Video: 'Colossal Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge | Modern Marvels (S2, E6) | Full Episode'

(Thursday, January 5, 1933) — Construction on the Golden Gate Bridge, a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the one-mile-wide strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean, began today as workers began excavating 3.25 million cubic feet of dirt for the structure’s huge anchorages.

The project was funded by a $35 million bond issue and by the Federal Works Progress Administration.

Initially designed in 1917, Chief Engineer Joseph Strauss introduced several safety measures for the construction workers, including head, eye, and skin protection, and a safety net below the bridge, which would save 19 men from death.

The structure would link the U.S. city of San Francisco, California — the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula — to Marin County, carrying both U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1 across the strait.

Video: 'Golden Gate Bridge | The CRAZY Engineering behind it'

It would also carry pedestrian and bicycle traffic and would be designated as part of U.S. Bicycle Route 95.

Being declared one of the Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers, the bridge would be one of the most internationally recognized symbols of San Francisco and California.

The Frommer’s travel guide would describe the Golden Gate Bridge as “possibly the most beautiful, certainly the most photographed, bridge in the world.”

At the time of its opening in 1937, it was both the longest and the tallest suspension bridge in the world, with a main span of 4,200 feet and a total height of 746 feet.