Construction of the Bridge

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The anchor pits were dug by hand at approximately 8 ft. per week, depending on the rock.  The west bank pit was 110 ft. deep, and the east bank pit was 90 ft. deep.  Once the anchorages were in place and the main span was erected, the rock chambers and tunnels were filled with concrete to within a few feet of the cable connections, providing water-tight protection for all the steel components of the anchorage chain.
The towers, 351 ft high, rested on cast steel bases 10 ft x 35 ft x 5 ft high.  These, in turn, rested on 20 ft x 40 ft concrete piers founded on rock near water level.  Each main cable was constructed from 7,452 individual galvanized wires.  The total length of single wire in the two cables is 7,377 miles.
    

The erection of the east tower started October 22, 1923.  Both towers were completed in the middle of April, 1924.  The wire rope cables for the temporary footbridge, or working platform, were placed in April.  The footbridge was completed in early June, which allowed the spinning 
of the main cable strands to start on June 14th.  They were finished August 23rd.  On September 13th, workers began constructing the stiffening  trusses that would stabilize the roadway.  Moving from the towers to the center of the river, crews used machines called travelers to hoist steel for the preliminary decking into place from barges that were waiting below.  The travelers then retreated toward the shore, allowing
   workers to set the remaining floor components.

Just 20 months and 4 days after the contract was signed, the world's longest suspension bridge was completed without the loss of a single life.

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