Golden Gate: Building the Mighty Bridge

Gr 1-3–Readers observe, along with the lighthouse keeper’s children, the construction of San Francisco’s Golden Gate bridge as it slowly spans the strait. Various stages from the four years of work it took to build the bridge are described with enough detail to satisfy those hungry for facts and stats. For instance, the riveting gang “drives 350 rivets a day” with “600,000 sturdy rivets” holding each tower together. Mixed media illustrations capture the “fog and wind and pounding surf” that are the constant companions of the workers as they pour concrete, string cables, and blast bedrock. A bottom panel across each spread shows the progress of the construction, with elements of the bridge highlighted in iconic orange against the blues and grays of the water and sky. The first of these panels shows the foreman rolling out the blueprints as the work begins; the last shows him rolling them back up when the work is done. Details in the afterword include the names of some of the workers and an explanation for the final color of the bridge.