It is possible to bridge San Francisco Bay at various points. But at only one point can such an enterprise be of universal advantage -- at the water gap, the Golden Gate, giving a continuous dry-shod passage around the entire circuit of our inland sea. 

-- James Wilkins San Francisco Bulletin, 1916.

When it opened, the Golden Gate Bridge was lauded as having the longest single clear span in the world. At four-fifths of a mile it was three times longer than the Brooklyn Bridge and 700 feet longer than the newly opened George Washington Bridge. The 4,200-foot center span is sandwiched between two side spans of 1,125 feet. The bridge is 90 feet wide. The towers are 121 feet wide at the bottom and rise to a height of 750 feet above the swirling waters of San Francisco Bay. 

Before 1933 | 1933-34
1935-37 | 1940s | 1968 | Today