All language subtitles for The Engineering That Built the World s01e07 Battle of the Bridges

They've survived hundreds of earthquakes
and an onslaught of 300 ,000 vehicles

every day. Over 80 years, the iconic
Golden Gate Bridge and its nearby

rival, the San Francisco -Oakland Bay
Bridge, are engineering legends.

The whole world's eyes were on these two
bridges. This was about America coming

into full power and full bloom.

But a century ago, they seemed
impossible.

Bridges had only been measured in feet,
not miles. They were experiments.

During the Great Depression, they go up
at the same time. The bay was the site

of the greatest bridge race ever.

Pitting a future president against an
obsessed engineer.

Hey, you stick to my plans.

Joseph Strauss is the little dictator.

They face impossible challenges.

Think of how dangerous that environment
is. Now we're going to put explosives

down. That's nuts.

Unspeakable tragedy.

The workers describe hearing their cries
like babies.

And high stakes double dealing.

How would you like to come work for me?

This is treason of the highest order.

This is the Battle of the Bridges.

In the early 1900s, San Francisco is
America's epicenter of trade with Asia

the Pacific, handling more cargo than
all other West Coast ports combined.

San Francisco is a critical city because
it's the only deepwater port really

from Seattle all the way down to
California's coastline and ending in Los

Angeles, San Diego.

America is looking west, looking past
California to the Asian Pacific theater.

This becomes a new pathway for exporting
goods and services.

It's also trying to find new sources of
consumer goods for its increasingly

prosperous American consumer class.

Americans don't want to settle for
things they can get domestically. They

silks and spices and teas from Asia.

But it's not just trade that makes San
Francisco so valuable.

It's this critical sweet spot with this
massive bay that harbors...

Ships of war.

They're keeping an eye on another
country with imperial ambitions, which

Japan. But the city of San Francisco has
a major problem.

It's largely cut off from the U .S.
mainland.

San Francisco is surrounded on three
sides by water.

And at the time, the only way to get
across was by ferry.

The city of San Francisco is a prisoner
of its own geography.

San Francisco must be better connected
for the good of the country.

And the city's own survival.

So it's been growing over the past 70
years or so since the gold rush. But all

of that money starts to get bottled up
in this tiny space.

It's got so many people packed into this
space and there's really nowhere for

them to go.

For decades, local officials have
dreamed of a bridge connecting the city

prime land up north.

And in the early 1920s, they put out a
highly publicized call for bids to

finally build it.

But there's a reason it's taken so long.
It might be impossible.

The waters at the San Francisco Golden
Gate, that is impossible to build a

bridge in. The water is too deep. It
runs so swiftly that boulders the size

houses are rolling around underneath
there.

It has to cross a bay that's 350 feet
deep. It has to weather the enormous

that go through the bay.

The brutal conditions don't end there.

The Golden Gate Strait is very close to
the San Andreas Fault. They've just

lived through the 1906 earthquake, in
which 3 ,000 people died, 80 % of San

Francisco's buildings were destroyed.

And at over one mile long, The bridge
will have to be the longest ever built.

But there's an underdog bidder bold
enough to think he can do it.

Most engineers say building this bridge
is impossible.

I'm not most engineers.

Joseph Strauss is known as the
drawbridge king of America.

But these drawbridges are really not
very attractive to the untrained eye.

They're really workhorses. Many of his
peers didn't really admire his work. It

wasn't that cutting edge.

Strauss has long believed he's destined
for something greater.

Strauss tries out for his college
football team. He's a little over 5

about 120 pounds. He gets absolutely
unmercifully smashed.

And as he's recovering in the infirmary,
he is looking out at a beautiful bridge

in Cincinnati and dreams of creating
something like that.

But at 51 years old, he's running out of
time.

Estimates have it at 100 million.

I can build it for a fraction of that.

Strauss's initial bid is just 17
million.

