They're constantly going over every square inch of that structure looking for any signs of rust, and if found, they scrape it and get rid of all of it, and then the application of a fresh coat of orange paint. Then they move to the next spot. 365 Days/yr. And when I say every inch I mean from the top of the towers, along the cables, the guardrails, and along the sides and under neath the span

I’ve walked over that bridge multiple times. I get nervous at the midway point. It’s HIGH up. Amazing your grandfather painted the bridge.

@@bruceperkins7253 the guy reading this comment is a NERD!!!!!!! Yes You

did he tell how long it was going to last?

I’ve heard 250 years

Great Pyramids have joined the chat

Incredible

Agreed. That America is long gone.

georgewu5 Thats a wonderful memory. It’s clearly evident that seeing and experiencing this engineering marvel first-hand played a large role in the path you would chose for yours and your family’s lives. It is said that this was a time when no one, who saw the bridge as you did that day, had ever seen anything like it. Simply put: nothing like it, or even close to it, actually existed.

georgewu5 you were moved to tears? Ok.

Thank you for sharing your experience. It takes real people sharing personal experiences to make history come alive to the rest of us. I grew up in the Bay Area and lived in the city for a time and appreciate your experience. We share the emotional bond to bridge you cite. Cheers my friend!

I think tucker green could use a dose of reality. Join the the Marines and we will make tears flow from your eyes.

Charles Lindsay what or where is tucker green? I'm afraid I'm not from the west coast, so I don't really know the names of places over there. The connection of the Marines and the Golden Gate Bridge is not one that I know. Explain please?

God Bless your grandfather and his courage

God bless him and all the men who worked on the bridge...

This is dev'll brigade combat

I have conmemorative coins de golden gate ignagurecion and paper too

ldchappell1 ?9(

how old are you bro

Indeed! Things were built to LAST in those days, even more so if you took good care of it. Even though you worked for an employer/conglomerate, you still took pride in your work. Otherwise, word got out that it was junk, whatever it was. Nowadays, everything's built to fall apart to create the need to buy another. Pride of workmanship is long gone.

You are correct, it's a shame it is now adjacent to one of the most pathetic shit hole cities in this country, democRAT communist-dominated San Francisco.

@@drats1279 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Debatable opinion, but i respect it

That’s what happens when a nations run by White people. Blacks built nothing. Ghews steal everything

@@kelvinf45 But will you respect his opinion in the morning?

Tell us your favorite story

I agree 100% you are so right...These men earn our respect...and I'm a proud Canadian...married to a great American...

A friend of mine tried to destroy the Golden gate bridge but he was stopped by me and Jacob w

That’s what health and safety has done to the industry

Guess you guys don't know about the people that died while building the bridge.

@@Kaje_ 11 people dead and 19 severely injured on top of the Natives and multinational workers being treated like slaves yeah we really have become weak haven't we...

Maybe the company re-building bridge was not as rich as one building golden gate bridge. Amish still do farming with horses.

Bureaucrats

Ed Rodrigues I’ll bet! How could anyone ever forget that?

With a cigar and a fedora we'll go

Oh wow! Thats pretty cool! :)

Did anyone lose their life building this bridge?

I really admire the concentration and dedication of these stable and sensitive hard working men. Thank you so much.

I don't blame them for being alcoholics IF they were

Then do your own documentary and mention the crane operators!!!!

Please enplane waterfall spools, i've not heard that term, thank you.

Retired IW/W here

I hope with all they went through that they made it to heaven otherwise it would be a complete loss

all people back then where just better people. playground had things almost 40 feet high , nobody sued if their stupid kid got hurt . we are so weak today.

People did die before the net was put up. Unfortunately ten people died when something heavy fell on the net and ripped it.

This was back when even women in this country had balls........

Today's OSHA would have gotten their panties all bunched up at all of what would be considered violations being committed back then. Hard hats & a safety net were considered state of the art protection. It seems we go from one extreme to another. Regardless, life is too short, without man devising ways, or wars, to make it even shorter. Enjoy life while you are able.

Direction

777Starfire it has stood the test of time. Hats off to that intrepid generation.

AT the BOTTOM on UP!!

For an OLDER gentleman, you SURE do have EXCEPTIONAL KZfaq language SKILLS! Knowing RIGHT where to add INFLECTION, and JUST which words to EMPHASIZE in order TO make YOUR point! WELL done, MATE!! 👍✌

+TWSTF 8 Do you think it's inevitable that we lose our language skills? It's not.

@@twstf8905 Sounds like you want to take him out on a date.

Hi! Great story! Thanx for sharing! :)

I grew up in Northern California but I remember the first time as a kid visiting it felt other worldly. Quite amazing the scale by today’s standards and the weather it sits in.

