The Golden Gate Bridge opens, the world's longest suspension span
On this day · 27 May 1937
Before a single car crossed, roughly 200,000 people paid a quarter each to walk across San Francisco's new record-setting bridge.
On 27 May 1937, San Francisco opened the Golden Gate Bridge with a “Pedestrian Day”: for one day, the bridge belonged to people on foot. By the 6 a.m. start, thousands were already waiting, and an estimated 200,000 crossed, each paying 25 cents.
The bridge was, on opening, the longest suspension span in the world, its central span stretching 4,200 feet between towers anchored against ferocious tides and fog.
Cars had to wait. The next day, 28 May, President Franklin Roosevelt pressed a telegraph key in Washington to signal the bridge open to vehicles.
For a few hours the span carried only footsteps, roller skates, and the occasional tap dancer.
It held the suspension-span record until New York’s Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge surpassed it in 1964.
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