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History Daily

Construction Begins on the Golden Gate Bridge

History Daily

Airship | Noiser | Wondery

History

4.42.1K Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2024

⏱️ 20 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

January 5, 1933. After years of planning, construction begins on the Golden Gate Bridge, a process that proves to be challenging in its own right.


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Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:03.7

Listen with Wonder Plus in the Wonder App.

0:06.0

Or you can get all of History Daily, plus other fantastic history podcasts at

0:10.5

Into History.

0:11.5

com. It's 1936 in San Francisco.

0:14.0

It's 1936 in San Francisco.

0:24.0

Bridge builder Al-Zampa is several hundred feet in the air,

0:28.0

working on one of the towers that will eventually become the Golden Gate Bridge.

0:32.0

Today, Alan, his fellow workers are stringing up and bolting in the huge cables that will help

0:37.0

distribute the weight across the entire bridge.

0:40.3

Its slow, dangerous work involving many pairs of hands and a lot of coordination.

0:45.0

Up here in the mist, visibility is low.

0:48.0

The condensation makes everything damp and slippery, and there's no rigging to keep Al tethered to his post.

0:55.0

A sudden gust of wind could easily knock him off balance and there's little for him to grab

0:59.5

on to if that happens.

1:01.8

The only safeguard in place is a large net down at the base of the bridge, close to the rocks.

1:07.0

It stretches out 10 feet past the bridge's edge.

1:10.0

It should be able to catch anyone who has the misfortune of slipping, but with the wind, the

1:15.7

unpredictable weather and the height, that's not always a guarantee.

1:20.8

But Al understands the dangers of his job. Years of experience have made him comfortable working up high with nothing but his own hands to keep himself steady.

1:30.0

So confidently, Al moves toward the large crane being used to pull cables up to his workspace.

1:36.0

He needs to push it forward before he can complete his next task, so gingerly he steps around the crane to get a better grip.

...

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