In January of 1933 construction began on San Francisco‘s Golden Gate Bridge. It was opened to the public for the first time for “Pedestrian Day,” just a little over 4 years later in May of 1937.
More than 200,000 people paid twenty-five cents each to walk the bridge. The following day at noon President Franklin Roosevelt, from the White House, pressed a telegraph key and the Golden Gate Bridge was officially opened for vehicular use.
Joseph Baermann Strauss, bridge designer and a long-time advocate for the project, was selected as the Golden Gate’s chief engineer. Strauss instituted unprecedented safety measures including an early version of the hard hat and a safety net that stretched end-to-end under the bridge. While eleven workers died during the course of the project, nineteen others whose falls were broken by the net became known as the “Half-Way-to-Hell Club.”
http://goldengatebridge.org/research/CheatingDeath.php
http://goldengatebridge.org/research/facts.php
