Who paid to build the Golden Gate Bridge?

The Golden Gate Bridge was constructed using a $35 million bond, well below early construction es- timates of up to $100 million, due to ingenuity on the part of chief engineer Joseph Strauss and his team. The bond issue was supported by San Francisco-based Bank of America.



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5 Fun Facts About the Golden Gate Bridge
  • The bridge is actually not golden at all! It's a bright red-orange.
  • It was named one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.
  • It took four years to build.
  • There are approximately 600,000 rivets in each of the bridge's towers.
  • It's the most photographed bridge in the world.


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The Golden Gate Bridge is closely monitored to make sure it does not exceed its stress limits due to traffic, wind and seismic loads. We can look forward to at least another 80 years of this engineering masterpiece.

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The original Golden Gate Bridge collapsed during an earthquake in 1906, which was later determined to be caused by exposure to winds and long-term deterioration. The Golden Gate Bridge is about 9,000 feet long (nearly two miles) and is one of the most iconic bridges in the United States.

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Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge took a total of 1,604 days or a little over 4 years and 4 1/2 months. Work began on January 5, 1933, and the Bridge opened to vehicular traffic on May 28, 1937.

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With great fanfare, people from all over the world came to pay homage to the Bridge, become part of a historical celebration and create lifelong memories. The day began as “Bridgewalk '87” reenacted “Pedestrian Day '37” and an estimated 300,000 people surged onto the roadway.

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Do you know why the Golden Gate Bridge has its iconic name? The answer might surprise you. Rather than being named for the area's association with the Gold Rush, it's actually named for the water that runs beneath it—The Golden Gate Strait.

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No, the Golden Gate Bridge is not made of gold. It is made of steel. No. It's named Golden Gate because of the 1849 gold rush.

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It cost $0.50—each way—to cross the Golden Gate Bridge in 1937. Press cars crossing the bridge prior to opening day in May 1937. The initial toll for the bridge was 50 cents each way—roughly equivalent to an $18.00 roundtrip today—a hefty price to pay in the midst of the Great Depression.

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Golden Gate Bridge makes $64,055 in a day. In a single month, Golden Gate Bridge normally makes close to $1.9M in revenue.

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Before the bridge was built, the only practical short route between San Francisco and what is now Marin County was by boat across a section of San Francisco Bay. A ferry service began as early as 1820, with a regularly scheduled service beginning in the 1840s for the purpose of transporting water to San Francisco.

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