#irving morrow

The Golden Gate Bridge opened to pedestrian traffic on May 27, 1937, creating a vital link between San Francisco and Marin County, California.

Henry Cowell's house (leading American avante grade composer of the 20s and 30s) designed by Irving Morrow (architectural consultant on the Golden Gate Bridge) in San Francisco from 90 years ago could be yours!

Irving Morrow – Scientist of the Day

Irving F. Morrow, an American architect, was born Oct. 28, 1884.  

The construction of the Golden Gate Bridge began on this date, January 5, in 1933. At the time of its opening on May 27, 1937, the bridge was both the longest (4,200 feet) and tallest (746 feet) suspension bridge in the world.

This ambitious project completed by a subsidiary of Bethlehem Steel Corporation, the McClintic-Marshall Construction Company, following plans laid out by its architect Irving Morrow (1884-1952) and engineering design work by Charles Alton Ellis (1876-1949), Leon Solomon Moisseiff (1872-1943), and Joseph Strauss (1870-1938).

Eleven workers died during construction of the bridge, but that number would have been higher but for Strauss’s insistence on installing a movable safety netting system below the construction site. This precaution, which Strauss is credited with inventing, likely saved the lives of the nineteen workers who fell into it, and thus earning themselves membership into the exclusive ‘Half Way to Hell Club’.

The Golden Gate Bridge opened to pedestrian traffic on 27 May 1937, the beginning of a week-long celebration of the 4,200-feet long structure (the longest bridge in the world until 1964 when it was surpassed by the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in New York City).

The idea for the bridge was first proposed in 1872, but no serious concepts were developed until Joseph Strauss submitted a proposal for a combination suspension-cantilever bridge in 1921. Over the next few years, Strauss’s design was modified by engineer Leon S. Moisseiff, architect Irving F. Morrow, and others. Moisseiff’s concept of a simple suspension bridge was accepted by Strauss, and Morrow, along with his wife, Gertrude, developed the Golden Gate Bridge’s elegant Art Deco design (and chose the distinctive orange color). In 1929 Strauss was named chief engineer and construction began in 1933.