For some with apartments in San Francisco, the Bay Area is the perfect place to live. It is close to everything imaginable. You can easily get to stylish restaurants. There are wonderful pubs such as the Iron Springs Pub and Brewery as well as Marin Brewery and Moylan’s Brewery, to name a few. Yet, undoubtedly the major attraction for living near the San Francisco Bay Area is the monumentally unforgettable Golden Gate Bridge.
A Brief History
On May 27, 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge opened for foot traffic. The following date, vehicles were allowed to go across the Bay. The completion of the bridge after 4 years destroyed the myth that such a construction feat could never been done. It had been accomplished through the efforts of three men and their brave construction workers.
From the beginning, in spite of opposition, Joseph Baermann Strauss (January 9, 1870 – May 16, 1938) was convinced of the viability of such a project. He knew that the wire rope manufactured by John A. Roebling’s Sons Co. in New Jersey was capable of handling the task demanded of it. It only demanded the skills of good engineers to make the bridge a reality, strong steel and hard, skilled workers to make the dream a reality.
Strauss came up with the first design. It was practical but not aesthetically pleasing. It was rejected but the art deco design put forth by Irving Morrow (1884–1952), an architect who began to work with Strauss, was accepted. The addition of another engineer, Charles Alton Ellis (1876–1949), made it possible to begin.
Safety First
While people watched from apartments in the San Francisco Bay Area, the project moved along. What was particularly astounding was not the speed of construction but how few accidents occurred. Strauss, for all his flaws and grievances, was insistent on safety on the site. He insisted on daily sobriety tests, hard hats and a safety net which he had suspended beneath the bridge deck. The result was an impressive safety record. The net alone saved 19 men. They declared themselves members of the Halfway to Hell Club.
If you are looking at apartments in the San Francisco Bay Area, chances are you want to be able to catch a glimpse of the famous landmark – the Golden Gate Bridge. In the past, it marked the start of a new era in San Francisco transportation history. Today, it continues to play a role as a major route.
