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Golden Gate Bridge
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IF YOU'VE EVER GOTTEN A POST CARD FROM SAN FRANCISCO, THERE'S A GOOD CHANCE THAT BARON WOLMAN TOOK THE PICTURE.
"There's an infinite number of views. I'm in my airplane taking pictures from above; I've been up on the tower looking down at the roadway. I've been underneath it, for a point looking up, at this incredible structure and, it's my favorite photographic subject. It's impossible for anybody to take a bad picture of the Golden Gate Bridge. I guarantee you."
When I came to San Francisco in the early 60s, there was a lot to love about San Francisco, obviously. The cable cars and the hills and the views and the great weather and the fog and all, but, the thing I really loved most was the Golden Gate Bridge."
THE BRIDGE IS MUCH MORE THAN A PRETTY PICTURE. EACH DAY AN AVERAGE OF 166,000 VEHICLES MAKE THEIR WAY ACROSS THE ORANGE SUPER-STRUCTURE.
BUT IT'S THE BRIDGE'S NINE MILLION ANNUAL PEDESTRIAN VISITORS THAT HAVE MADE IT ONE OF THE WORLD'S MOST POPULAR TOURIST DESTINATIONS.
AND FOR THE AUTHOR STEPHAN CASSADY, IT SEEMED LIKE THE PERFECT SUBJECT FOR A BOOK.
"There is nowhere you can go and nobody that you can talk to that doesn't know what the Golden Gate Bridge is."
WE MAY TAKE THE BRIDGE FOR GRANTED NOW BUT THE CURRENTS OF THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY ARE SO STRONG AND THE WATER SO DEEP THAT FOR CENTURIES NO ONE THOUGHT A BRIDGE COULD BE BUILT HERE.
"The Golden Gate, has ocean waters that start as far away as Antarctica, finding their way, into the California coast line and the tides are just very dramatic and its very dangerous."
BUT BY 1916, CONGESTED FERRY TRAFFIC CAUSED SAN FRANCISCO RESIDENTS TO DREAM THE IMPOSSIBLE.
LUCKILY, THE COUNTRY'S LEADING BRIDGE BUILDER HAD JUST COME TO TOWN.
Joseph Strauss was probably a genius, it was through his energy, his vision, his dream, his single mindedness that got this project going.
STRAUSS WAS AN ENGINEER FROM CHICAGO WITH MORE THAN 400 BRIDGES TO HIS NAME.
AND IN 1919, STRAUSS BEGAN DRAWING UP PLANS TO BRING THIS ENGINEERING MARVEL TO LIFE.
From that moment when he first said, we would like to do this, until they broke ground, it's a period of 14 years elapsed, In that time, there was tremendous resistance from people that didn’t want the bridge.
BUT STRAUSS STUCK TO HIS GUNS AND, FINALLY, IN 1933, THE FIRST WORKERS PUNCHED THE CLOCK.
FOR THE MEN ON THE JOB, THE LABOR WAS LESS THAN GLAMOROUS.
Bridge working is not for the weak of heart. It's very dangerous; it's very disconnecting when you're 746 feet off, the ground.
All set here, Are you ready barge?
The issue here of course is the tremendous distance, the hydro physics of the channel and the, uh, the fact that nobody had, um, built a bridge that, that had towers this tall, with a center span this long.
USING THE LATEST BRIDGE-BUILDING TECHNOLOGY, STRAUSS AND HIS TEAM STARTED TO MAKE HEADWAY.
FOR FOUR SOLID YEARS, THEY POUNDED RIVETS AND SUSPENDED MASSIVE STEEL CABLES.
When they got finished, they had 80,000 miles of cable, enough to span the earth at, it's equator three times over.
"As it turned out 11 people only died. And of those 11, ten occurred in one accident. And you look at the reasons for why the number was so low, they just paid, uh, meticulous attention to how to save lives.
IN MAY OF 1937, CONSTRUCTION WAS FINALLY COMPLETE, AND THE CITY WAS READY TO CELEBRATE.
You can imagine in 1937, The Depression's over, the war hasn't started, something has just been accomplished that they said couldn't be done and it was done.
UNFORTUNATELY, JOSEPH STRAUSS, NEVER GOT A CHANCE TO BASK IN THE GLORY OF HIS ACHIEVEMENT.
HE RETIRED TO LOS ANGELES AND DIED LESS THAN A YEAR AFTER FINISHING WORK ON THE BRIDGE.