It has to be the ultimate lowball bid of
all lowball bids. As much as an

engineer, he was a salesman. His work
might be fairly mediocre.

His personality, though, that's next
level.

The city awards the project to Joseph
Strauss. But little does he know, 2 ,000

miles away in Washington, D .C., there's
a competing plan already in motion.

Herbert Hoover is an engineer.

He's a mining executive, and he becomes
the Secretary of Commerce.

Hoover, a Stanford man who knows the Bay
Area well, thinks the bridge should be

in a different location.

Oakland, across the bay to the east, is
the last stop on the Transcontinental

Railroad, a vital artery that doesn't
reach San Francisco.

If you're moving goods from the east out
to San Francisco, it's international.

hub of trade, you're going to have to
change lines and go all the way around

bay to get to San Francisco.

Or you're going to have to load all
those goods on a ferry and get them

the bay. That's a lot of wasted time,
energy, and money.

Incredibly, at over four miles, a bridge
to Oakland would be nearly quadruple

the length of the Golden Gate, making it
the longest high -level bridge in the

world. But Hoover has a surprising
opponent.

The U .S. Navy.

All they see is something that could
possibly damage ships if clearance isn't

high enough, something that a potential
enemy during war could bomb, blow up. It

becomes a trap for the Navy.

The Navy vetoes Hoover's bridge, but he
won't give up easily.

Meanwhile, Joseph Strauss presents his
first design to San Francisco officials.

It's got the strength of a suspension
bridge and the flexibility of a

cantilever. The American king of
drawbridges, unsurprisingly, designed

Golden Gate Bridge, a bridge that looks
very much like all his others.

It's immediately seen as a very ugly
design and not representative of San

Francisco, with some even calling it an
upside -down rat trap.

Strauss is this close to losing his job.

On the brink of failure, Strauss turns
to two of the best minds in the bridge

business. Charles Ellis, an absolute
walking human computer of an engineer.

Probably as brilliant as Strauss was
with the public and selling himself,

Charles Ellis was as brilliant with the
numbers.

Leon Moiseyev was a genius. He was the
chief designer for the Manhattan Bridge

in 1909.

The team that Joseph Strauss put
together was what we would call today a

team. Ellis and Moiseyev quickly see
that Strauss' concept is a clumsy

combination of bridge types.

Want this?

Where's Mike?

We feel it's the best way to build a
bridge across that distance and

the base conditions.

They want to build something cutting
edge, a steel cable suspension bridge,

longest in the world. A suspension
bridge is a method of having a roadway

is supported not from the underneath but
from above.

Primitive suspension bridges go back
millennia, but the Brooklyn Bridge,

in 1883, launched a new era.

The Brooklyn Bridge used multiple towers
to actually pull tension cables, which

then suspend and pull up on the bridge
to counteract its weight from the

Now this allows you to avoid having to
put a foundation in the middle, which

then could serve as an obstruction or a
block for ships trying to get through.

By the 1920s, New York is planning the
next record -setting bridge, the George

Washington, stretching 4 ,700 feet.

The Golden Gate would be 2 ,000 feet
longer.

No suspension bridge will span 6 ,500
feet, 6 ,700 feet.

This one will.

The suspension design meant that bridges
could be built bigger and longer, but

Strauss didn't have a lot of experience
at that.

We stick to my plans.

Understood?

Please, just look at the numbers.

A full suspension bridge will work.

Ultimately, Strauss relents, agreeing to
make the Golden Gate a suspension

bridge.

Strauss has made the right decision,
brought on some real A players, but he

can't let go of the limelight.

And this creates tension almost
immediately.

Not only does the new design double the
cost from $17 million to $35 million,

but on October 24th, 1929, finances for
the bridge go from bad to worse.

America's economy goes bust at the worst
possible time for Strauss and the city

of San Francisco, who still haven't
secured funding for the bridge.

He's not getting federal resource. He's
not getting state money. There's just no

money. So Strauss comes up with a
desperate plan.

