Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge
May 27, 1937 was Pedestrian Day in San Francisco. This kicked off a week-long
celebration of the new Golden Gate Bridge. Pedestrian Day meant that the bridge was
open to foot traffic for 25 cents per person. About 200,000 people paid the fee and
crossed the 1.7-mile span in their walking shoes or on roller skates. For the first time, it
was possible to walk across the San Francisco Bay, from the northern tip of San
Francisco to the southern end of Marin County. Automobile traffic was permitted the
next day at noon.
Before the Golden Gate Bridge was constructed, San Francisco was a relatively isolated
city. It sat at the top of a peninsula, surrounded on three sides by water that was difficult
to cross. The Golden Gate itself is a narrow strip of water at the mouth of the San
Francisco Bay. With strong currents and a depth of 400 feet, the Golden Gate strait is
foreboding to sailors. On the other hand, circumnavigating the whole San Francisco Bay
has its drawbacks too: the trip is hundreds of miles long and involves crossing several
rivers, which can become shallow sand traps.
For these reasons, ferry service between San Francisco and Marin County began in 1820.
First the ferry was only for railroad passengers, but later on people could bring their
automobiles in tow. This became booming business.
When bridge proposals became serious, the ferry companies, including the Southern
Pacific Railroad Company, opposed any bridge as competition. The military also
objected to spanning the San Francisco Bay; they questioned whether the bridge would
interfere with war ships. People in general wondered about the sturdiness of a suspension
bridge, which is held by cables and strung between towers. Could such a bridge withstand
the Bays strong gusts of wind? How would the bridge remain rooted in the ocean floor?
Nonetheless, by the 1900s it was evident that ferries alone could not handle travel
demands. The citys growth would be restricted until it overcame obstacles to trading
with Northern California. In 1916 the Chicago-based engineer Joseph Strauss responded
to San Franciscos call for bridge submissions. Immediate local support mixed with
alleged bribery helped him secure support from the city council. Strauss personally
traveled north, too, to lobby Marin County council members and business people. He
assured them that once a bridge was built from San Francisco, their businesses and
property values would grow. He gained their support. By 1932, the founder of San
Francisco-based Bank of America agreed to finance the estimated $30 million project.
Work started in 1933.
The Golden Gate Bridge blueprints were improved upon since Strausss original
submission. Strauss had little experience with suspension style bridges, so he hired a
team of architects who made significant contributions. Today, the Purdue professor
Charles Ellis is widely recognized as being the main architect behind the bridge, while
Strauss is regarded as its organizer and promoter. A San Francisco architect named Irving
Morrow, who was part of Strausss team, also made important contributions. He
suggested painting the bridge a color he called international orange. This would
complement the surrounding blues and greens of nature, and simultaneously make the
bridge visible through fog. (If the bridge coloring had been left to the government or
Strauss, it would likely have been black.) Irving also designed the bridges arches to play
with light throughout the day, making the bridge especially pleasing to the eye. Electric
lighting along the cables adds to the visual appeal at night.
The project was completed within four years and under budget at $27 million. The final
project was built to withstand the Bays high winds; it can sway 27 feet and still safely
hold traffic. It has only been closed a few times since 1937 when winds reached 70 miles
per hour.
Today, ferry service continues between San Francisco and Marin County, but the Golden
Gate Bridge carries over 40 million passengers each year.
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Tag: Sand Traps
Learn the Difference between Golf Clubs
If golf is a new sport for you, carrying around 14 different golf clubs may not make sense. However, as you play the game likewise and more you will begin to see that all of the different types of golf clubs will midpoint certainly check in in meet quite often. Here I will outline some of the most important solution things that you need to understand about golf clubs. After you understand these, you can start to perfect you own ability to choose the best club to value at any point in the game. This, along with a powerful and accurate swing, is how you can begin to pay dirt more and more games.
The first type of golf club is a wood. To the contrary of what the rubric suggests, the hoi polloi are not made out of wood. Usually woods are made out of hollow metal, usually steel or titanium. They are designed to allow for the greatest distance with each stroke. Out of the 14 clubs in a standard set, the woods make up less than half. They are usually used on the long and straight portions of the golf course, since they allow for the greatest locality with semi – decent accuracy. The precision is indeed not the stark point of the woods, and usually it takes plenty of practice to be able to save the gala on a straight course. Woods are also the longest clubs sway the set.
Irons show up next, and they are used most frequently throughout the game. They are very versatile compared to the other two types of clubs, and therefore make development a larger amount of the clubs in your bag. They can still achieve fairly large distances, though not quite considering far for the woods can. Depending on which particular iron you use, you can have a much higher level of accuracy and stir up the ball a lot closer to where you demand sensible to be. There are many different kinds of irons that have selfsame specific uses, such as those that are meant to get you out of the sand traps or pop the ball up over an obstacle.
The final vein of golf club is the putter, and a standard golf movement usually only contains one of these. These are used on the putting green at the end of the course, or impact various parts of the trip that require delicate accuracy. They are meant to be the clubs with the shortest point and the highest accuracy, usually only going a few yards to the target. Balls hit with putters are not meant to fly up in the air. Moderately, they are just pushed lightly along the ground where they will roll gently to the target. Putting is arguably the most important part of the game, so material is a good idea to get a nice putter and practice a bunch with it.
These 3 types of clubs are the inauguration for the game of golf. When you begin to start recognizing when you should object a wood or an iron, that is when you are beginning to get a smother for the game. Use the golf clubs you already have until you understand the fundamentals of the game then invest in a good set of golf clubs to balm you improve your game.
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