Golden Gate: The Life and Times of America's Greatest Bridge

I won this book from the Goodreads First Reads giveaway program, and I am very grateful that I did. My to-read list is so long that I will read only a fraction of the books on it, and winning this ensured that I read it, and I’m glad that I did.

I live a five minutes drive away from the Golden Gate Bridge, within hiking distance from it. I used to walk across it regularly; I occasionally drive across it, and at times in the past regularly did so. I’ve known 4 people who jumped off of it, 3 who died, 1 who survived; luckily, none were close friends. My mother lived here during its construction. One of my very favorite photographs is Ansel Adams’ The Golden Gate Before the Bridge. I have my memories of it from very early childhood to show more the present.

The writing style of this author is very poetic.

Each chapter reads like its own essay, and I read it chapter by chapter, slowly, in order to savor it.

This book is about the bridge and issues related to it: the culture, art, history, geology, geography, weather, engineering, architecture, personalities, etc.

There are some photographs, but I would have liked many more, including the Ansel Adams before the bridge photos; I found out there is a series of photos, not just the one photo I’ve seen and loved. It helped that while I read this book I read a book of photographs of San Francisco, old and new, that had many photos of the Golden Gate, before, during and after bridge construction. (San Francisco: Views of the Past & Present)

Contents:
1. Bridge
2. Icon
3. Site
4. Vision
5. Politics
6. Money
7. Design
8. Construction
9. City
10. Suicide
11. Art
Essay on Sources
Index

I did catch at least one irritating major error: the San Andreas fault is to the west of the Golden Gate Bridge, not to the east.

So, I learned quite a bit from this book. Recently a Goodreads friend of mine, who lives in another country and has never been to San Francisco, was surprised at the International Orange color of the Golden Gate Bridge; she’d expected it to be golden colored. I was able to explain to her that Golden Gate was the name of the place, the spot between San Francisco to the south and Marin country to the north where to the west of it is the Pacific Ocean and to the east of it is San Francisco Bay, that the bridge spanned the Golden Gate. But, I did not know that it was Frémont, in 1846, who named the site Chrysopylae, Golden Gate, was in reference to the Golden Horn of Constantinople.

I’m very disappointed that one of the books mentioned in the art chapter, a book published in 1978, The Golden Gate Bridge Troll by Jean Fitzgerald, is not in the Goodreads database, and that the only copy my library has is for library use only. I may see if they’ll let me read it on site, or I may try to purchase a used copy. There are so many other books (and other media) mentioned that I’m tempted to pile more onto my to-read shelf.

This is an erudite look at an object that fascinates me. Aside from not having enough photos, I can’t imagine it being done much better than it was done in this book. show less

I had to push myself to read on past the first philosophical paragraphs. I always have a great deal of disenchantment with writers or commentators who seem to need to report about or read some sort of mysticism into normal life. I cannot accept that there has to be some sort of metaphysical reason for the collective thought processes that give rise to progress. If we humans build something functional and make it beautiful as well, why do 'thinkers' and writers dream up a master plan for our psyches as a reason for its completion 'as built'? Perhaps my training and early working life as a steam engineer make me pragmatic and therefore suspicious of psychology. I believe that we don't really need psychological crutches. We can get along show more very nicely if we accept what is, build what we need, make it generally 'attractive' to the eye and enjoy it while we use it.
Then the book got interesting - Chapter 4: Vision. I got riveted and excited and really enjoyed the following parts of the story - until the waffling about 'art' at the end. In fact I found the shortage of pictorial enhancement of the construction phase discussion to be an unfortunate omission. So much so that I went out to my favorite "Used and Rare" bookshop and picked up a copy of "Spanning the Gate" by Stephen Cassady. Some of the photos in that book are superb and enlightening to both authors' writings about the bridge. I then spent a good part of a morning messing around on the internet exploring the information available. There is a lot of it but I'm somewhat disappointed that there is not a dedicated museum at the site.
In all, this book is OK. I was left wanting more and, if that is Mr. Starr's intent, he succeeds. I will soon be visiting the bridge for other-than-crossing-it reasons but I wont, however, be searching out any of his other books. show less