Joseph Strauss goes out with a dog and
pony show to the surrounding counties.

He's asking struggling taxpayers across
the region to back loans funding the

bridge, and he's doing it during the
worst economic disaster in U .S.

People are thinking, is this a scam or
is this a hoax?

We're in the Depression.

So going door to door and asking people
to pony up cash.

when many of them are already
unemployed.

That's not me.

It's 1930, and Herbert Hoover is no
longer just the U .S. Commerce

He's the president.

Dealing with an escalating economic
depression.

Desperate to show he's putting people to
work, Hoover revives his idea for a San

Francisco -Oakland Bay Bridge.

Herbert Hoover wants the San Francisco
Bay Bridge project to be a symbol of his

vision for America's economic recovery
in the Depression, when his

administration faces some of the lowest
approval ratings in the history of the

modern American presidency.

Hoover also hopes his record -breaking
bridge, competing against Joseph

Golden Gate, will show the U .S. is back
on the rise.

The whole world's eyes were on these two
bridges. Hoover just needs the right

man to build his epic bridge.

Mr. President, I've built many bridges,
but never one approaching this scale. No

one has.

You'll be the first.

You might say Charles Purcell is, in a
sense, the anti -Strauss. Purcell

understands big projects. Though a
trained bridge engineer, he heads

California's Division of Highways at a
pivotal time.

California was the first state to truly
adopt the automobile.

building roads and bridges throughout
the state at an enormous rate.

Purcell agrees to design and build
Hoover's Bay Bridge, with one deck for

vehicles and another for rail, and the
president secures $77 million in federal

dollars, a luxury the Bay Area's other
bridge project doesn't have.

Local taxpayers have yet to approve
funding the Golden Gate.

But Joseph Strauss presses ahead with
the difficult design.

He needs a bridge that can withstand the
city's next big earthquake.

Imagine the bridge is a hammock slung
between two trees.

Instead of trying to build a bridge as
strong and rigid as possible, it's

actually better to make it somewhat
flexible. The weight of the roadway

would add stability to the bridge.

The weight on a hammock will offset the
force of the wind.

Same principle with the bridge.

Their design will allow the bridge to
sway in an earthquake up to 27 feet,

requiring complicated calculations.

Charles Ellis' specialty.

He works 14 -hour days putting together
calculations that end up filling 10

volumes. They had to calculate what it
would take if there was a traffic jam

and there was a hurricane force wind.

And there was a major earthquake all at
the same time.

Meanwhile, Charles Purcell's Bay Bridge
must be more than four times the length

of the Golden Gate, over four miles.

But Purcell is catching one lucky break.
Halfway between San Francisco and

Oakland, there's an island.

It's always understood that Yerba Buena
Island was going to be an anchor for the

two parts of the bridge.

Using Yerba Buena as a pivot point,
Purcell conceives a bridge with two

sections, both roughly two miles long,
but with totally different designs.

The east, or Oakland side, will be a
more traditional non -suspension bridge

supported from below. The reason why
they never thought of building a

bridge on the east side was they
couldn't reach bedrock.

Obviously, there's going to be enormous
stress on that tower.

If the footings are squishy or can move,
that's really bad news.

Bedrock can be reached on the western
San Francisco side, but a single

suspension bridge would have to stretch
two miles, twice that of the Golden

Gate, itself a record distance.

There was no way that a single
suspension bridge could cross it.

So Purcell has to think.

outside the box.

We have to build not one, but two
suspension bridges back to back and

them to a man -made island between San
Francisco and Yerba Buena Island.

How will you build the island?

That we need to figure out.

Purcell's two suspension bridges on one
side of Yerba Buena and a single span on

the other side is the most complex
bridge design ever attempted.

The San Francisco -Oakland Bay Bridge is
a series of three bridges connected at

this pivot point on Yerba Buena Island.

While Purcell contemplates an impossible
design, Joseph

Strauss has an impossible sales job, and
it's getting worse.

