An Engineered Wonder of the World

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An Engineered Wonder of the World
"This bridge needs neither praise, eulogy nor encomium. It speaks for itself. We who have labored long are grateful. What Nature rent asunder long ago, man has joined today." This is a quote from Joseph Strauss, the engineer that designed the Golden Gate Bridge. The Golden Gate Bridge is truly a piece of engineering excellence. It stretches for almost 9,000 feet over the San Francisco Bay, in San Francisco, California. The bridge has faced many problems during the designing process, construction, and even to this day it produces controversy. The final result of the bridge, however, is an amazing engineering feat that will be around for a long time.
To begin, in 1916, James H. Wilkins had the idea to connect the San Francisco Peninsula to the rest of Northern California. After eight years, the United States War Department approved the project for the bridge. Another four years passed, and Joseph Strauss is named the designer for this new bridge (“Golden Gate Bridge Fast Facts”). In brief, Joseph Strauss was a structural engineer who studied at the University of Cincinnati. Strauss had already constructed hundreds of drawbridges, but he wished to build, "the biggest thing of its kind that a man could build." Therefore, when Strauss was approached to design a bridge that would span over the Golden Gate Strait, he was very excited (“American Experience”). Originally, Strauss wanted the bridge to be a cantilever-suspension hybrid design. However, this design was not immediately accepted. During a four year span between 1925 and 1929, and through many consultations with the Advisory board of engineers, the bridge revised to solely a suspension bridge. The main reason for this is likely Leon Moisseiff...

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...icanexperience/features/biography/goldengate-strauss/>.
Bateson, John. "The Suicide Magnet That Is the Golden Gate Bridge." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 29 Sept. 2013. Web. 04 Apr. 2014. .
" Construction Timeline Golden Gate Bridge" . Web. 04 Apr. 2014. .
" Golden Gate Bridge Design" . Web. 04 Apr. 2014. .
"Golden Gate Bridge Fast Facts." CNN. Cable News Network, 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 04 Apr. 2014. .
Lamb, Robert, and Michael Morrissey. "How Bridges Work." HowStuffWorks. HowStuffWorks.com, 01 Apr. 2000. Web. 04 Apr. 2014. .

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