RESEARCH

Golden Gate Bridge

The Golden Gate Bridge golden is a suspension bridge (a suspension bridge is a bridge in which the deck is
hung below in suspension cables on vertical suspenders) spanning the Golden Gate (The Golden Gate is a strait
on the west coast of North America that connects San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. It is defined by the
San Francisco Peninsula and the Marin Peninsula, and, since 1937, has been spanned by the Golden Gate
Bridge.), the one-mile-wide (1.6 km) strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The ocean
structure links the American city of San Francisco, California – the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula –
to Marin County. The bridge is one of the most internationally recognized how international symbols of San
Francisco, California, and the United States. It has been declared one of the Wonders of the Modern World by
the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The Frommer's travel guide describes 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 the longest and the tallest
suspension bridge in the world, with a main span of 4,200 feet (1,280 m) and a total height of 746 feet (227
m).

During the last Ice Age, when sea level was several hundred feet lower, the waters of the glacier-fed
Sacramento River and the San Joaquin River scoured a deep channel through the bedrock on their way to the
ocean. (A similar process created the undersea Hudson Canyon off the coast of New York and New Jersey.) The
strait is well known today for its depth and powerful tidal currents from the Pacific Ocean. Many small
whirlpools can form in its waters. With its strong currents, rocky reefs and fog, the Golden Gate is the site of
over 100 shipwrecks.

BUMBLEBEE BLEH
The Golden Gate Bridge’s iconic “International Orange” paint job was a bit of a happy accident. If the United
States Navy got its way, the landmark stretch of infrastructure would look like a bumble bee. That would’ve
been just sad.

The black-and-yellow stripe colour scheme, of course, was a design that emphasized practicality and visibility.
Since it’s built out of a steel alloy, the Golden Gate Bridge needed a sturdy paint job in order to protect it from
rust and corrosion. The salty air and characteristic San Francisco fog made these problems worse. The fog
raised the visibility concern. The last thing anyone wanted was for a tall ship to crash into the $35 million
bridge, taking out cars and pedestrians in the process.

So, during construction in the 1930s, the War Department got involved. The military initially objected to the
bridge altogether for fear that Navy ships would get stuck in the Bay if the bridge collapsed, due to tall ship or
bombers or otherwise. Once it had been dissuaded, the Navy proposed the bumble bee design. This was just a
few years after the dawn of “dazzle” camouflage, an avant-garde design practice intended to hide things—
even massive ships—in plain sight.

The Army Air Corp also favoured the dazzle-inspired approach and proposed a red-and-white stripe colour
scheme. In conclusion, the military either wanted the Golden Gate Bridge to look like a bumble bee or a candy
cane.

Thankfully this didn’t happen. When the steel beams arrived at the bridge construction site, they’d already
been painted with an international orange-coloured primer. The original plan was to paint over the primer
with a black or grey or (God forbid) military-order dazzle design. Consulting architect Irving Morrow wrote a
lengthy “Report on Colour and Lighting” that analysed every aspect of the bridge’s appearance. Ultimately,
Morrow decided that the international orange looked pretty good. The reddish hue provided a pleasing
contrast between the bright blue California sky as well as the golden hills on either shore. Most importantly,
the colour was bright enough to stand out in the fog.

And so, the international orange primer stayed. It’s refreshed on a perpetual basis to ensure that the bridge’s
steel stays protected. Every piece of the bridge gets a fresh coat of paint every 20 years or so, though painters
are constantly painting due to the sheer size of the landmark. By 1990, the original lead-based paint had been
completely replaced by zinc-based paint. As the bridge’s website explains:

The zinc protects the steel, because zinc corrodes more easily than steel. Zinc serves as a sacrificial metal, so
the steel does not rust when zinc is present. On top of that zinc primer is a top coat of paint in the Golden Gate
Bridge’s signature colour called International Orange.

The formula for international orange is no secret. The specific CMYK formula and colour codes are published
on the bridge’s website. You can also buy a close approximation off-the-shelf from Sherwin Williams. It’s called
“Fireweed”—a name that’s frankly a little more fun than international orange. It’s certainly better than
“Bumble Bee” ever would’ve been.

A ”dazzle” ship in 1918

If you haven't seen them before, you've now seen at least one picture of the Golden Gate Bridge enveloped in
fog, but you may not have realized just how much of an impact the bridge has on the weather right around it.
According to Tom Andrade, maintenance superintendent for the bridge (via The New York Times), several
microclimates exist along the bridge. Temperatures can vary up to 20 degrees between one end and the other,
and the difference between the bridge's surface and underside is even greater. He says even in the middle of
summer, workers painting the underside of the bridge can expect to have trouble with their equipment
freezing.

The Golden Gate Bridge Highway & Transportation District says the bridge changes the way fog moves, too.
When it hits the bridge, it can build up an area of such high pressure that the fog is squished to the ground in a
blanket that puts London's fog to shame. If you'd like to find out more about that fog, you could always ask …
him? His Twitter handle is @KarlTheFog.
Californians spent the summer of 1985 locking their doors as a hopeful protection against the serial killer and
rapist the press dubbed the Night Stalker. Richard Ramirez was put away four years later (and died in 2010 of
natural causes, according to CNN), but the investigation into his crimes was marred by a bizarre oopsie.

Dianne Feinstein was San Francisco mayor at the time, and she held a press conference on August 23, 1985,
only days after the murder of a 69-year-old man in Lake Merced. She showed off a composite sketch of the
Night Stalker, and went on to do what every cop show and crime drama says you should never do: tell the
public about all the evidence the police had collected. That included ballistics information on the gun he was
using and details about his distinctive size 11.5 Avia sneakers.