My grandfather worked on painting the bridge. We lived in San Francisco.

When i was a kid i was so confused why it wasnt gold.

Is it true that it takes so long to paint that by the time they reach the end they must go back and start over

Henry,these guys aren't much different than we are,most people at the beginning are petrified at first.For most people it starts with a 6ft ladder then a 12ft then a 40ft scissor lift ect...Next thing you know its just routine. 1st thing in the morning getting way up high in the air can be a rude awakening but sometimes for a lot of people that's the difference between a paycheck and sitting at home especially during the great depression.

Nothing like straddling a 8 inch wide ibeam a few hundred feet above the ground as the sun rises.

+Nathan Owens Why not explain to others how ironworkers and other building trades scam their lunch hours so by rotating the lunch hours among trades you collectively sit on your asses one third of the day? get a connector to explain it if you are too dumb.

Tacoma Narrows Bridge?????

That remarkable story is told in this excellent video: The Men Who Built The Golden Gate Bridge kzfaq.info/get/bejne/n7adgtyrrs-nZJs.html The first major job that required safety harnesses, hardhats, and respirators. The safety net was proposed by Strauss and paid for by Bethlehem Steel.

N.J. Owens On the money brother!

Without the construction personnel this bridge would remain a set of illustrations on a drawing board.

They didn't have Spell Checker, either...

Awesome Painting Company Just balls and whiskey. Amazing

A little too amazing !

Slide rules and shit. Pretty impressive.

How about the Brooklyn Bridge? It was first opened to traffic in 1883, back in the horse-and-buggy days.

Notice, the trains delivering all the steel were powered by *steam locomotives* -- before the advent of diesel engine drives.

Not knowing then there would be a KZfaq

Where are you now?

@@jhuncabas2327 Arizona

Your lucky the Zodiac killing didn't walk up on you.

:)

@@garynorton8122 Oh! Goood point! Yikes!

Possibly not. Its likely some construction workers who were very young working on the latter part may be still alive. There are quite a few people alive now over 100 years old. But I do believe theyre all dead. Just sayin its possible.

@@batvette So, just an FYI - according to Wikipedia "With the death of Jack Balestreri in April 2012, all workers involved in the original construction are now deceased." But who knows, maybe there are still one or two people who played a part at a very young age, carrying rivets or sweeping up work areas, etc.?

That's a stupid thought.

@@davejones5640 lol dang

@@davejones5640 you're the stupid one.

3melendr not just the slide rule, but lots of higher math, including calculus of hyperbolic functions, differential equations, and some calculations with up to 37 variables. Charles Ellis single-handedly calculated every load and force at every point. The man was incredible!!

This bridge was designed without the aid of computers. No autocad. No hand held calculators.

@@theodorezatorski7168 to o

99.9 percent of people that ride over that bridge never pay a single thought to the design and construction of that bridge

@@kingsman3087 I am the 1 percent that does

Nice how they don't mention the guys that fell in the concrete to be buried. The safety belt looked real enough - to be used where they didn't slow down production. Safety isn't PC if you're the one walking the planks.

Agree, ...my impression also,,,maga

Yeah I'd love to hear someone modern talk with this type of paternal authority to his voice. Very proper and yet un-PC sounding. I'm sure he referred to Indians as "The Red Man" and Tribespeople as "Savages", and yet I don't detect any disrespect in his character. People back then were very interested in the progress of man over mother nature. It was a kind of innocence they possessed because they didn't yet need to look at the repercussions of unbridled expansion yet. The American family unit was taken for granted and it was just understood that each person would do their best before god and could trust his government to have his country's best interest in mind.

@@braddocke.hutton7392- Couldn't agree more. Sadly, look where we are now...

@@davidearea242 Modern SJW's have no respect for the men who built this country. They see construction and development as inevitable byproducts of Eurocentric Patriarchal Societies, not as amazing accomplishments or examples of teamwork and coordination. One friend I recently spoke with was taught in college that slaves built this country and he stood behind that. I couldnt shake my head hard enough.

I agree! Ive always wanted to go to this bridge!! I love bridges.

thank you much appreciated would really like to hear more details have you written anything up?

You say every man sitted in his britches.

No disrespect meant, but if this is a 1st person account, to be on board in 1940, the poster would be at least 95 years old today. Coast Guard service members are known as Coast Guardsmen formally and Coasties informally. There are no sailors in the Coast Guard.

I did the same in Navy warships .. awesome view

Not my favorite bridge..Mackinaw Bridge is more awesome...

You need to see it indeed. Anyone who thinks man made structures cannot exist in harmony with nature is dead wrong. I was once blessed to view the bridge from the Marin Headlands on a clear night with a full moon shining over the city. By far the most amazing sight of my lifetime.

