Golden Gate Bridge builders ate special meals to prevent dizziness

Building the Golden Gate Bridge

1.2 million steel rivets and one helluva net

Chris Wild

1930s

Strong tides, swirling currents, deep water, strong winds and fog — engineers long argued that such conditions meant bridging the Golden Gate was either impossible or prohibitively expensive. But one engineer took a different view. Joseph Strauss was an expert in inland drawbridges, with no experience in large scale projects, yet he submitted plans for a bridge that could be built for a quarter of the generally accepted figure. He suggested it would pay for itself by tolls alone. In December 1922, Strauss' design was readily accepted by city authorities.What followed was six years of legal action led by the ferry companies, which had sole control of transport between San Francisco and Marin Country. That was their strength, but also their downfall. By 1928, traffic congestion at the ferry docks had become unmanageable. The battle was lost.Construction began on Jan. 5, 1933. Strauss, extremely safety conscious, insisted all workers wore miner's safety helmets, anti-glare goggles, safety lines, hand and face cream to protect against the wind. They even maintained a special diet to alleviate dizziness.But the most obvious safety feature was the enormous net strung under the bridge. It saved the lives of 19 men, who formed the "Halfway to Hell" club. The club had its own letterhead, featuring a smiling, reclining worker in a net. Not all were as fortunate. Eleven men died during construction — of whom, ten died in a single accident, when the piece of scaffolding they were working on fell. Caught by the net, the weight of the scaffolding caused the net to fail.The U.S. navy lobbied that the bridge be painted with black and yellow stripes to aid visibility in fog; the Army Air Corp favored a red and white stripe. When the bridge's ironwork arrived, it had been painted with a red primer to protect it from corrosion. Consulting architect Irving Morrow loved the color and proposed the bridge be painted in a similar shade, writing a 29-page report explaining his reasons.The bridge was completed ahead of schedule and $1.3 million under budget when it opened on May 27, 1937. It had the longest suspension bridge main span in the world, at 4,200 feet (1,300 meters)  a record it held for almost 30 years.