Behind the Shot

The Golden Gate Bridge, spanning the narrow strait of San Francisco Bay, is a historic engineering marvel crossed by more than 110,000 vehicles daily. Prior to its completion in 1937, the only direct way to get from the Marin County side of the San Francisco Bay to the city of San Francisco was via ferry service. On the drawing table as early as 1916, early bridge designs were based on a series of cantilever bridges connected by a central suspended segment. Budget concerns and worries that a bridge collapse would close the bay off from the Pacific Ocean scuttled those plans.

Over time, a new design approach was proposed by Leon Moisseiff, the engineer who designed the Manhattan Bridge in New York City. Moisseiff, along with the project engineers Joseph Strauss, Charles Ellis, and residential architect Irving Morrow, worked to reimagine the bridge into the iconic structure we know today. The towers' distinctive shape, the lighting design, the Art Deco filigree and the choice of International Orange were all decisions made by Morrow.

Terry has always been attracted to the iconic bridge. “It is so overphotographed, but I wanted to find a twist on the classic angle. I was on the Marin side, and the sunset wasn’t great that day. I knew that I could get a great shot using the symmetry of the bridge and the lines. This isn’t an angle you see very often. I’m really happy with how this shot came out.”