Professor Starr's brief consideration of the landmarks background, history, and subsequent role in the Bay area's development and the nation's imagination is concise and elegant. His thematic approach allows him to avoid a deadening amount of detail without sliding into glibness. Starr's ability to refine these themes keeps the perspective fresh and interesting. Contrary to other reviewers, I did not find the bridge to elevated "greatest" status at the expense of other similar iconic landmarks. For instance, he notes that the Golden Gate has yet to elicit the artistic response of the Brooklyn Bridge and that Verranzo Narrows Bridge ultimately took away the Golden Gate's claim to be the longest single span suspension bridge. That said, show more it remains clear the Golden Gate appropriately has a special place in the author's affections.
My experience with this book has reinforced a pre-existing interest in his California Dream series that perhaps will lead me to pursue.
I will echo a complaint registered by other reviewers. A map is desperately needed for readers that lack an intimate knowledge of the Bay area., . show less

I expected more from this book. Many of the early chapters are devoted to the politics and geological formation of the area, however there is no map to show me where the counties are, the shape of the bay, the location of the islands in the bay etc. I think I would have understood the problems of getting everyone to sign on to the project and the difficulties of the physical limitations had I been able to see the physical layout of the area. Maybe locals and California residents would know intuitively about this, but if you want your audience to be wider than one state you have to give us more information.

I was also dismayed by the pandering language of the writing. Such overblown words as "monumental" , "grand", "ambitious" fill the show more descriptions of the project and the participants. Yes, it probably was monumental but I don't need to be continously reminded of that. Strauss "made grand entrances to and exits from the construction site, Sol Hurok on a Hollywood set" ????? "Cone would be best played by Spencer Tracy" ????? It is just overblown.

I did enjoy the chapter on construction and wish more time were spent on the daily grind of the construction workers. They were the desperate depression era men who were the unsung participants in this project. A wonderful book would be to concentrate on just them.

An ironic post script: this California book was printed by a New York City publisher. show less

Kevin Starr is the greatest, and likely the most read, historian of any American state. His six volume series, Americans and the California Dream, is as readable as it is informative. The present small volume, although not a part of the larger series for which Starr is so much admired, is likewise readable and informative. It is a history of the Golden Gate Bridge in the broadest sense (conception, planning, financing, construction), as well as an analysis of the bridge in multiple senses—philosophical, artistic, and even psychological. While certainly celebrating the bridge, Starr does not hesitate to openly discuss the many people who have used it as a means of taking their own lives. He speculates about the Golden Gate Bridge’s show more future vulnerability to earthquakes, to terrorism, and to inadequate materials maintenance. He notes how photographs of the bridge have stylistic variations from one era to another. Only when he discusses the ancient Greek historian Pythagoras’ theory of number as “a direct revelation of the structure of creation itself” did I wonder if the author might have drifted a bit far afield. Amazingly, Starr does all of this in slightly less than 200 rather small pages. Of special interest to people in the Bay area and those of us who love our periodic visits to the Bay area. show less

As an avid hiker I have traveled world-wide over all kinds of paths including to name just a few those on the Tower Bridge, Brooklyn Bridge, Puente de la Mujer and Sydney Harbour Bridge. And, of course, the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge - several times round trip from portal to portal. I picked up this recently published book to learn more about that marvelous path that I had travelled on.
Boy did I! This is a short book of about 200 pages but it managed to cover the Bridge's history, politics, design and construction and especially social and cultural symbolisms. It is fact-filled with interesting stories and tidbits from who were the actual designers of the Bridge, ferry culture, the potentially disastrous 50th anniversary show more pedestrian walk, Cardinal Pacelli's blessing, numerous artists, Steel's classic film tribute, accepted toll payments by the toll-takers .... all the way to the sauerkraut juice for hung-over Bridge workers. Fascinating reading. Kevin Starr's credentials for a book with this California topic and scope are unassailable. While there are some irritating repetitions (one example: the Golden Gate naming in reference to the Golden Horn of Constantinople is stated five times!), I found the author's prose to be appropriate for the subject and a pleasure to read.
I enjoyed this book. It reinforced and amplified my Golden Gate bridge walking memories. show less

Kevin Starr does an excellent job in framing this great American icon into a wonderful interdisciplinary context.. His descriptions, both detailed and poetic, serve to clearly convey a wonderful understanding and an appreciation of the development of this engineering wonder. I found his categorical (Vision, Politics, Money, Design, etc.) organization through his Table of Contents to be very useful in my understanding of the various aspects of the bridges history. The color photos were also very helpful. A descriptive map would have also been useful. I'm an engineer turned high school teacher and I often teach an Orientation to Engineering class through a study of bridge design. This a work I will recommend highly to my students. I also show more strongly recommend it to anyone interested in history, specifically the history of California or of Technology and Engineering. It truly is a story of the drama of human achievement. show less