Building the Golden Gate Bridge in the 1930s
Golden Gate Bridge Opens First to Pedestrians
May 27, 1937
San Francisco, California
On a typical cold and foggy May morning, an estimated 200,000 people came to celebrate the pedestrian opening of the Golden Gate Bridge. Autos will be allowed to cross at a later date. By 6am, the starting hour of Pedestrians Day, 18,000 people were waiting to cross the span from both the San Francisco and the Marin sides. When the hour struck, foghorns gave great blasts, the toll gates opened and the young and eager, mostly high school students -- ran or walked out onto the bridge.
During the day, thousands of people competed to be the first to cross the bridge in some unique manner. Donald Bryan, a sprinter from San Francisco Junior College, was the first person to cross the entire span. People roller-skated, walked on stilts, walked backwards, walked dogs and cats, tap-danced, rode on unicycles, played harmonicas and tubas, all setting first-time records. That evening there was spectacular production, "The Span of Gold", a musical pageant of California history.
Remember When
Natalie Wood - A Vogue Cover Image
She was born in San Francisco on July 20, 1938, and took ballet classes at the age of four. She landed her first film role, a bit part in Happy Land at the age of five, and at the age of eight, Wood won over the audiences with her small role as an orphan in the drama Tomorrow Is Forever with Claudette Colbert and Orson Wells. The next year she became a star with her first major role in Miracle on 34th Street.
In 1955 at age 16, she co-starred with James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause and in 1961 she played Maria in West Side Story. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in Splendor in the Grass.
Wood earned a lot of press not just for her acting roles, but also for her personal life. She had numerous relationships—both public and secret—with her co-stars, colleagues and other stars. She dated actor Dennis Hopper, hotel dynasty heir Nicky Hilton, and even singer Elvis Presley. Her first marriage at the age of eighteen was to actor Robert Wagner, eight years her senior. The pair split up soon after, and she became involved with Warren Beatty. After another failed marriage to Richard Gregson, a writer and producer she decided to remarry Wagner. They had one child named Courtney and stayed together until Wood's death in 1981.