Golden Gate Bridge: More Than a Photograph

The colour is International Orange and it was chosen partly by designer Irving Morrow for its visibility in San Francisco’s notorious fog, and partly because the primer used during construction happened to be that shade and the consulting Navy officer who came to inspect it in 1933 approved of how it looked against the water and sky. The bridge opened in 1937, cost $35 million, required 83,000 tonnes of steel cable, and was the longest suspension bridge in the world until 1964. The colour turned out to be one of the better accidental design decisions in the history of civil engineering.

San Francisco’s summer fog regularly covers the bridge towers, leaving only the tips visible above a white sea. This is one of the better views available. The fog accumulates in the bay on summer mornings and typically burns off by midday from April through September. Whether you want fog or clear sky is largely a matter of what photograph you’re trying to take – and for the record, the fog version is underrated.

Walking the Bridge

The bridge is free to walk. The east sidewalk is open to pedestrians from 5am to 9pm year-round. The full crossing from the San Francisco toll plaza to the Marin County end is 2.7 kilometres and takes about 30-40 minutes at a comfortable pace. Looking east gives you the bay and the city skyline; looking west gives you the Pacific entrance and the Marin Headlands.

From downtown San Francisco, MUNI bus 28 reaches the bridge approach in about 35 minutes from the Financial District. Driving and parking are possible but the toll plaza lot fills quickly on weekends.

Marin Headlands: The Better View

The most dramatic perspective on the bridge – the full span with San Francisco’s skyline behind it – is from the Marin Headlands on the north side. Drive north across the bridge, take the Alexander Avenue exit, and follow Conzelman Road into the hills. Battery Spencer, a decommissioned military artillery battery 500 metres up from the bridge, gives the best elevated view. Free to access, no permits, no gift shop, a 5-minute walk from a small parking area. At dawn on clear days, this is one of the better spots in the western United States for a single photograph.

Hawk Hill above Battery Spencer is one of the premier hawk migration watching points in the US during September and October – tens of thousands of raptors pass through during the migration peak.

Fort Point and Baker Beach

Fort Point is a Civil War-era brick fort built directly under the bridge’s southern anchorage, open Thursday through Monday 10am-5pm, free entry. The view of the bridge from the fort’s roof – looking straight up at the structure you’re standing under – is the unusual angle that most visitors miss entirely.

Baker Beach, 1.5 kilometres east of the bridge on the San Francisco side, gives a ground-level view of the bridge from a sandy beach. The northern section is clothing-optional, the southern section mixed. Water is around 12-15 degrees Celsius year-round and rip currents make swimming dangerous.

Around the Bridge

The Presidio connects the bridge approach to the rest of the city through 1,500 acres of forested national park. Crissy Field, the restored wetland and beach running east along the bay, is a good 2-3 kilometre walk with consistent bridge views. The Warming Hut café at the Crissy Field waterfront (open from 9am) serves decent coffee.

Sausalito, across the bridge on the Marin side, is worth an hour if you’re already north of the bay – a small waterfront town with galleries, restaurants, and houseboats. The ferry back from Sausalito to the Ferry Building in downtown San Francisco ($15 one-way) gives the best water-level view of the bridge on the return trip, which is arguably better than any view you’ve had all day.