BY D E BO RA H F RA N K L I N I
WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN The Barber Pole Bridge? The Bumblebee Bridge? If the army or navy had decided the paint job, the span could have been stuck with a silly nickname.
t could so easily have gone so wrong. Early opponents of the Golden Gate Bridge derided Chief Engineer Joseph Strauss’s initial design as an “upside- down rat trap” that would desecrate
the natural beauty of San Francisco Bay. ❱ In 1933, with construction poised to begin, some
experts warned that no bridge could withstand the forbidding depths and currents of the narrow strait. Foes fi led some 2,300 lawsuits. The Great Depression spooked funders. And even after the bonds had been secured, new designers were hired, and a graceful art deco span had started to take shape, the U.S. Navy urged painting the 746-foot towers like giant bumblebees—in black and yellow stripes—for safety reasons. ❱ “The
navy thought the stripes would be more visible to ships in a heavy fog, and we get a lot of fog,” says Dennis “Rocky” Dellarocca, paint superintendent for the bridge, who has climbed the cables and inspected the towers for 27 years. The Army Air Corps preferred red
and white stripes. ❱ In the end, consulting architect Irving Morrow held sway, arguing that the orange-red primer already covering the steel would make a lovely—and highly visible—fi nal coat. On May 27, 1937, the vermilion suspension span we know today was offi cially
christened, and this year the famous bridge turns 75. ❱ To celebrate the power of this enduring landmark—and learn how to appreciate it from all the right angles—simply turn the page.
BRIDGE OF
Think you know the beloved span? There are still secrets to discover.
26 MAY+JUNE 2012 I
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