A fearless construction worker perched high on the unfinished Golden Gate Bridge in 1935. Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge began in 1933 and took four years to finish, officially opening to the public in May 1937. When completed, it held the record for the world’s longest suspension bridge span at 4,200 feet (1,280 meters), linking San Francisco with Marin County across the Golden Gate Strait. Building the bridge forced workers to operate hundreds of feet above dangerous ocean currents, thick fog, and intense Pacific winds. Although safety standards were harsh by modern expectations, chief engineer Joseph Strauss introduced several groundbreaking protections, including mandatory hard hats and a huge safety net suspended beneath the structure. That net saved the lives of 19 workers during construction, earning them the nickname “Halfway to Hell Club.” Even with those precautions, 11 workers lost their lives during the project, including 10 who died in February 1937 when collapsing scaffolding tore through the safety net. The bridge’s two main cables contained more than 80,000 miles of steel wire, enough to wrap around the Earth more than three times.(Historic Vids)