The Golden Gates bridge in San Francisco, USA, is ...

The Golden Gates bridge in San Francisco, USA, is named after the Golden Gate Strait, the narrow, turbulent, 300-foot-deep stretch of water below the bridge that links the Pacific Ocean on the west to San Francisco Bay on the east.

Believed to be the most photographed bridge in the world, this landmark was named one of the seven civil engineering wonders of the United States by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1994.

Fifty thousand people walked across the bridge when it first opened on May 26, 1937. It was opened to motor vehicles the next day.

On May 24, 1987, some 300,000 people squeezed onto the bridge for a 50th birthday party called Bridgewalk 87. The weight of bridge walkers that day caused the roadway to sag in the middle by 7 feet!! But bridge engineers said the structure always remained safe.

The Golden Gate Bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world until 1964. It is now the ninth-longest.

Interesting fact: The two main suspension cables use a combined 80,000 miles of wire. Looped around the Earth s equator in a single strand, it would circle the planet three times.

I had the opportunity to visit this magnificent engineering marvel on our trip to USA. Would love to travel there again whenever the opportunity arises.