Editing Golden Gate Bridge (section)

===Ferry service===
{{Further|Ferries of San Francisco Bay}}
Before the bridge was built, the only practical short route between San Francisco and what is now Marin County was by boat across a section of San Francisco Bay. A ferry service began as early as 1820, with a regularly scheduled service beginning in the 1840s for the purpose of transporting water to San Francisco.<ref name="two">{{cite web |title=Two Bay Area Bridges |access-date=March 9, 2009 |publisher=US Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration |url=https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/2bridges.cfm}}</ref>

In 1867, the Sausalito Land and Ferry Company opened. In 1920, the service was taken over by the [[Golden Gate Ferry Company]], which merged in 1929 with the ferry system of the [[Southern Pacific Transportation Company|Southern Pacific Railroad]], becoming the Southern Pacific-Golden Gate Ferries, Ltd., the largest ferry operation in the world.<ref name="two"/><ref name="scrap">{{cite news |url=https://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/04/28/BAG8BCGI3I1.DTL&hw=ferry&sn=310&sc=862 |work=San Francisco Chronicle |title=Ferry tale&nbsp;– the dream dies hard: 2 historic boats that plied the bay seek buyer&nbsp;– anybody |author=Fimrite, Peter |access-date=October 31, 2007 |date=April 28, 2005}}</ref> Once for railroad passengers and customers only, Southern Pacific's automobile ferries became very profitable and important to the regional economy.<ref>{{cite book |title=San Francisco Bay Ferryboats |author=Harlan, George H. |publisher=Howell-North Books |year=1967 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IPBAAAAAIAAJ}}</ref> The ferry crossing between the [[Hyde Street Pier]] in San Francisco and [[Sausalito Ferry Terminal]] in Marin County took approximately 20 minutes and cost $1.00 per vehicle prior to 1937, when the price was reduced to compete with the new bridge.<ref name="bc">{{cite news |url=https://www.baycrossings.com/archives/2002/04_May/so_where_are_they_now.htm |publisher=Bay Crossings |title=So Where Are They Now? The Story of San Francisco's Steel Electric Empire |author=Span, Guy |date=May 4, 2002 |access-date=October 31, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071023072202/https://www.baycrossings.com/Archives/2002/4_May/so_where_are_they_now.htm |archive-date=October 23, 2007 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=September 25, 2019 |title=Golden Gate Bridge War on Ferries |url=https://www.sausalitohistoricalsociety.com/2019-columns/2019/9/25/golden-gate-bridge-war-on-ferries |access-date=August 9, 2023 |website=The Sausalito Historical Society |language=en-US}}</ref> The trip from the [[San Francisco Ferry Building]] took 27 minutes.

Many wanted to build a bridge to connect San Francisco to Marin County. San Francisco was the largest American city still served primarily by ferry boats. Because it did not have a permanent link with communities around the bay, the city's growth rate was below the national average.<ref name="Sigmund">{{cite web |last=Sigmund |first=Pete |year=2006 |url=https://www.cegltd.com/story.asp?story=7045&headline=The%20Golden%20Gate:%20%EBThe%20Bridge%20That%20Couldn%EDt%20Be%20Built%ED |title=The Golden Gate: 'The Bridge That Couldn't Be Built' |publisher=Construction Equipment Guide |access-date=May 31, 2007 |archive-date=December 16, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191216110116/https://www.cegltd.com/story.asp?story=7045&headline=The%20Golden%20Gate:%20%EBThe%20Bridge%20That%20Couldn%EDt%20Be%20Built%ED }}</ref> Many experts said that a bridge could not be built across the {{convert|6700|ft|m|abbr=off|adj=on}} strait, which had strong, swirling tides and currents, with water {{convert|372|ft|m|abbr=on}} deep<ref>{{cite journal |author=P. L. Barnard |author2=D. M. Hanes |author3=D. M. Rubin |author4=R. G. Kvitek |title=Giant Sand Waves at the Mouth of San Francisco Bay |journal=Eos |date=July 18, 2006 |volume=87 |issue=29 |page=285 |url=https://seafloor.csumb.edu/publications/Barnard_etal_EOSJuly2006.pdf |access-date=April 22, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180618102436/https://seafloor.csumb.edu/publications/Barnard_etal_EOSJuly2006.pdf |archive-date=June 18, 2018 |doi=10.1029/2006EO290003 |bibcode=2006EOSTr..87..285B  |issn = 0096-3941}}</ref> at the center of the channel, and frequent strong winds. Experts said that ferocious winds and blinding fogs would prevent construction and operation.<ref name="Sigmund"/>

