An award-winning architect explores the history and engineering of a modern marvel with “easygoing prose [and] dozens of delightfully accessible sketches” (SFGate.com). Nine million people visit the Golden Gate Bridge each year, yet how many know why it’s painted that stunning shade of “international orange”? Or that ancient Mayan and Art Deco buildings influenced the design? Current bridge architect Donald MacDonald answers these questions and others in a friendly, informative look at the bridge’s engineering and seventy-year history. This accessible account is accompanied by seventy of MacDonald’s own charming color illustrations, making it easy to understand how the bridge was designed and constructed. A fascinating study for those interested in architecture, design, or anyone with a soft spot for San Francisco, Golden Gate Bridge is a fitting tribute to this timeless icon.
A passionate chronicle of the Golden Gate Bridge's construction by a National Humanities Medal-winning historian reveals influences from culture and nature that shaped its development while offering insight into its role as a national symbol of American engineering and innovation.
“John van der Zee has... mastered the technical details of [his] subject... [he has] used [his] talents as writer... to narrate not only the technical but also the human drama involved in bringing the concept of a great bridge to fruition. Engineering projects necessarily involve a large cast of characters, and van der Zee has portrayed his as deftly as a novelist might. The engineers in this book come alive as people, with all the faults and foibles associated with the human species. The story of the Golden Gate Bridge is principally the story of its chief engineer, Joseph Strauss, and he is both hero and villain of the piece... Strauss claimed he could build a bridge for under $25 million, and in 1921 produced an ungainly design that was priced at $17 million. The next lowest estimate was still four or five times as high... How Strauss’s ugly duckling evolved into the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge is a fascinating tale. It is complete with revelations about how Charles Ellis, a classics scholar and self-taught bridge engineer, really translated Strauss’s conceptual design into an engineering reality. The falling out between Strauss and Ellis, resulting in the latter being denied any official credit for his work on the bridge, was true tragedy... the history of the bridge itself... is a case study of personal and technological adventure bordering on hubris... John van der Zee has captured all of this in a fascinating book that shows that the best of cutting-edge engineering is much, much more than science and technology.” — Nature “John van der Zee tells the story of the [Golden Gate Bridge’s] creation, and while its realization was a complicated act of finance, politics and architecture, it was, above all, a masterpiece of engineering. Until The Gate... the authorship of its structural design was obscured by the practice — still common among many design firms — of attributing credit to the head of the firm responsible for the project... Joseph Strauss... But the book — organized like a whodunit — reveals that neither Strauss nor the famous New York engineers who worked as consultants really engineered the bridge... The book is not only a tribute to what the author calls ‘a democratic masterpiece.’ It also sets the record straight: it was Ellis who did it.“ — The New York Times “[A]n impressively researched, carefully crafted biography of the [Golden Gate] bridge and the ambitious men who built it. Two strong personalities dominate this tale: Michael O’Shaughnessy, City Engineer of S.F. who rebuilt the city after the earthquake of 1912 and who long dreamed of bridging the Golden Gate, and Joseph Strauss, the ambitious engineer who designed the standard form of drawbridge. In a propaganda struggle that lasted for more than a decade and which is presented in all its fascinating minutiae by van der Zee, the two slowly persuaded the city that a Golden Gate bridge was feasible mechanically and financially... van der Zee re-creates the grueling, Herculean task of construction... does a commendable job of vivifying the story of the bridge.” — Kirkus
The Gate is an absorbing panoramic account of the building of one of the world's most beautiful and famous landmarks. In a narrative richly laden with detail and the flavor of the period, John van der Zee reveals for the first time the complete history of the longest single-span suspension bridge of its time-including the identity of the man who actually designed it, which has been obscured since its completion in 1937. With novelistic flair, van der Zee recounts an exciting drama of human greed, ambition, frailty, courage, and intellectual achievement. "It is among the top books on California I have ever read."-Kevin Starr, State Librarian of California and author of Americans and the California Dream "A case study of personal and technological adventure bordering on hubris...The engineers in this bok come alive as people, with all the faults and foibles associated iwth the human species. A fascinating work that shows that the best of cutting-edge engineering is much, much more than science and technology."-Henri Petroski, Nature
The Golden Gate Bridge is a marvel of engineering and architecture considered by many to be one of the world’s most beautiful bridges, its picturesque vistas favored by photographers, artists, visitors to San Francisco, and almost everyone else. When naysayers said it couldn’t be built, Joseph Strauss and a team of visionaries spun 80,000 miles of wire and riveted nearly 900,000 tons of steel into gossamer wings, spanning for the first time an immense gulf and linking the Pacific coast. In black-and-white photography, Historic Photos of the Golden Gate Bridge details the history of the bridge from its design and construction to recent times. Nearly 200 rarely seen images offer a compelling look at the bridge, from the days when the treacherous currents of the Golden Gate could be crossed only by boat to the rise of the bridge as a national landmark. This book is sure to delight both those who dream of the impossible and those who live to make it happen.
