The Golden Gate Bridge

By: Albert Bloom

I chose the Golden Gate Bridge as my famous structure because I knew I would enjoy learning about it and it would be a great topic to research. It is located in San Francisco.

My structure is unique in many ways. One way is instead of making an arc bridge they made a suspension bridge. That especially makes it unique because in San Francisco they have a-lot of dynamic loads such as wind, earthquakes, rain and the waves from the water. and the bridge sustained all the dynamic loads. It has cables that go vertical and horizontal. The vertical cables attach onto the road and then onto the horizontal cables. The horizontal cables connect to the two towers and then onto a huge cement anchor that’s in the ground. When a live load goes on the bridge all the tension goes though the cables and onto the tower. The towers are cemented into the ground. The materials they used were steel and concrete. They are now refurbishing old and rusted pieces with new ones because experts believe that in 30-35 years San Francisco will have a huge earthquake bigger then anyone they had on a recent record. They are now trying to make the bridge withstand a 8.3 magnitude earthquake on the Richter scale. The Golden Gate Bridge is a combination structure of a frame structure and a solid structure. It is a frame structure because a frame structure uses network of parts that support loads and the cables support the towers support the cables. It is also a solid structure because a solid structure is an object that uses solid construction to support loads and the tower supports the cables.

The purpose of the structure is to transport people and things from San Francisco to Marin County without using a boat and to make transportation faster. It is an effective form because of how it is supported by cables and its all connected in someway so it all supports each other. The form could be approved by replacing old pieces which they are doing now and making more towers under the bridge to give it more support. They could also make more cables to give it more support.My structure relates to social because one of the most important reason they built it is because they needed a faster way to transport people and cargo to the other side of the bay so they decided to build a bridge to make transportation faster. This also relates to social because before they had a bridge it was a big problem to cross to the other side because it was always very ruff on the water and very foggy. This also relates to social because the Golden Gate Bridge is a big part of San Francisco and it is their city’s symbol. My structure also relates to economics because the government needed pay a-lot of money and hire a-lot of people to make the bridge come to life.

Fun Facts• The total length is 1.7 miles long.• The width is 27 meters.• The total weight is 894,500 tons• The total cost was 27 million dollars to build the

bridge• The average amount of people crossing a year is

41 million.• There is 80 000 miles of wire in the main 2

cables.

BibliographyLamb, Robert and Morrissey Micheal “How Bridges Work” NP. October 30, 2008 http://science.howstuffworks.com/engineering/civil/bridge6.htm Web. January 20, 2012

Malloy, Betsy “Golden Gate Bridge Facts” NP December, 2010 http://gocalifornia.about.com/cs/sanfrancisco/a/ggbridge_3.htmWeb. January 20, 2010

Mega structures The Golden Gate Bridge National geographic Video March 2, 2005