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The bridge owes its striking style to the consulting architects Irving F. Morrow and his wife Gertrude. They simplified the pedestrian railings to uniform posts placed far enough apart to allow an unobstructed view.

Repairing and painting the bridge is an ongoing task. The paint protects it from the high salt content in the air, which corrodes the steel components.

On the city side stands an 1861 fort. This spot provides a view of the soaring underside of the structure and the pounding waters of the ocean.

Crossing from the San Francisco side, pull off just before you reach the end of the bridge and take in the startling panorama from the specially constructed Vista Point and look back at the hills and spires of the city. If there’s fog, note how the bridge’s tower tops disappear in the mist.

The bridge has starred in many movies, most notably Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo , in which James Stewart pulls Kim Novak from the raging surf, just east of Fort Point (see Top 10 Movies Set in San Francisco). In the James Bond movie, A View To A Kill , Grace Jones and 007 battle it out, both of them clinging to the bridge’s aerial heights.

The Golden Gate Bridge is the number one spot in the world for suicides. As yet there are no effective preventative barriers but there are bars for general safety.

Joseph Strauss introduced the use of hard hats, goggles, and safety belts for the first time, as well as a vast safety net under the bridge, which saved 19 workers.

The bridge opened on May 28, 1937, with some 200,000 pedestrians. Fifty years later, on May 24, 1987, the ritual was repeated with about 300,000 people.

No visit to San Francisco would be complete without a walk or bike-ride across at least part of the bridge.

Beginning May 28, 1937, the toll to cross the bridge was 50 cents each way, with a 5-cent charge if a car had more than three passengers. The toll is currently $2.50 per axle, only charged to city-bound traffic.