Construction Drive
When one thinks of San Francisco, it’s likely that several images come to mind — foggy, hilly streets; Alcatraz Island; Chinatown and Fisherman’s Wharf, just to name a few. However, there is perhaps no image more iconic that that of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Once the longest span in the world, the orange, 8,981-foot-long bridge first opened in May of 1937 after four years of construction worth $27 million, which would total significantly more than $1 billion if it had to be built today.
The bridge project was also a safe one, losing only one worker in 1936 until a scaffold collapse took the lives of 10 more a few months before the bridge was complete and open to the public. In fact, at a time when one death per $1 million of construction work was the accepted norm on a project of its size, the Golden Gate Bridge was a record-setter in the safety arena, largely due to a movable safety net installed under active work areas.
