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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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TGT I agree. Your point really becomes clear watching the old tech movies on the making of this beauty. American Bridge is still in business though, but gone from LA. They built the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge just a couple of years earlier.
However the contracts for the four-year project to build the GGB went as follows. All ten prime contractors are no longer in business:
The fabricated steel used in the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge was manufactured by Bethlehem Steel in plants in Trenton, New Jersey and Sparrows Point, Maryland and in plants in three Pennsylvania towns: Bethlehem, Pottstown, and Steelton. The steel was loaded, in sections, onto rail cars, taken to Philadelphia and shipped through the Panama Canal to San Francisco. The shipment of the steel was timed to coincide with the construction of the bridge.
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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Every time I drive through San Francisco, I stop and walk across the bridge and back.
Free parking. Free admission. Best deal in San Francisco.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Chaz, is this the same Dobie?
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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Yup. Same one.
She gets around.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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She is extremely cool!
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Unfortunately for us the GGB has the added connotation of suicide--- after all there are so many of them off of it, the first a mere 10 weeks after completion in 1937. In fact, it is the most popular place in the world to give up. Most victims choose the bay side of the bridge. They fall for 4 seconds hitting the water around 87 miles per hour, entering the 47-F degree water. The channel below can be as deep as 360 feet. While it was being built only 11 died working those 4 years.
By 2005 apparently there were more than 1200 recorded jumpers, averaging two a month during that year. But these figures are acknowledged not to be precise as a very sizable number more jumps go unwitnessed. As well, in 2006 apparently the CHP was able to stop another 70 individuals. The uncertainty in the counting process is underlined by occasionally abandoned rental cars with no person acccounted for as well as recovered bodies in the water but no witnesses of a jump, as well as other evidence found elsewhere. And of course even witnessed jumps may not result in recovered bodies as the current can be tremendous down there--- 8 knots at time; bodies when found are often no where near the bridge itself but miles away. Fatality is apparently 98%, although with the difficulty in really counting events, it probably is even higher. By 2006 only 26 had survived; they usually entered the water feet down and slightly angled. One incredible incident in 1979, a young man not only survived the plunge but then swam to shore and drove himself to a hospital....he had several cracked vertebrae though.
Eric Steel did a documentary called “The Bridge”; it quite good and shown on PBS. They spent a whole year, 2004, filming the bridge from a bunch of spots and did get 23 jumps plus some aborted ones. It goes on to detail the situation for the family members of the victims. Also they managed to get Kevin Hines’ interview--- he survived a jump in 2000 and spends time now as a big proponent for the barrier system which is now supposed to go in maybe if money holds out. It will be a plastic-coated stainless steel rope net below the bridge, kind of a trampoline affair. Its construction price will be something like $50 million, design 10% of that. The view won’t be obscured for walkers and drivers.
For those of us who drive the Bridge a bunch as I do, the Doyle Drive Federal Improvement Project now underway is planned to end in 2013; it is an intense project by the way and we have quite a long time still for the craziness of it to end. It will be a toll road, by the way..
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Chaz, can one fly a kite (legally) off the bridge? If so, might provide some cool photos, though with high risk of camera loss or damage due to all the obstacles and entanglements.
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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Such a neat place. It's tough to imagine not being at least tempoarily cheered up while walking on the bridge.
It seems every bridge has that problem. Someone hopped off the Deception Pass Bridge this summer while I was visiting my folks, and that bridge is about tied with the Golden Gate Bridge for scenic beauty.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Mighty Anders, that thing is under Homeland Security; they have a big interest in it. Not a play zone as far as they might be concerned. All the national icons are part of their focus.
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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Anders,
I'm not aware of any regulation that would prohibit flying a kite off the bridge, assuming it could be done safely ( or at least without looking dangerous ).
Some of the kite guys have shots of the Golden Gate Bridge ( though not from actually on the bridge ):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kap_cris/2314183258/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21073721@N02/3863394685/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/50728930@N02/4972746389/
( these are NOT my photos, they were taken by others )
You have me thinking about possibly flying a camera from the bridge itself. The big cable drops damn close to the roadway in the exact center of the span. I'll bet I could launch a kite over it there without too much trouble.
My usual photo-kite, the nine-foot delta, would be my first choice - assuming I could be certain of being able to fly un-molested. But the bridge is lousy with cameras I'm sure, so I'd have to use a more compact lifter.
A small parafoil kite ( like a Flowform-8 ) and a keychain video camera ( http://www.chucklohr.com/808/ ) might just work.
If I get the camera flying quickly, I'll be able to get at least a few pictures before anyone official has time to show up and tell me to knock it off. I'll have to make double-sure I carry my book of photos with me, so I'll have a shot at being able to talk the Homeland Security guys out of taking me to jail.
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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