In the Depression, Nervous banks decide
they won't issue the loans unless

residents put up their own private
property as collateral.

Strauss was forced to convince people to
do things that they would otherwise

have never considered doing.

A great city without bridges is like a
skyscraper without elevators.

San Francisco needs this bridge.

The United States.

Meet this bridge.

When it comes to the Golden Gate Bridge,
Joseph Strauss is the ultimate hype

man. When this bridge is built, everyone
who owns property will see their land

values increase.

By sheer will, Strauss' message is
getting through.

There have been safety concerns.

The bridge is designed to hold more than
six lanes of loaded vehicles, bumper to

bumper with no problem.

And can withstand earthquakes up to
seven on the Richter scale.

The bridge is perfectly safe.

Its maximum load capacity far exceeds
the ratio of the torsion load to the

load. When you're taking into account
building a new bridge... The three of

should have been a very powerful team,
and were, until Strauss' ego got in the

way.

He was so insecure about his legacy.

Fun is starting to shine a little bit
more on Ellis, and so it becomes a pinch

point. Joseph Strauss is, at the end of
the day...

The Little Dictator. I'm building a new
bridge. You have to take into account

various dynamic lows.

Come in.

You wanted to see me?

I think you should take a two -week
vacation.

I don't think. I insist.

The rest will do you good.

So Ellis goes on vacation.

He's away from the project, and while
he's out, Strauss sends him a letter

telling him no need to come back.

He fires the guy in the letter.

And once he had rung Ellis out for all
the calculations he had in him, he had

more use for him.

And so he was gone.

And little does he know, he just might
lose his other eighth in the hole.

What's this about?

How would you like to come work for me?

As two massive bridge projects gear up
in San Francisco, Bay Bridge head

Purcell wants Leon Moiseyev, lead
engineer for Joseph Strauss' Golden

join his team. Please, take a seat.

Whatever Strauss is paying you, I'll
match it.

And you can keep cashing his checks,
too.

I need your help.

Strauss's star engineer is two -timing
him.

When he discovers that one of his
employees He's playing for the other

This is treason of the highest order.

You're late.

I came as quickly as I could.

You can't work for both sides.

It's either them or us.

Are you going to fire me, too?

Moiseff knows Strauss can't afford to
lose him.

Without Moiseff, Joseph Strauss would
have been in a world of hurt.

Because Strauss is inching closer to his
dream.

After years of lobbying, voters have
approved his financing plan, with their

property as collateral.

They frankly were nuts to do it, but
they did.

It's taken over a decade, but in January
1933,

Construction on the Golden Gate Bridge
begins before the Bay Bridge can break

ground. Strauss has been given four
years, with a deadline in 1937, to build

longest suspension span in history. But
he's gunning to finish much sooner so he

can beat his rival.

A few months later, work begins on the
Bay Bridge, but without Herbert Hoover

the helm.

This great nation will endure as it has
endured.

Slammed for his handling of the
Depression, President Hoover is out

term. It takes forever to put a project
like the Bay Bridge into implementation.

What FDR understood was the advantage of
putting people to work today.

FDR, recognizing the economic and
military importance of San Francisco.

agrees to go ahead with the project.

But Charles Purcell is given just three
years, until 1936, to get the job done.

It all hinges on his man -made island
connecting back -to -back suspension

bridges, anchored by a watertight
structure called a caisson.

A caisson is basically a fancy word for
a box. But in engineering terms, it's

often a box that can be... anchored to
the bottom of a waterway.

But this is no ordinary caisson.

It's half the width of a city block,
will start 240 feet underwater, and

500 feet tall, the largest and deepest
caisson ever.

Purcell's concept is crazy and brilliant
at the same time.

He had a caisson built that was almost
like a boat. It could float.

Concrete will be poured in gradually to
sink the caisson, more concrete than in

the entire Empire State Building.

