San Francisco, California, USA
(Chas Hiller / Library of Congress)
The paint color of the Golden Gate Bridge was a point of contention. The American Navy was eager to see the structure in yellow and black stripes to facilitate visibility in the region’s fog, whereas the Army Air Corps rejected that scheme for stripes in red and white.
On arrival, the ironwork of the bridge had already been coated in a deep red anti-corrosion primer. For Irving Morrow, consulting architect to the design, this was indeed the perfect color choice – International Orange. Not one to leave the result to chance, he wrote a report on the selection choice which ran to some twenty-nine pages. The bridge was officially opened on May 27, 1937.
‘The curtain rises. The pageant unrolls. Voices are lifted in song. Let us lift up our hearts with thanksgiving. Let us give honor to whom honor is due; to those who conceived this mighty project and to those who made its building possible; to the engineers who designed it and the directors and management that built it. Let us remember, in deep sorrow, those whose lives were sacrificed in the course of its construction.’
Angelo Rossi, Mayor of San Francisco, from the ‘Official Program of the Golden Gate Bridge Fiesta’, May 27 to June 2, 1937
