Golden Gate Bridge: Northern Approach Road – Sausalito CA

Description

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed the northern approach road to the Golden Gate Bridge (not itself a New Deal project).  It ran 1.5 miles from the end of US Highway 101 to the bridgehead on the Marin Headlands.

San Francisco WPA branch manager William Mooser made a prospective announcement of the work in a 1938 report:

“This project embraces the location and construction of a lateral highway, one and one-half miles in length connecting U.S. Highway 101 at Sausalito with the bridge-head of the Golden Gate Bridge, with such structures as may be required, and include all necessary excavation, grading, drainage, surfacing, fencing, and lighting. It is proposed to construct a 300 foot shouldered roadway with bituminous surfacing. The adequate lighting of the project has been taken into consideration, and under the present request the latest type of sodium vapor lamps will be used for this purpose.” (p. 84.)

The exact dates of construction are unknown to us, but probably took place in 1939-40.  The Golden Gate bridge opened on May 27, 1937.