How Long Is The Golden Gate Bridge

Have you ever wondered, How long is the Golden Gate Bridge? The Golden Gate Bridge is arguably the defining image of San Francisco and the Bay Area. The thought of a cable car coming over the crest of Russian Hill or the Transamerica building soaring over the skyline certainly conjure up strong images of San Francisco, but nothing says The City by the Bay quite like the Golden Gate Bridge. When the fog rolls in over those graceful burnt orange towers, an indelible image of an entire region is captured.

Bay area residents might sometimes take it for granted, but the Golden Gate Bridge is one of the most beautiful bridges in the world. This article will cover some basic facts about this incredible structure and will answer once and for all your question, How long is the Golden Gate Bridge?

The Golden Gate Bridge is a 4,200 foot suspension bridge that connects the south shore of Marin County with the northern tip the San Francisco peninsula and San Francisco County. This figure only accounts for the length of the span portion of the bridge that runs between the two towers. If you include the approaches to the bridge from abutment to abutment, the length jumps to 8,981 feet. The bridge is also 90 feet wide, a figure that includes ten feet of sidewalk. The height of the bridge (calculated by using the mean water height of the San Francisco Bay) is 220 feet.

When construction was completed on the bridge in 1937, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. The Golden Gate held that title for twenty-seven years until 1964, when the Verrazano Bridge in New York City (with a length of 42,60 feet) stole the title away.

Today there are six bridges around the world that are longer than the Golden Gate including the Verrazano, Tsing Ma Bridge and Jiangyin Yangtze River Bridge in China, Humber Bridge in England, Great Belt East Bridge in Denmark, and Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge in Japan. Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge, which opened in 1998, is the longest suspension bridge in the world today with a length of 6,532 feet.

For those out there who are metrically oriented, the figures for the length of the Golden Gate Bridge in meters will be more useful than hearing these figures in feet. The length of the span of the bridge from tower to tower is 1,280 meters. However, if you include the approaches and both abutments, the length of the bridge is 2,737 meters. The width of the bridge is 27 meters, and there are also 3 meters of sidewalk that run along the side of the traffic lanes. The bridge is 67 meters high.

The facts are that the Golden Gate Bridge might be 4,200 feet long from tower to tower, but a better answer to the question, How long is the Golden Gate Bridge? might be that it is the perfect length. When you look out over the ocean and see that elegant suspension bridge spanning the mouth of the San Francisco Bay, it seems like nature intended that the Golden Gate Bridge be exactly as long as it is. There may be longer bridges in the world now, but most Bay Area residents will put their beloved bridge against any of them in terms of beauty.

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