Law enforcement was outraged, and SF Weekly says Ramirez chose the Golden Gate Bridge to dispose of some
of that evidence. He kept the gun, but walked to the middle of the bridge and threw away the sneakers that
could have helped identify him.
We're sorry to have to tell you that the Golden Gate Bridge has succeeded where so many of us have
constantly and relentlessly failed: with weight loss.

According to the Golden Gate Bridge Highway & Transportation District, the bridge has shed a whopping
12,300 tons over the course of the decades. When it opened, it weighed in at about 894,000 tons, and that's
including the anchorages and the approaches. As of 1986, that figure dropped to about 887,000 tons because
of a redecking project. The concrete deck was replaced by a steel plate and just 2 inches of epoxy asphalt,
dropping the weight a huge amount. If only it was that easy for the rest of us.

When your job has the potential to kill you any second of the day, you have to keep your sense of humor. The
Golden Gate Bridge Highway & Transportation District says safety measures taken during the bridge's
construction were revolutionary at the time, and some (like hard hats and headlamps) are still used today. In a
refreshing first for humanity, a safety net was even installed under the bridge during construction. It saved the
lives of 19 men, who celebrated by forming the Halfway to Hell Club.

The charter member was Al Zampa, but his survival is a pretty hairy story (via the Al Zampa Memorial Bridge
Foundation). He slipped on a wet iron girder and hit the net … which then hit the rocky ground beneath it. He
broke four vertebrae and spent the next two years wearing a back brace, but you know what else he did? He
went back and walked a bare girder on the Golden Gate Bridge, just to prove it hadn't gotten the better of
him. During the bridge's 50th anniversary, reporters quoted him as saying, "I always say it takes 90 percent
guts and 10 percent know-how."

Grand Canyon
 It is in the US state of Arizona, which is in the south of the US, near the well-known state
California.

The Grand Canyon is approximately 277 miles in length. And some points of the canyon stretch to
18 miles wide. The Grand Canyon is around 1800 metres deep.

The Colorado river runs through the Grand Canyon. This river has cut into the rock over millions
of years of years making the canyon deeper and changing its landscape. To this day, the Grand
Canyon is still growing, as a result of the Colorado river running through it.

Some of the most ancient rocks lie at the very bottom of the Grand Canyon, some are as old as 2
billion years old. While some of the ‘younger’ rock, still 230 million years old, lie om the upper rim
of the Canyon.

Interestingly, American Indians have been living in and around the canyon for thousands of years,
despite its hot, arid climate. The Grand Canyon is actually home to a small town, named Supai
Village, it’s part of some of the most remote towns in the US with around 200 people inhabiting it.
In fact, it’s so remote that the residents’ mail is delivered by donkey! Crazy right!

In 1919, the Grand Canyon became a national park, meaning it is open for the public to explore
and for them to discover one of the so-called seven wonders of the natural world. It has become
an extremely popular tourist attraction with around 5.9 million visitors coming to the Arizona state
each year.

Yosemite

Yosemite is a mountain range in North America and is home to the largest waterfalls in the continent. It was
formed by glaciers, nearly 20,000 years ago and is now a natural reserve due to over 160 rare plants taking up
residence there. Its tallest mountain is Mount Whitney, at 4,421m above sea level but its most famous
mountain is Mt. Half Dome. Half Dome is 2694m tall and is a glacial arête, shaped like half a dome, and some
people can even see a face in the rock. It was first climbed in 1875 and used to be on the 25 cents stamp. In
fact, nowadays, the mountain can be found in the top right-hand corner of Californian licence plates. Half
Dome was originally called “Tis-sa-ack”, which could have multiple meanings. In the language of the
Ahwahnechee people, it means Cleft Rock, but in another native language, it could be the name of a mother,
and it is supposedly her face which is seen in the rock. It could also be pronounced “Tis-se’-yak”, which means
“face of a young woman stained with tears”, as the drainage tracks on the rock make the face look like it’s
crying. Furthermore, the entire range has some interesting etymology. Yosemite means “killer” in Miwock (a
native American language), but some people also think that the mountain range was named after a renegade
tribe that was driven out of the area by North American settlers.

Death Valley
Death Valley is a desert valley located in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert bordering the Great
Basin Desert. It contains some of North America’s most inhospitable terrain, with extreme heat that has left this
desert area strangely beautiful. Salt fields, dry parched land, sand dunes, mountains, and a lake that lies below
sea level create a unique landscape in this remote valley. Death Valley is about 225 kilometres (140 miles) long,
trends roughly north-south, and is from 8 to 24 kilometres (5 to 15 miles) wide. It has an area of about 7,800
square kilometres (3,000 square miles). Wildflowers, watered by snowmelt, carpet the desert floor each spring,
continuing into June. Animal life includes bighorn sheep, red-tailed hawks, coyotes, and wild burros. Salt Creek,
a mile-long shallow depression in the centre of the valley, supports pupfish. Death Valley has over 600 springs
and ponds. Darwin Falls, on the western edge of Death Valley Monument, falls 30 meters (100 feet) into a large
pond surrounded by willows and cottonwood trees. Over 80 species of birds have been spotted around the pond.
Death valley can be dangerously cold during winter months, storms in mountains can produce sudden flooding
on the floor of the valley. Death valley was given its name by a group of lost pioneers in the winter of 1849-
1850.`