posted by prof_improbable #
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Completed in 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge is one of the American Society of Civil Engineers selected Seven Wonders of the Modern World.
The bridge connects the city of San Francisco with Marin County to its north (the first bridge to connect over the ocean), and was the bridge with longest span until 1962 (it still has the second longest main span in the United States, after the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in New York City).
Joseph Strauss was the chief engineer on the Golden Gate, and was adamant of safety precautions to limit fatalities. Strauss insisted on hard-hats well before they became de rigueur, and instituted a system of safety nets to catch falling workers.
In all, eleven construction workers died in the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge (a heretofore unheard of number for bridge construction).
Those who fell into the nets and survived formed the Halfway to Hell Club.