Each time they sank it, they would come
out with welders, and they would build

the box taller.

When finished, it will be a watertight
foundation, 500 feet tall, half the

height of the Eiffel Tower.

Brassell hires master diver William Reed
to lead the underwater team.

making sure the massive caisson is
gaining a foothold.

In an era before scuba gear, air is
pumped through long hoses for the

treacherous 240 -foot dives.

They were the highest paid of any of the
workers there. If you pull them out too

quickly, they suffer what was called
caisson disease or the bends.

It can either kill someone or it can
render them physically incapacitated for

the rest of their life.

While Purcell's team battles the deep
sea, on the Golden Gate, Strauss' men

a different issue, building high.

The towers of the Golden Gate Bridge
were over 700 feet tall.

At a height of that magnitude, under
extreme winds, over treacherous water,

workers suffered of almost freezing up.

They had what were essentially panic
attacks, and they needed to be put into

net and literally carried down from the
towers.

Others probably needed a good shot of
whiskey on occasion.

While working conditions are tough on
Strauss' bridge, he's making steady

progress on his goal to finish in well
under four years.

In fact, he's moving faster than Charles
Purcell's Bay Bridge.

Because on that job site, Purcell is
suddenly at a standstill.

The only way we can build this bridge is
if this is exactly right.

The fate of the Bay Bridge rests on
successfully sinking his massive

But there's a problem.

It begins to tilt. Something's wrong.

There's actually a boulder that the
caisson is sitting on, and to right or

the caisson, that boulder has to be
blasted out of place.

This is a ridiculous premise because
think of how dangerous that environment

in the absence of explosives. Now we're
going to put explosives down underneath

the diver?

That's nuts.

Diver William Reed is sent down to carry
out the deadly mission.

He should have been up by now.

If he fails, the Bay Bridge may never be
finished.

Years of planning, years of work,
millions and millions of dollars, and

might all be wrecked just because of one
stray boulder that no one knew was

there.

The Bay Bridge team waits to see if
they've successfully blasted their

underwater caisson into place.

This caisson is going to form the
foundation of this mighty tower that has

hold up not one, but two enormous
suspension bridges.

If anything goes wrong, the entire
bridge project won't work.

The operation is a success.

The largest, deepest underwater caisson
ever is soon ready to support Charles

Purcell's man -made island.

It's one of the great construction
achievements in American history.

The towers on the western span rise
quickly.

And Joseph Strauss takes notice of his
competition's progress.

From his apartment on Knob Hill, he
would look at both of those bridges.

He sees this as a contest, as something
that actually points to the value of him

as a man.

He needs to win it.

And Strauss doesn't just want to win the
race.

He also wants to win the beauty contest.

The designers of the Golden Gate Bridge
and people in the community start

talking about bridge color.

and a lot of people are weighing in on
it, including the military.

The Navy's choice.

Officials at the base military bases
demand the bridge be clearly visible to

planes and ships in dense fog, and
standard bridge gray won't cut it.

The Air Force choice.

Jet black.

My choice.

What about this?

It stands out against the water.

It's just the prime.

Turns out orange is not a bad look when
you take into consideration the scenery

around the Golden Gate Strait. So this
iconic...

color that jumped out at us that we all
see on postcards and tend to love.

It's really just primer and a happy
accident.

Strauss has nailed down a legendary
feature of the Golden Gate. But Charles

Purcell, after averting disaster with
his underwater caisson, kicks Bay Bridge

construction into high gear.

Thanks to a big advantage.

It was federally funded.

And once that tap gets turned on, It's
very hard for the bureaucracy to turn it

off, and it's very easy to get a few
more trickles out of it.

But there's another reason why Purcell
is moving faster.

Following standards of the time, safety
is not his top priority.

One frightening example, the precarious
catwalk, hundreds of feet up on the

western span.

They literally took long stretches of
ordinary chain -link fence and attached

those to the cables and stretched them
out so they had a kind of flexible, see

-through walkway with no guardrails or
anything.

