O
STRAUSS PLAZA
n the south side, visitors from countries all over the world savor stunning views of the bridge set against Marin County’s rolling hills. Nearby at the new visitor pavilion
and renovated Roundhouse, you can check out interpretive exhib- its and photographs, and peruse an expanded gift shop with bridge- themed books, puzzles, T-shirts, tote bags, and men’s ties. The bronze statue in the center of the plaza depicts Joseph Strauss, the bridge’s founding engineer. Though Strauss was a relentless and canny campaigner, another engineer—Chicagoan Charles Ellis—is now believed to have contributed greatly to the final suspension design. Still others (including John Eberson, a theater architect and designer of sumptuous movie palaces) gave the bridge its art deco styling. “Strauss’s strength was never as a designer,” says Mary Currie, the public affairs director for the bridge. “But he was persuasive and persistent, able to lure the brightest engineers and designers in the business to the project, and get done what many said was impossible.” A slice of a main cable is on display near the Strauss statue. The
cross section, about a yard in diameter, is made up of 27,572 per- fectly aligned, individual steel wires, each the thickness of a pencil. To avoid the parking headaches at the plaza, take a No. 28 Muni bus in San Francisco. Or park anywhere along Crissy Field and walk up the short, stairstep path that starts near the Warming Hut, a popular bayside joint serving coffee and sandwiches.
FORT POINT S
trauss faced a problem. Directly beneath the span on the San Francisco side sat a Civil War–era fort that he loved. The solution? Adding an arch that
reached over the brick citadel instead of squashing it. To make that happen, a large concrete pier was built 1,100 feet offshore amid a tidal tor- rent. Hard-hat divers working in 100 feet of water, wearing bulky rub- ber and canvas suits, said they could barely see their hands in the murky swirl as they hurried between tides to lay explosives and level the ocean floor. Their preparations created a base sturdy enough to support the span’s southern foot. Inside the fort today you can see
photos of those diving suits and read news clippings from the period. A video includes interviews with iron- workers. “It was a riveter’s paradise,”
28 MAY+JUNE 2012 I
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the narrator says, alluding to the more than 600,000 rivets in each tower. Climb the steep spiral staircase to the top of the fort to hear the foghorns’ reverberating blasts and admire the riveted orange latticework that sup- ports the road just overhead.
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