L. W. Currey, Inc.

(California; San Francisco; Golden Gate Bridge) Strauss, Joseph Baermann and Michael Maurice O'Shaughnessy. BRIDGING "THE GOLDEN GATE" [cover title]. N.p. [Chicago: Strauss Bascule Bridge Company], n.d. [1921]. 20.5x33.5 cm (8 x 13 inches) (oblong octavo), pp. [1-3] 4-15 [16: blank], illustrations, diagrams, original brown wrappers embossed in gold and blind, stapled. First edition. An important early proposal for a bridge spanning the Golden Gate with three full-page illustrations (an artist's sketch of the bridge and two architectural drawings) of the proposed bridge and its components. Joseph Baermann Strauss (1870 -1938), an American structural engineer who revolutionized the design of bascule bridges, proposed a suspension bridge with a massive cantilever on each side of the strait, connected by a central suspension segment, which Strauss estimated could be built for $17 million (equivalent to $399 million today). "Although the idea of a bridge spanning the Golden Gate was not new, the proposal that eventually took hold was made in a 1916 San Francisco Bulletin article by former engineering student James Wilkins. San Francisco's City Engineer estimated the cost at $100 million (equivalent to $2.3 billion today), and impractical for the time. He asked bridge engineers whether it could be built for less. One who responded, Joseph Strauss, was an ambitious engineer and poet who had, for his graduate thesis, designed a 55-mile-long (89 km) railroad bridge across the Bering Strait. At the time, Strauss had completed some 400 drawbridges -- most of which were inland -- and nothing on the scale of the new project ... Local authorities agreed to proceed only on the assurance that Strauss would alter the design and accept input from several consulting project experts. A suspension-bridge design was considered the most practical, because of recent advances in metallurgy. Strauss spent more than a decade drumming up support in Northern California ... The bridge's name was first used when the project was initially discussed in 1917 by M. M. O'Shaughnessy, city engineer of San Francisco, and Strauss. The name became official with the passage of the Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District Act by the state legislature in 1923, creating a special district to design, build and finance the bridge. Strauss was the chief engineer in charge of the overall design and construction of the bridge project ... However, because he had little understanding or experience with cable-suspension designs, responsibility for much of the engineering and architecture fell on other experts. Strauss's initial design proposal ... was unacceptable from a visual standpoint. The final graceful suspension design was conceived and championed by Leon Moisseiff, the engineer of the Manhattan Bridge in New York City ... Irving Morrow, a relatively unknown residential architect, designed the overall shape of the bridge towers, the lighting scheme, and Art Deco elements, such as the tower decorations, streetlights, railing, and walkways. The famous International Orange color was Morrow's personal selection, winning out over other possibilities, including the US Navy's suggestion that it be painted with black and yellow stripes to ensure visibility by passing ships ... Construction began on January 5, 1933. The project cost more than $35 million ($523 million in 2019 dollars), and was completed ahead of schedule and $1.3 million under budget (equivalent to $24.2 million today). The project was finished and opened on May 27, 1937. Senior engineer Charles Alton Ellis, collaborating remotely with Moisseiff, was the principal engineer of the project. Strauss is credited as the chief engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge, but Charles Alton Ellis is responsible for most of the structural design. Because of a dispute with Strauss, however, Ellis was not recognized for his work when the bridge opened in 1937. Only much later were the contributions of the others on the design team properly appreciated" (Wikipedia). A very good copy. (#167046).

Price: $850.00