This is a time where worker safety on
construction projects was not

at the forefront of anybody's mind.

The Bay Bridge is well on its way to a
death toll of 24 workers.

At the time, there was this average
number that for every million dollars

on a construction project, one person
would die.

Joseph Strauss was not about to let that
happen on his job site.

So far on Strauss' project, the death
toll is zero.

For all the descriptions of Strauss, he
comes across as a hard man.

But he had some soft spots, and one of
them happened to be with worker safety.

He places strict rules against the
daredevil practices high steelworkers

commonly use to work faster. And when it
comes to safety equipment, Strouth is

ahead of his time.

It was the first construction project in
the country at that time to require

hard hats.

Rivets and other things would fall out
of the sky, and wearing the hard hats

saved more than one life.

He had glare -free goggles to help them
see better in the dense fog.

He had a special diet for workers to
help prevent them from becoming dizzy.

This type of hardcore safety protocol is
completely unheard of at this time. And

it leads to rules that we follow even
today.

But Strauss' obsession with safety slows
down the work, making it much harder to

finish ahead of schedule and beat the
Bay Bridge.

and his goal to finish first is about to
take an even bigger hit.

Joseph Strauss' Golden Gate is
desperately trying to catch up to the

Bridge.

Then, Mother Nature intervenes.

There's a massive storm.

Storms in this area can be incredibly
strong.

This is the doorway to the Pacific
Ocean, and you've got winds howling in.

Forty percent of California drains into
the San Francisco Bay.

Tidal action is very strong.

A pier leading to the South Tower is
destroyed.

This is the only way they get people and
equipment out to the South Tower. This

is heartbreaking.

Repairs will take Strauss seven months,
causing a major slowdown for most of

1934.

Meanwhile, on the Bay Bridge, by early
1935, Charles Purcell is on pace to hit

his target opening date a little over 18
months away.

The western span, back -to -back
suspension bridges, is closing in on

completion. It's the eastern span,
supposedly a simpler design.

that's causing Purcell problems.

The eastern portion of the Bay Bridge
was partially pre -assembled. One piece

weighed 20 ,000 tons and had to be
dropped in to fill a gap in the middle

bridge, 185 feet above the water, held
up by these enormous cranes.

But there's a problem.

Heat from the sun is making the massive
bridge frame expand, narrowing the gap

to be filled.

The 20 ,000 -ton piece won't snap into
place.

And they had to hold it there in
position until the sun wasn't heating

bridge up so much.

The piece finally fits, and by late
1935, Purcell's finish line is in sight.

Five miles away, on the Golden Gate.

Strauss is still trying to maintain an
accelerated schedule and top the Bay

Bridge's 1936 completion target.

His men work around the clock to finish
the towers and hang the suspension

cables.

San Francisco's great Golden Gate Bridge
takes on a more substantial appearance

as an Army blimp surveys the work which
has now reached the cable -spinning

stage.

Eighty thousand miles of wire.

enough to circle the world three times,
are bound together to make the cables.

The steel cables that are being used
actually come from John Roebling's

He's the famous engineer that built the
Brooklyn Bridge. It's a fascinating

connection to see how John Roebling and
his work in the 19th century really kind

of echoes all the way across the nation.

Over a decade in the making, Strauss is
finally in the last phase of

construction, but it's the most
dangerous part of the whole project.

piecing together the 4 ,200 -foot main
span roadway.

There were workers on the roadway and
under the roadway and in open air trying

to connect component pieces of the
roadway. With more activity on the

than any other period, there's a greater
risk of accidents.

Our first death.

Head injury.

And Strauss' safety record suffers a
blow when a worker is hit by falling

debris.

We are not going to lose any more lives.

We need to make our bridge safer.

We know Strauss took on this project
because he wanted to cement his legacy.

