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From WinkyPedia, the free encyclopedia that tells you what you already knew
The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge across the Golden Gate strait at the entrance to San Francisco Bay, opened in 1937. It is not golden. It is not even quite red. Its official colour is called International Orange.[1] The bridge is named after the strait, which was named in the 1840s, before the bridge, after the Golden Horn in Istanbul. The bridge has therefore been called golden for nearly a century purely on the grounds of its address.
When the steel for the bridge arrived, it was coated in a reddish-orange primer to protect it. The consulting architect, Irving Morrow, liked the colour, which stood out against the fog and blended with the hills, and argued for keeping it. The US Navy had reportedly suggested painting it in black and yellow stripes so ships could see it.[2] The primer won.
The bridge is constantly maintained by a team of painters and ironworkers, who touch up the paint wherever it wears. It is not, as is sometimes said, repainted from end to end in an endless loop; it just always has someone attending to it, like a meeting.
The bridge is often partly hidden by fog rolling in from the Pacific, sometimes leaving only the tops of its towers showing. On such days visitors come to see the most famous bridge in the world and photograph a cloud.