire span would be constructed from elementary structural forms the stiffening truss panels would consist of top and bottom cords diagonals and verticals the verticals are spaced at 25 ft intervals suspender strands occur at every other vertical the truss measures 28 ft [Music] deep the roadway floor beams are 8 and 1/2 ft deep 87 ft long and weigh on the average 23 tons each generally speaking the floor beams occur at each vertical in the stiffening trusses roadway stringers at top the floor beams carry the 60t roadway knee braces tie in the floor beams and bottom [Music] cords the summer of 1936 sees the first three panels erected by caling each way from The Towers Chicago booms at the roadway level handle the steel for this work one of the unique features of job is the emphasis placed on safety as the roadway moves outward from each Tower a manila rope safety net is introduced assembled first at water level the net and its frame are lifted to position beneath the [Music] span as erection proceeds additional sections of net will be positioned always in advance of the workmen eventually the net will extend the entire length of the bridge also the net reaches some 10 ft beyond the width of the span on each side as erection proceeds the first three panels of roadway are planked over the steel work is delivered from Alam to the base of the towers then hoisted to this planked over area from there the steel members move out on a buggy to the point of construction [Music] after the first three panels are planked over the balance of the span erection is handled by traveler Derek in the erection of the trusses two 25- ft panels are Catal levered forward assembled piece by piece the first vertical is joined to the projecting bottom cord [Music] the diagonals are then erected followed by the top [Music] cord and so the span progresses moving out trust by trust in four directions to maintain equal loading on the cables and [Music] Towers when each set of two trust panels is connected to the suspenders the floor beams are swung into place these will be followed by reinforcing laterals and some of the roadway [Music] stringers the next proves to be a success it saves 19 lives there are many special Provisions for the safety of the men during erection for example for protection against head injuries the workmen wear hard [Music] hats and whenever they can work with limited movement the men use safety belts with tie off lines [Music] by fall of 1936 residents of San Francisco are treated to the sight of a span which moves steadily closer to the day when the two halves will [Music] meet the partial loading of cables and Towers gives the span an unnatural curvature it looks as though the main span will meet at a peak Bethlehem and the cable contractor work together to control the cable curvature and saddle [Music] movements soon the erection gangs on the main span are within hailing distance then then the safety nets meet finally on November 18th 1936 the closing members are lowered into place the Golden Gate is [Music] bridged for chief engineer Joseph Strauss and for every engineer who has contributed to the work this is a day of realization the type of day which fulfills the life of an engineer first as a dream then as a magnificent [Music] accomplishment but the job is far from over painters apply the final coat a special color prepared for this bridge International orange by name the buggies bring out fabricated sections for the sidewalks and railings these items and the balance of the roadway stringers are erected as the traveler Dereks work their way back to the [Music] towers Bethlehem Steel's role in building the bridge is coming to an end a role that invol the fabrication and erection of close to 70,000 tons of steel work when the Dereck and other structural tools are removed the paving contractor installs and welds the reinforcing steel for the concrete roadway this web of Steel will transmit traffic loads to the stringers [Music] fog makes one of its regular visits as the finishing touches are added to the bridge creating a strange kind of beauty [Music] and so the work is completed the bridge that pessimists said could not be built has been built May 28th 1937 opening day [Music] newspaper accounts vary on the amount of celebrating done by San Francisco some say 4 days some say a week it was a celebration worthy of the bridge the fact that men who never saw a blueprint or drove a rivet were so deeply proud of the accomplishment proved that all men are Builders at heart conquerors of the impossible but some men the engineers earn and cherish the privilege of doing the dreaming the planning the building it was such men who designed and built the Golden Gate Bridge [Music] all [Music]