If the Golden Gate was going to be his
legacy, it was going to be one that was

on time, on budget, and didn't kill
people.

There isn't much more Strauss can do
about falling debris, but he can do

something about falling people.

Without there being federal regulations
forcing him to do so, he invests in a

massive net that's kept underneath the
bridge.

This was incredibly innovative at the
time. No one else was doing anything

this. Strauss's net is an expensive
innovation, $130 ,000, over $2 .5

today. But it quickly proves its worth.
It caught 19 different workers, saved 19

different workers.

They formed a little club. They called
it the Halfway to Hell Club.

The Halfway to Hell Club had its own
stationery and its own logo. But even

Strauss' dedication to worker safety and
job site safety, unfortunately,

accidents can still happen.

On February 17, 1937, the Golden Gate
Bridge project's near -perfect safety

record is shattered.

The men are working on scaffolding under
the bridge, which is incredibly heavy.

The scaffolding breaks, and it falls
into the net.

It was too heavy. It broke the net.

And it takes 12 men down with it.

Then they saw them suck down into the
Golden Gate Strait.

Two are rescued, but ten men are killed.

The accident is devastating to Joseph
Strauss.

And adding insult to injury, he's lost
the great bridge race.

On November 12, 1936, former President
Herbert Hoover formally opened the

longest bridge of its kind in the world,
the Bay Bridge.

With his bridge on time and slightly
under budget, Charles Purcell has

his legacy.

Charles Purcell achieved two really
amazing accomplishments in his life.

He presided over the construction of the
Bay Bridge, and after that he presided

over the building of the first freeways
in California and what are regarded as

among the first true freeways anywhere
in the world. The Pasadena Freeway, the

110, is America's first and still in use
today.

The Bay Bridge carries more than double
the traffic of the Golden Gate.

Charles Purcell is kind of like his
bridge.

He is this workhorse that has
dramatically contributed to the nation.

Six months later, Strauss bounces back
from tragedy.

On May 27, 1937, his Golden Gate, the
longest suspension bridge in the world,

finally opens, a month ahead of the four
-year deadline and $1 .3 million under

budget.

Strauss has waited decades for his
moment and reads a poem he wrote for the

occasion. At last!

The mighty task is done.

Resplendent in the western sun.

This bridge needs neither praise... But,
sir... It's

beautiful, isn't she?

Yeah. No eulogy. Thanks to you.

Or encomium.

It speaks for itself.

Joseph Strauss removes any trace of his
former top engineer, Charles Ellis, in

the records of the project.

It wasn't until the 90s that Ellis'
story was even known. He is not listed

any contributing engineer on the
original plaque of the bridge.

And it takes 50 years before some of
those historical records come to light,

the bridge district finally honors Ellis
as...

an engineer on the Golden Gate Bridge.

On the bridge's opening day, schools and
businesses across the city closed for

the celebration, and 200 ,000 people
walked the Golden Gate.

They came away from that bridge deck
convinced this was the best project in

history of the world.

While the Bay Bridge labors in relative
obscurity, Joseph Strauss' Golden Gate

helps transform the region into one of
the world's richest.

and becomes a landmark visited by
millions.

In the end, he built the world's most
beautiful bridge.

It was recognized in his lifetime that
this was an achievement.

I think he probably left that project
knowing it would define him, and that's

exactly what he wanted.

Over 80 years later, the Golden Gate and
Bay Bridges both stand tall.

They pushed engineering into a whole new
realm in terms of thinking about

distances that bridges could go, how
light they could be.

Future bridges that were constructed are
often evocative of those original

designs. They were the originators.

They helped make the Bay Area an
interconnected metropolis, capable of

everything from being the launch point
for the Pacific Theater in World War II

to, years later, becoming the epicenter
of U .S. high -tech, Silicon Valley.

These two bridges were the beginning of
San Francisco as we know it, California

as we know it. This was about America
coming into full power and full bloom on

the West Coast.

And it all happened in the Bay.