I would

Mr. O'Brien, thank you so much for that.

Carrie Your uncle was a mighty brave soul to be a deep sea diver in 1936. The tidal currents at the mouth of the bay are severe and equipment back then was very primitive.

I wish he had gone into detail how they secured the bases to the sea floor.

SAILESH RAMCHARAN That’s Total BS. Strauss was “the drawbridge king”, designed little bridges for small rivers, his original design was a hideous monstrosity. The suspension design was a concept of Leon Moissieff, modified and adjusted by Charles Ellis. Strauss’s biggest contribution was getting the Northern Cal counties to back the bonds.

@Jake Stockton He is correct, that's who he is. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Gate_Bridge

@Jake Stockton Yeah, well, there are a lot of documentaries about Strauss and how he wasn't the main designer of the bridge. Do some research.

@Jake Stockton But you THINK you are.

@@hyliedoobius5114 Yup, and Leon had previous experience designing the Manhattan Bridge

Jimmy Salcedo Awesome and groundbreaking civil engineering takes place in literally every nation on earth. Typically, the technologies that permit such marvels were envisioned and mastered in countries of Europe. Settle down there jingo!

Peter Yianilos come on man, give the USA some credit without crying about some other country doing the same

@@artysanmobile you're an asshole. 🖕🏻

@@artysanmobile I would say the most experiences these builders got from building of skyscrapers.

Yeah but the Oakland Span Bridge when it was damaged from the 1989 quake took 13 years to build - Thank You Former Governor Arnold for buying steel from CHINA... !!!

The building of the foundation for the south tower could be an entire movie all on its own. This film didn't mention the fact that the construction was done underwater, but only initially. You can't pour concrete underwater. The mix proportions get messed up with too much water, no good. So the first project was to build a containment dam surrounding the footing, which rose all the way to the surface of the bay, where the water was then pumped out, leaving an open pit over 100 feet deep for the men to build the foundation inside. The footing had to be far below the bottom of the bay, so too the walls of the dam had to go down below the bay floor as well. Long story, but that was why the north tower was finished before the south tower was started, because it took all that time just to put the foundation down and raise the platform underwater, so the south tower would have something to stand on. It was a world class first for a structure built underwater (even though it wasn't literally underwater, because they had open air to work in, protected from the surrounding water by a temporary dam made of sheet metal). This is why the naysayers were howling that it was impossible, but the American engineers didn't let negativity stand in the way; they knew what materials could do, so they just did it, while everyone outside complained. Interesting. Today, the whiners are the ones in charge, making the laws and ruining the state.

Fish don't drink whiskey.

@@davejones5640 Since you are obviously a Captain of Sarcasm, Let me re-word James' post for you... He drank like a fish & whiskey was his drink of choice. Does that help?

​@@paulhudnall6460do you re-word all people who word their words incorrectly?

@@YesYouAreAbsolutelyCorrect I think you mean word sentences incorrectly... And no, this is my 1st time. Well, & 2nd time...

Paul, stop being a tit.

2 years late..... Yes projects like these can happen ... Only difference is that is a bit much easier then it was back then....

And over east on the Nevada-Arizona border a massive dam was being built across the Colorado River to impound what would become Lake Mead. Those massive jobs helped us recover from the crash of 1929 and the Great Depression.

A lot of people DID fall to their deaths. Once a large piece of equipment fell off the track and sent through the net, taking 10 guys with it. Yes ... people died on this job. And impact at 75+ MPH pretty much assured they wouldn't survive.

I'M A 66 AND DEFINITELY ENJOYED THIS VIDEO... I WISH I COULD HAVE THANKED EVERY SINGLE MAN WHO BUILD THIS BRIDGE ESPECIALLY KNOWING IT ONLY TOOK 4 YEARS I WAS BLOWN AWAY UNBELIEVABLE THIS IS WHAT U DEFINITELY CALL HARD WORK . SO SO BEAUTIFUL

when this is amzing (and i agree with you) then what is about the pyramids the colloseum or any other historical construction :)

Alano Morito: A bridge tops them all because it connects worlds. Especially a bridge of this magnitude.

The Art Deco touches are also a big plus. An obscure residential architect named Irving Morrow and his wife designed all those cool features.

Yes. It's called heartbreak syndrome. Happens when someone you live passes and you cant get over them not being there . You can look it up

Im sorry :(

Sounds so dreamy! I would LOVE to do that!! :)

I thought the Brooklyn Bridge was the first in New York City...in the 1880s.

Yep, the Brooklyn Bridge opened in 1883. It was the first over the East River.

Penny Enicks Then it looks like Musicradio77 needs to do a little more thorough fact checking.

Yes, you are right! :)