The Golden Gate Bridge

Makenzie Allen 3/14/14 Math 7 Geometry Project

The Golden Gate Bridge is one of the few bridges in the United States that uses a great deal of geometry in the design. This phenomenal bridge was completed in 1937, was a major accomplishment for the engineers, and a miracle for the locals. The Iron Horse, as people called it, was very helpful because it lifted the problem of always having to take the ferry across the bridge. When the only way to get across the bay was by ferry, the bay started to get clogged with people and ferry boats. But when the bridge was built, instead, people could just drive or walk across the beautiful bridge. But, when the idea of the building Golden Gate Bridge getting built, hung in the air, people did not want it to be built. This was because of many reasons, and as Joseph Strauss said, It took two decades and two hundred million words to convince people the bridge was feasible. The Golden Gate Bridge has always been a part of many peoples lives, and for many years, so people are bound to have some questions. Some of those questions that have probably been asked are, How does the Golden Gate Bridge relate to geometry? Or, How does the Golden Gate Bridge use geometry? Well, this paper will answer any question that you have about the Golden Gate Bridges relation to geometry. The Golden Gate Bridge relates to geometry in many ways. Some of the ways that this wonderful bridge relates to geometry are because of the way it was built, and the techniques that the engineers used to build it. One of the methods that the bridge uses geometry in its design was that the cable suspension was built into a parabola shape. A parabola is usually used when graphing a quadratic equation. This means that the cable suspension is a two dimensional, mirror symmetrical curve. Some examples of things using the geometrical property of parabola are satellites, flashlights, and even rotating liquid. There are many people in history that helped the Golden Gate Bridge get built, but the most important person that helped was Joseph B. Strauss. He contributed to the bridge getting built because he was the one who actually convinced the people that the bridge was a worthy idea. Without this act, the Golden Gate Bridge would have never been built. He also hired all of the people who built the bridge. Another way that the bridge was built using geometry was that the bridge deck forms two parallel lines, and uses many different sizes and types of triangles. Some of the triangles that it uses are scalene triangles, isosceles triangles, and equilateral triangles. It also uses right triangles, acute triangles, and obtuse triangles. The bridge deck forms two parallel lines because if someone were to go underneath the incredible bridge, one could see that the masses of iron form two parallel lines. Also, if one wanted to see the triangles in the bridge deck, that person would also have to go underneath the bridge. That person or those people would look up and would see that by the parallel iron bridge deck, there would be golden-

orange iron shaped into many different triangles. The Golden Gate Bridge relates to geometry in many ways, and this paragraph really illustrates how it does. The last reason that the Golden Gate Bridge relates to geometry is because the towers that support the Golden Gate Bridge, on the sides of it, are in the Golden Rectangle Ratio of length to sides. Now one might ask what exactly the Golden Rectangle Ratio of length to sides even is. Well, it means that the towers are in the golden ratio, which is a special number approximately equal to 1.618. It can be found by dividing a line into two parts, so that longer part divided by the shorter part is also equal to the whole length divided by the longer part of the line. This might seem confusing, but if one thinks about it long enough, eventually, that person will get it. In conclusion, the Golden Gate Bridge is an amazing bridge, and relates to geometry in many ways, obviously. So now one might ask how does the Golden Gate Bridge relate to geometry? Well, it relates to it in many ways, and uses it in a way that not many bridges use. For example, it relates because of the way it was built, and the techniques that the engineers used to build it. One of the ways that it was built was that the cable suspension is parabola. Another way that the Golden Gate Bridge relates to geometry is because the bridge deck forms two parallel lines, and uses many different sizes and types of triangles. For example, one type of triangle that the Golden Gate Bridge uses is an isosceles triangle. Last but not least, the Golden Gate Bridge relates because the towers that support the Golden Gate Bridge are in the Golden Rectangle Ratio of length to sides. People know that the Golden Gate Bridge uses a lot of math and geometry in it, but imagine the bridge with out any geometry at all. It would not even be there. It would not be standing. This is how much people depend on geometry and how much we use it in our everyday lives. Geometry is something that people have to live with. And as Luca Pacioli said, Without [geometry] there is no art.

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