Golden Gate Bridge
Opened May 27, 1937 as simultaneously the world's longest and tallest suspension bridge — you can walk the 4,200-foot main span yourself.
Coming soon on iOS — be first to walk San Francisco offline.
The bridge spans the one-mile strait where San Francisco Bay opens into the Pacific. Four engineers shaped its final form — chief engineer Joseph Strauss alongside Leon Moisseiff, Irving Morrow, and Charles Ellis. It carries pedestrians and cyclists, and Frommer's calls it "possibly the most beautiful, certainly the most photographed, bridge in the world."
What to look for
- The 4,200-foot (1,280 m) main span between the two towers
- Towers rising 746 feet: they held the world height record for suspension bridges until 1998
- The dedicated pedestrian walkway and cycle path, officially part of U.S. Bicycle Route 95
Walk or cycle across; U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1 cross it by car.
Golden Gate Bridge is one of 31 sights worth the detour in San Francisco, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the San Francisco pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in San Francisco
- Alcatraz IslandFor 29 years, cold Bay tidal currents did what bars alone could not — make escape nearly impossible.
- Transamerica PyramidAn 853-foot pyramid that ruled San Francisco's skyline for 45 years — still on the Transamerica logo even though the company quietly moved its HQ to Baltimore.
- Golden Gate ParkSan Francisco turned three miles of bare shifting sand dunes into the country's third-busiest urban park — starting from scratch in 1870.
- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)The West Coast's first museum devoted solely to 20th-century art, now stretched across 170,000 square feet after a 2016 expansion that nearly sextupled public space.
- Alcatraz Federal PenitentiaryA 9-by-5-foot cell surrounded by cold bay currents — the federal government once staked its reputation on the claim that no one could leave.
- Lombard StreetEight hairpin turns cut into a 27% hillside — the 1922 engineering fix for a grade too steep to drive straight.