Hello and welcome to this day, a history show from Radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avergan.

It's 50 Weeks to Shaped America, Week 17.

We are in part two of our look at the rise of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Last episode, we talked about how he changing California meant that San Francisco

wanted to do something big and bold.

We talked about how all of this was going down through the rise of the Great Depression.

We met the various designers and engineers at the heart of the project.

On this episode, the bridge goes up.

It is one of the seven modern wonders of the world, and the country

as a whole starts to build its way out of depression. So here to discuss, as always, Nicole

Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley. Hello there. Hello, Jody. Hey there.

So let me paint a scene of just before the bridge gets built in the year or two leading up to the bond being issued and construction going into place.

It is 1931.

And I mentioned, of course, this key character, Joseph Strauss, who was the sort of bridge guy, short king at the heart of all of this, the one who was really the engine behind it,

but also very much interested in being seen as the engine behind it. And then we talked

out some of the other characters who end up working their way into this story, including a man

by the name of Charles Ellis, who really was the kind of engineering brains behind all of this. But in 1931, just a year

and change before things start to get going, Strauss pushes Ellis out. He fires him. And one of the

most interesting elements to all of this is that Ellis, he's technically fired off the project.

By all counts, he continued working 70 hours per week, unpaid, and would just, like, hand over volumes and volumes of calculations. And, you know, you read Strauss's memories of this moment, and he kind of talks about, like, this guy would just not go away. That's part of why I wanted to get rid of him. He's just like a little annoying, but he keeps like doing the math and handing over stuff and getting involved on an unpaid basis. And I mean, I think part of it is just shows the passion of it all. I think part of it frankly shows that there probably weren't other jobs for engineers. Right. Well, that too. So he just works for 70 hours a week for like the last year in change before construction begins.

70 hours a week for like the last year in change before

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