Golden Gate Bridge
Two and a half kilometres over the strait, painted an orange chosen to show in fog.
Duration
1 hr 30 min – 2 hrs 30 min
Best time
Mid-morning
Open
Every day
Entry price
Free
The bridge was completed in 1937 after four years of work, over a strait where the current runs at four knots and the fog drops without warning. It was the longest suspension bridge in the world for twenty-seven years, with a main span of twelve hundred and eighty metres.
Its colour, international orange, was originally the anti-rust primer on the girders; the consulting architect insisted on keeping it, against the navy, which wanted yellow and black stripes. It shows up in fog, which was the argument. A crew of painters works on it permanently — the bridge is never finished being repainted.
Getting there
Muni bus 28 to the southern viewpoint, or by bike from Fisherman's Wharf along the coastal path, forty minutes.
Rules on site
The summer fog comes in off the Pacific in the late morning and erases the bridge entirely, often until mid-afternoon: June to August are the murkiest months of the year, contrary to expectation.