BUT HIS ULTIMATE CREATION HAS STOOD THE TEST OF TIME AND FOR PHOTOGRAPHER BARON WOLMAN THAT HAS BEEN THE INSPIRATION FOR SOME OF HIS BEST WORK.
It's virtually impossible to imagine San Francisco and the Bay area without the Golden Gate Bridge. And, from some, gift of fate, the design, the ultimate finished design, is so in harmony with the landscape. That you don't see it as something, that's been put upon the land. You see it's something almost that's organic-grown up from the land.
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金門大橋
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我永遠不會忘記我第一次見到它的時候，它是那麼的神秘 那麼的獨特。我一生都無法忘卻那種感覺，它讓我感動， 我從沒有見過這般令人迷醉的景致，如果你收到一張來自聖弗朗西斯科的明信片，那很可能是巴倫 沃爾曼的傑作。
它的美令人無法抗拒。我坐在飛機裏從高處拍攝或站在高塔上俯瞰或站在橋下虔誠地仰視這個頗有震撼力的建築。它是我最喜歡的拍攝實物，任何人都能拍出絕佳的金門大橋的照片我保證。
60年代初,第一次來到這裡時，這個城市的電車、丘陵、還有薄霧都令我心儀，但在所有這些中，金門大橋是我的最愛。
這座橋不單是一幅美麗的圖畫，每天有大約十六萬六千多輛車從這座橙色建築物上飛馳而過，但使金門大橋成為旅遊熱點的卻是每年九百萬的步行參觀者。對作家斯蒂芬 卡薩迪來説，它就像一本書的經典主題無論你到哪，無論你和誰攀談，沒有人不知道金門大橋。
我們也許認為這座橋的存在是理所應當的，但它的水流那麼急，那麼深。很多世紀以來，沒有人認為在這兒可以架橋。金門大橋下的海水來自遙遠的南極流，一路流入加利福尼亞海岸海水湍急而且暗藏著危險的潛流。
但到了1916年，擁擠的輪渡交通是人們主要的交通方式，建橋是聖弗朗西斯科居民的奢望。幸運的是，這個國家最重要的橋梁建造者，剛好來到這個城鎮。
約瑟 斯特羅斯是個天才，他過人的精力和才情、敏銳的洞察力、充滿智慧的頭腦，都使這個夢想最終得以實現。斯特羅斯是一名來自芝加哥的工程師。他設計建造了400多座橋梁。
1919年，斯特羅斯開始起草計劃，他要讓這個驚人的工程在他手中誕生。
從他第一次説，我們要做這件事到最後破土動工 14年過去了。
剛開始的時候，他們遭到了重重阻撓，但斯特羅斯矢志不移，執著于夢想。1933年，第一批工人開工了，對進行這項工作的人來説，這項勞動艱巨而危險。
建橋的工作不是怯懦的人能幹的，它充滿不可預知的危險性。當你離地746英尺時，你會有一種無助感，一切都準備好了。
準備好挪動了嗎？
問題是海峽驚人的長度和巨大的水力。還有，從未有人嘗試建設中心跨度那麼長，主塔這麼高的橋梁。
運用最新的建橋技術，斯特羅斯和他的隊伍開始了工作，他們用了足足4年的時間來固定鉚釘，懸挂纜繩。
他們做完這些，用掉了8萬英里的纜繩，足以繞地球赤道三圈還多。
結果表明，只有11人死亡，而其中有10人死於同一個事故，事故機率如此低的原因是他們有嚴密的措施保障工人的安全。
1937年5月，這座橋終於竣工了，整個城市充滿了節日的喜慶，可以想象 1937年經濟危機過去了，戰爭還沒有開始，人們認為無法企及的事情也終於成真了。
不幸的是，約瑟 斯特羅斯卻永遠沒有機會享受他的傑作給他帶來的喜悅了。退休後，他去了洛杉磯在他完成工程一年後，不幸去世了。但他的創造經受住了時間的考驗，對巴倫 沃爾曼來説，很多作品的靈感都源於這座大橋。
幾乎無法想象如果沒有金門大橋，聖弗朗西斯科及海灣會是怎樣。這座橋的風格與這兒的地貌驚人的和諧，你不會認為這橋單純地架在空中看起來與地面是如此地水乳交融，將美感與功能完美地結合於一身。
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