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Tag: Golden Gate Bridge

  • 1888 Shipwreck Found in San Francisco Bay

    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released images Wednesday of the wreckage of a ship that sank in San Francisco Bay in 1888, which killed 16 people. The iron and wood steamship called City of Chester went down on August 22, after being hit by a larger ship named the Oceanic, in conditions of dense fog and low visibility.

    City of Chester was carrying 106 travelers en route to Eureka, California and Portland, Oregon. Thirteen passengers and three crewmen perished when the ship sank.

    The NOAA inadvertently discovered the wreckage while mapping shipping lanes in the bay, and City of Chester was located 217 feet down, just inside the Golden Gate Bridge. The NOAA team utilized a multi-beam sonic imaging system to capture three-dimensional images of the wreckage.

    James Delgado, an NOAA shipwreck researcher, archaeologist and Titanic expert, combed through San Francisco newspapers from the era when City of Chester went down, which leaned toward putting the blame on the relatively unscathed Oceanic, which was an immigrant vessel. “The papers initially reacted, talking about the tragedy and accusations that the Chinese crew stood by and let people drown,” Delgado said. “But what happens is you start to see things also come out countering that. Some leapt in water to save a drowning child.” The initial investigation faulted the skipper of the City of Chester.

    Robert Schwemmer, NOAA’s West Coast regional maritime heritage coordinator added, “The Oceanic crew was up on the bow reaching down to survivors on the Chester, lifting them on the deck. After the collision, in five or six minutes, the Oceanic crew went on to save a lot of people.”

    In 1888, San Francisco Bay was one of the world’s busiest and most crucial shipping ports. The City of Chester sinking was the second worst maritime disaster regarding casualties San Francisco Bay had ever seen. The most catastrophic occurred when a steamer called the SS City of Rio de Janeiro hit a reef in 1901, killing over 120.

    Image via NOAA

  • Google Earth Tour Highlights National Park

    In a guest post over at the Google Lat Long Blog today, Ben Fash of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy announced how the group used the Google Earth Outreach Developer Grant it received late last year. The Parks Conservancy, which is a nonprofit that supports San Francisco area national parks, created a Keyhole Markup Language (KML) presentation highlighting the restoration of Crissy Field – a large National Park adjacent to the Golden Gate Bridge. KML files can be used with Google Earth to view annotations and other media along with satellite data. From the blog post:

    The Golden Gate Bridge’s 75th anniversary celebration recently culminated in a waterfront festival, and hundreds of thousands of people joined hands on Crissy Field — a beautiful 100-acre national park site at the foot of the bridge. As we celebrated the bridge with the community on Crissy Field, we also celebrated 11 years of the restoration of the cultural and natural resources at this site.

    The presentation, titled “The Transformation of Crissy Field,” is an interactive Google Earth tour of Crissy Field and the many changes it has endured since before the arrival of Europeans. In its previous incarnations, the site was the location of a Grand Prix race track, an army airfield, and a dumping ground for chemical waste. The tour uses photos, maps, drawings, and, of course, satellite imagery, to create an informative Google Earth presentation on how Crissy Field was restored to its current pristine status.

    The KML presentation is only viewable if you have Google Earth already downloaded. Luckily, the Parks Concervancy has provided a fully-narrated YouTube video of the presentation. You can watch the video below or download the Google Earth presentation.

  • The Golden Gate Bridge Celebrates 75th Birthday

    The City of San Francisco celebrated the 75 anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge on Memorial Day weekend.

    Radio station KFOG 104.5/97.7 has a professional released a video of the spectacular fireworks display. Nothing compares to seeing fireworks in real life, but this is still pretty cool. The beginning, especially, which starts with fountains of sparks falling from the bridge into the water. I suggest watching in fullscreen with the HD enabled.

    The Golden gate Bridge was officially opened for traffic on May 27, 1937. Named the Golden gate after the original name of the Strait on which it was constructed: “Chrysopylae”, or Golden Gate. We believe the term was first coined by John C. Fremont of the U.S. Army in 1846. His reasoning is that it reminded him of a harbor in Instanbul named “Chrysoceras”, or Golden Horn.

    Construction of the bridge started on January 5, 1933, taking nearly four years and four months until completion. It was built by 10 different prime and subcontractors. They have long since gone out of business, so no record exists as to how many people actually worked on the bridge.

    We do know that a total of eleven men died during its construction. After four years of construction the total death count was only one. At the time, this was a record low for such a huge project. On February 17, 1937, ten more men lost their lives when a section of scaffolding carrying twelve men fell through the safety net.

    During the construction process, the safety net, which was suspended under the floor of the bridge and spanned from end to end, saved a total of 19 men. Those men became known as the “Halfway-to-Hell Club” amongst those in the know.

    The bridge cost $35 million to build in 1937. Latest estimates taken in 2003 say the price would be around $1.2 billion if completed at that time.

    It is currently the ninth largest suspension bridge, holding the title of world’s longest for 27 years before being overtaken by the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in New York in 1964.

    The Mighty Task is Done
    Joseph B. Strauss, Chief Engineer, Golden Gate Bridge
    Written upon completion of the building of the Bridge in May 1937

    At last the mighty task is done;
    Resplendent in the western sun
    The Bridge looms mountain high;
    Its titan piers grip ocean floor,
    Its great steel arms link shore with shore,
    Its towers pierce the sky.

    On its broad decks in rightful pride,
    The world in swift parade shall ride,
    Throughout all time to be;
    Beneath, fleet ships from every port,
    Vast landlocked bay, historic fort,
    And dwarfing all–the sea.

    To north, the Redwood Empire’s gates;
    ‘To south, a happy playground waits,
    in Rapturous appeal;
    Here nature, free since time began,
    Yields to the restless moods of man,
    Accepts his bonds of steel.

    Launched midst a thousand hopes and fears,
    Damned by a thousand hostile sneers,
    Yet ne’er its course was stayed,
    But ask of those who met the foe
    Who stood alone when faith was low,
    Ask them the price they paid.

    Ask of the steel, each strut and wire,
    Ask of the searching, purging fire,
    That marked their natal hour;
    Ask of the mind, the hand, the heart,
    Ask of each single, stalwart part,
    What gave it force and power.

    An Honored cause and nobly fought
    And that which they so bravely wrought,
    Now glorifies their deed,
    No selfish urge shall stain its life,
    Nor envy, greed, intrigue, nor strife,
    Nor false, ignoble creed.

    High overhead its lights shall gleam,
    Far, far below life’s restless stream,
    Unceasingly shall flow;
    For this was spun its lithe fine form,
    To fear not war, nor time, nor storm,
    For Fate had meant it so.

    [source: goldengatebridge.org]