. . . . that put a Lien on their farms and homes . . . to build the Golden Gate Bridge . . . CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?!!
This passed DURING the depression!! Read Below -
Link
Bridging the Golden Gate
page 5
The Great Depression was in full swing, the bridge’s construction cost of $35 million was only an estimate, and with physical factors like swirling tides, channel depths, ranging winds and fog — not to mention countless other engineering challenges — there was still considerable doubt the Golden Gate Bridge could ever be built.
The latter half of the 1920s saw endless debating, campaigning, estimating and theorizing about constructing the Golden Gate Bridge. Marvelous Marin, a bridge booster group, distributed 10,000 “Bridge the Gate” bumper stickers. In San Anselmo, the Lions Club handed out windshield stickers asking, “Why Wait?” In discussions that would not be out of place today, conservatives argued for austerity while progressives pushed for action.
The all-critical construction bond measure vote was finally set for November 4, 1930. Southern Pacific Railroad, owners of most of the bay’s ferry lines, naturally opposed the issue. So did the American Steamship Lines, which erroneously declared that the bridge would be too low and thus keep “10 of the world’s greatest ships from entering San Francisco harbor.” The vaunted Commonwealth Club was also negative on the subject; so was a Taxpayers’ Committee Against the Golden Gate Bridge Bonds.
But other groups were in favor of the bond measure. In addition to Marvelous Marin and the San Anselmo Lions, most chambers of commerce within the fledgling district’s six counties, along with the emerging Automobile Dealers Association and the San Francisco Chronicle, backed the proposition. Their cause was given a strong boost when the bridge district voted unanimously to require the eventual contractors to hire only workers who had lived in one of the six counties for at least a year.
Only voters in the district’s six counties would be going to the polls. And if the $35 million, plus an additional $39 million in interest, could not be repaid via bridge tolls, liens would be issued against every county resident’s property as a way of making good on the debt. Moreover, passage of the measure required not a simple majority, but a two-thirds approval by voters. Given all this, the odds of passage were not good.
Yet once all votes were counted, the tally stood: 145,697 voted in favor of the bonds while 47,005 voted against. Therefore, the Golden Gate Bridge would be built. In celebration, “at three o’clock on November 12, 1930,” writes Allen Brown in his colorful 1965 book Golden Gate: Biography of a Bridge, “every store in Marin closed its doors so that all could attend a football game in San Rafael that featured an air show over the playing field.” The next day, according to Brown, Marvelous Marin staged a patriotic parade down Fourth Street to celebrate the passing of the bond.
Over time, due primarily to the efforts of San Francisco’s A.P. Giannini, founder of the Bank of America, the $35 million in bonds were successfully sold, earning interest of between 5 and 5.25 percent. Construction on the Golden Gate Bridge started on January 5, 1933 and was completed in May 1937. It came in on budget and, save a tiny portion built using Works Progress Administration funds, none of the money came from state or national sources — the project was all regionally funded.
This passed DURING the depression!! Read Below -
Link
Bridging the Golden Gate
page 5
The Great Depression was in full swing, the bridge’s construction cost of $35 million was only an estimate, and with physical factors like swirling tides, channel depths, ranging winds and fog — not to mention countless other engineering challenges — there was still considerable doubt the Golden Gate Bridge could ever be built.
The latter half of the 1920s saw endless debating, campaigning, estimating and theorizing about constructing the Golden Gate Bridge. Marvelous Marin, a bridge booster group, distributed 10,000 “Bridge the Gate” bumper stickers. In San Anselmo, the Lions Club handed out windshield stickers asking, “Why Wait?” In discussions that would not be out of place today, conservatives argued for austerity while progressives pushed for action.
The all-critical construction bond measure vote was finally set for November 4, 1930. Southern Pacific Railroad, owners of most of the bay’s ferry lines, naturally opposed the issue. So did the American Steamship Lines, which erroneously declared that the bridge would be too low and thus keep “10 of the world’s greatest ships from entering San Francisco harbor.” The vaunted Commonwealth Club was also negative on the subject; so was a Taxpayers’ Committee Against the Golden Gate Bridge Bonds.
But other groups were in favor of the bond measure. In addition to Marvelous Marin and the San Anselmo Lions, most chambers of commerce within the fledgling district’s six counties, along with the emerging Automobile Dealers Association and the San Francisco Chronicle, backed the proposition. Their cause was given a strong boost when the bridge district voted unanimously to require the eventual contractors to hire only workers who had lived in one of the six counties for at least a year.
Only voters in the district’s six counties would be going to the polls. And if the $35 million, plus an additional $39 million in interest, could not be repaid via bridge tolls, liens would be issued against every county resident’s property as a way of making good on the debt. Moreover, passage of the measure required not a simple majority, but a two-thirds approval by voters. Given all this, the odds of passage were not good.
Yet once all votes were counted, the tally stood: 145,697 voted in favor of the bonds while 47,005 voted against. Therefore, the Golden Gate Bridge would be built. In celebration, “at three o’clock on November 12, 1930,” writes Allen Brown in his colorful 1965 book Golden Gate: Biography of a Bridge, “every store in Marin closed its doors so that all could attend a football game in San Rafael that featured an air show over the playing field.” The next day, according to Brown, Marvelous Marin staged a patriotic parade down Fourth Street to celebrate the passing of the bond.
Over time, due primarily to the efforts of San Francisco’s A.P. Giannini, founder of the Bank of America, the $35 million in bonds were successfully sold, earning interest of between 5 and 5.25 percent. Construction on the Golden Gate Bridge started on January 5, 1933 and was completed in May 1937. It came in on budget and, save a tiny portion built using Works Progress Administration funds, none of the money came from state or national sources — the project was all regionally funded.
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