Silver Award Winner, 2016 Nautilus Book Award in Young Adult (YA) Non-Fiction Moving beyond the familiar accounts of politics and the achievements of celebrity engineers and designers, Building the Golden Gate Bridge is the first book to primarily feature the voices of the workers themselves. This is the story of survivors who vividly recall the hardships, hazards, and victories of constructing the landmark span during the Great Depression. Labor historian Harvey Schwartz has compiled oral histories of nine workers who helped build the celebrated bridge. Their powerful recollections chronicle the technical details of construction, the grueling physical conditions they endured, the small pleasures they enjoyed, and the gruesome accidents some workers suffered. The result is an evocation of working-class life and culture in a bygone era. Most of the bridge builders were men of European descent, many of them the sons of immigrants. Schwartz also interviewed women: two nurses who cared for the injured and tolerated their antics, the wife of one 1930s builder, and an African American ironworker who toiled on the bridge in later years. These powerful stories are accompanied by stunning photographs of the bridge under construction. An homage to both the American worker and the quintessential San Francisco landmark, Building the Golden Gate Bridge expands our understanding of Depression-era labor and California history and makes a unique contribution to the literature of this iconic span.
A “witty [and] compelling” true story for kids about San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge—and why it’s orange—by the New York Times–bestselling author! (Fast Company). In this delightfully original nonfiction book, National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist Dave Eggers tackles one of the most famous architectural monuments in the world: the Golden Gate Bridge—and all the arguments and debates about building it and what it should look like. Cut-paper illustrations by Tucker Nichols enliven the tale, and this revised edition also includes real-life letters from local constituents making the case for keeping the bridge orange. With sly humor and lots of fascinating historical facts, this is an accessible, enjoyable read for kids (or adults), transporting readers to the glorious Golden Gate no matter where they live. “Eggers’s featherlight humor provides laughs throughout.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review). “A love letter to infrastructure.” —The New York Times “A story compelling enough to keep adults interested as they read it (and re-read it and re-read it) each night at bedtime.” —Fast Company
The Golden Gate Bridge is one of the most beautiful and most photographed structures in the world. It’s also the most deadly. Since it opened in 1937, more than 1,500 people have died jumping off the bridge, making it the top suicide site on earth. It’s also the only international landmark without a suicide barrier. Weaving drama, tragedy, and politics against the backdrop of a world-famous city, The Final Leap is the first book ever written about Golden Gate Bridge suicides. John Bateson leads us on a fascinating journey that uncovers the reasons for the design decision that led to so many deaths, provides insight into the phenomenon of suicide, and examines arguments for and against a suicide barrier. He tells the stories of those who have died, the few who have survived, and those who have been affected—from loving families to the Coast Guard, from the coroner to suicide prevention advocates.
The Cooper River Bridge opened in 1929, and for the first time connected Charleston directly to the north. This volume is a complete history of the bridge, exploring how early 20th-century Charleston helped shape the bridge, and how the bridge subsequently shaped the city.
