Why the Golden Gate Bridge Still Sits in a 1934 Bathtub

How the Golden Gate Bridge was built: the south tower in the open sea, the cable spinning, the road hung from above. In 1933 the bridge's south tower had to stand 335 meters out in the open strait. A ship and two storms wrecked the builders' road to the site. Divers cleared the seabed at slack tide, a concrete wall was raised around the site, and in November 1934 the builders sealed it and pumped about 35.5 million liters of seawater out, so the pier could be built in the dry. Then the tower climbed itself, the cables were spun in the air one wire at a time, and the road was hung from above. The 1934 ring still guards the south tower today. Chapters 0:00 Pumping the sea out of the Golden Gate 0:25 A tower site in the open strait 1:06 One long span, two piers 2:28 Problem one: the road on stilts 2:43 A ship and two storms 3:27 Divers at slack tide 4:10 The fender wall 4:51 The giant bathtub 5:42 The pier, 34 meters down 6:10 A tower of hollow cells 6:33 The crane that climbed the tower 6:53 Rivet gangs 7:14 Earthquake at the top 7:38 Cables with nothing underneath 8:16 Anchorages and catwalks 8:53 Spinning the cables 10:08 The road hung from above 10:47 The safety net 11:40 Opening day 12:07 The 1934 ring today Sources Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District: Key dates; Construction; Design & construction stats; exhibits "A bathtub for the south tower", "Working under water", "Tall and strong: the bridge towers", "Spinning the main cables", "Hanging the roadway deck", "All in a day's work"; District statement on the NTSB report (March 2025); Building & Operating Committee, underwater inspection (21 Aug 2025) PBS American Experience, "Golden Gate Bridge" (transcript; Workers; Spinning the cables; Opening day; Opposition) HAER CA-31, Golden Gate Bridge (Library of Congress), data pages D. Stromberg (Golden Gate Bridge District), WBES 2015 presentation; H. B. Seed, Highway Research Board Special Report 60 (1960) NTSB press release, 20 March 2025 (68 bridges, vessel-strike vulnerability assessments) Construction Equipment Guide (2006); sfmuseum.org (1934 Associated Oil exhibit text) Photo and film credits US Army Air Corps aerial photographs, National Archives (NARA 23935539, 23935569, 23935585, 23935605, 23935607, 23935613, 23935625, 7455640), public domain Historic American Engineering Record CA-31 (Jet Lowe, 1984) and HABS CA-1239 (Roger Sturtevant, 1934), Library of Congress, public domain "Architect and Engineer" (1933) via Internet Archive Book Images, no known copyright restrictions Charles M. Hiller / Associated Oil (1934), Library of Congress, no copyright renewal Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, public domain NTSB photo of the Francis Scott Key Bridge and the Dali (2024), public domain Films via Internet Archive / Prelinger Archives (public domain): "San Francisco by the Golden Gate" (1932), Pan Am China Clipper (1935), Golden Gate Bridge opening (1937) Rivet close-up: Jamie Jobb (archive.org "BridgeVibe"), CC BY 3.0 3D reconstructions and graphics: How It Was Built (our own) Narration: AI voice (Google Gemini TTS). Music: "Aha!" (Suno, licensed). how the Golden Gate Bridge was built, how was the Golden Gate Bridge built, how'd they build the Golden Gate Bridge