The Golden Gate Bridge

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

The picture you saw showed the Golden Gate Bridge.

This amazing bridge can be found in San Francisco, California. This lesson is all about the Golden Gate Bridge. Below, you can see the view of the bridge from the sandy shores surrounding the Golden Gate Strait.

• Are you ready to get started?

Great!

After World War One, the people of San Francisco wanted to be able to travel to their neighbors across the Golden Gate Strait. The Golden Gate Strait is the body of water found beneath the Golden Gate Bridge. The construction of the bridge would allow people to travel from the San Francisco Peninsula to Marin County.

In 1923, an engineer named Joseph Strauss was hired to start planning the construction of the bridge. The construction of the bridge began in 1933.

The construction of the bridge was not easy! The architects who designed the bridge had to make sure this bridge could survive earthquakes and strong winds.

The bridge was built by many different types of people. Many people were out of work during this time because of the Great Depression. Farmers, construction workers, writers, and many other types of working people worked together to create the beautiful bridge.

First, the towers were built. These are the supports where the bridge stands. It took them a very long time to complete this part of the bridge because they had to do construction underwater!

They then used suspension cables made of steel wires to hold up the road on the bridge. You can see the steel wires hanging down the sides of the bridge.

Finally, the bridge was completed on April 19^th, 1937. Below you can see a picture of the bridge during construction:

_{Image [cropped] from the US National Park Service, via Wikimedia Commons, is in the public domain.}

The Golden Gate Bridge gets over ten million visitors per year! Wow, that's a big crowd!

You've learned many interesting facts about the Golden Gate Bridge.

• What were two facts you learned?

Move on to the Got It? section where you will create artwork to represent the Golden Gate Bridge.