==== Conception ====
[[File:Golden gate circa 1891.png|thumb|left|Golden Gate with [[Fort Point, San Francisco|Fort Point]] in foreground, {{circa|1891}}]]
Although the idea of a bridge spanning the Golden Gate was not new, the proposal that eventually took hold was made in a 1916 ''[[San Francisco Bulletin]]'' article by former engineering student James Wilkins.<ref name="Owens">{{cite book |author=Owens, T.O. |year=2001 |title=The Golden Gate Bridge |publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group |isbn=0-8239-5016-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/goldengatebridge00owen }}</ref> San Francisco's City Engineer estimated the cost at $100 million (equivalent to ${{inflation|US|.100|1916|r=1|fmt=c}} billion in {{inflation year|US}}), and impractical for the time. He asked bridge engineers whether it could be built for less.<ref name="two"/> One who responded, Joseph Strauss, was an ambitious engineer and poet who had, for his [[thesis|graduate thesis]], designed a {{convert|55|mi|km|adj=mid|-long}} [[Bering Strait crossing|railroad bridge across]] the [[Bering Strait]].<ref name="experience">{{cite web |publisher=Public Broadcasting Service |access-date=November 7, 2007 |title=The American Experience:People & Events: Joseph Strauss (1870–1938) |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goldengate/peopleevents/p_strauss.html |archive-date=November 17, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071117114217/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goldengate/peopleevents/p_strauss.html }}</ref> At the time, Strauss had completed some 400 [[moveable bridge|drawbridges]]—most of which were inland—and nothing on the scale of the new project.<ref name="Denton">Denton, Harry ''et al.'' (2004) "Lonely Planet San Francisco" ''Lonely Planet'', United States, {{ISBN|1-74104-154-6}}</ref> Strauss's initial drawings<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=June 9, 2023 |title=Engineering the Design - The History of the Design and Construction {{!}} Golden Gate |url=https://www.goldengate.org/exhibits/engineering-the-design/ |access-date=September 25, 2023 |archive-date=June 9, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230609180719/https://www.goldengate.org/exhibits/engineering-the-design/ |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref> were for a massive [[Cantilever bridge|cantilever]] on each side of the strait, connected by a central suspension segment, which Strauss promised could be built for $17&nbsp;million (equivalent to ${{inflation|US|17|1916|r=0|fmt=c}} million in {{inflation year|US}}).<ref name="two"/>

A suspension-bridge design was chosen, using recent advances in bridge design and [[metallurgy]].<ref name="two"/>

Strauss spent more than a decade drumming up support in Northern California.<ref>{{cite web |year=1999 |url=https://www.lib.berkeley.edu/news_events/exhibits/bridge/up028.html |title=Bridging the Bay: Bridges That Never Were |publisher=UC Berkeley Library |access-date=April 13, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060718052702/https://www.lib.berkeley.edu/news_events/exhibits/bridge/up028.html |archive-date=July 18, 2006 }}</ref> The bridge faced opposition, including litigation, from many sources. The [[United States Department of War|Department of War]] was concerned that the bridge would interfere with ship traffic. The [[United States Navy|US Navy]] feared that a ship collision or sabotage to the bridge could block the entrance to one of its main harbors. Unions demanded guarantees that local workers would be favored for construction jobs. [[Southern Pacific Railroad]], one of the most powerful business interests in California, opposed the bridge as competition to its ferry fleet and filed a lawsuit against the project, leading to a mass boycott of the ferry service.<ref name="two"/>

In May 1924, Colonel [[Herbert Deakyne]] held the second hearing on the Bridge on behalf of the [[United States Secretary of War|Secretary of War]] in a request to use federal land for construction. Deakyne, on behalf of the Secretary of War, approved the transfer of land needed for the bridge structure and leading roads to the "Bridging the Golden Gate Association" and both San Francisco County and Marin County, pending further bridge plans by Strauss.<ref>Miller, John B. (2002) "Case Studies in Infrastructure Delivery" ''Springer'', {{ISBN|0-7923-7652-8}}.</ref> Another ally was the fledgling [[automobile industry]], which supported the development of roads and bridges to increase demand for automobiles.<ref name="bc"/>

The bridge's name was first used when the project was initially discussed in 1917 by [[Michael O'Shaughnessy|M.M. O'Shaughnessy]], city engineer of San Francisco, and Strauss. The name became official with the passage of the [[Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District|Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District]] Act by the [[California State Legislature|state legislature]] in 1923, creating a [[Special-purpose district|special district]] to design, build and finance the bridge.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gudde |first=Erwin G. |title=California Place Names |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |year=1949 |location=Berkeley, California |page=130 |oclc=37647557}}</ref> San Francisco and most of the counties along the [[North Coast (California)|North Coast of California]] joined the Golden Gate Bridge District, with the exception being [[Humboldt County, California|Humboldt County]], whose residents opposed the bridge's construction and the traffic it would generate.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://goldengatebridge.org/research/ConstructionBldgGGB.php |title=Special District Formed&nbsp;– Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District |access-date=January 17, 2015 |archive-date=January 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150127015653/http://goldengatebridge.org/research/ConstructionBldgGGB.php |url-status=dead }}</ref>