The Golden Gate Bridge: Innovating Worksite Safety
May 31, 2022
Learn the quick history of the Golden Gate Bridge and how it's construction innovated worksite safety of today.
Learn the quick history of the Golden Gate Bridge and how it's construction innovated worksite safety of today.
The Golden Gate Bridge project began in 1933. The chief engineer, Joseph Strauss, had concerns for the worker’s safety. Thanks to him, the job-site was the first to require employees to wear hard hats. The hard hats were made of canvas and aluminum with a functional design shown to help reduce the chance of injury from falling rivets and tools.
The project also installed safety nets and had employees tie off. Despite the high winds, churning currents and towering heights that challenged the work, Strauss was determined to buck the industry’s deadly average of one fatality per million dollars spent on a construction project. The total cost of the project was almost $24 million, so statistical forecasts would expect 24 deaths.
“On the Golden Gate Bridge, we had the idea we could cheat death by providing every known safety device for workers,” he wrote in 1937 for The Saturday Evening Post. Strauss installed safety nets to keep employees from falling to their death. 19 men survived a fall to the safety nets. The men became known as the “The Halfway-to-Hell-Club.”
Only one man had died up until February 1937. A feat unheard of at the time in construction. Unfortunately, 10 men died when scaffolding collapsed and fell through the safety netting. In the end, a total of 11 men lost their lives on the project. The project, from a safety standpoint, was an enormous success. In comparison, the Oakland Bridge had 24 deaths and the Brooklyn Bridge had 27 deaths.
The Golden Gate Bridge project finished under budget and ahead of schedule. Strauss was calculated and serious in his approach to providing a safer work environment for the men on the project. Men were fired for not following safety practices. Men became more comfortable working at heights with safety nets. The men had to be ordered to not jump into the nets.
Why have I given so much history from nearly 100 years ago? Strauss invested $130,000 in safety equipment for the Golden Gate Bridge. The cost was arguably an investment that changed the course of worksite protections, leading the way in safety and reduction in loss of life. The utilization of nets, which had not been used in such a fashion before, and the requirement of hard hats had a significant impact on the project. Strauss was willing to be different, to be successful. Bucking tradition and the status quo to protect employees, Strauss had no fear of being the oddity.
Are we still fighting cultural norms in our current jobs and projects when it comes to safety? Are new technologies and advancements available that we refuse to adopt or move towards? Yes, and I suspect that will always be the case. So, I encourage you to stand out from the crowd like Strauss and help keep the construction industry progressing.
There is always resistance to be the first. The difficulty of being the first is exacerbated by the need to shift worldviews and cultural norms by our peers. To do nothing and not change is to not grow. Being a professional requires us to take hard looks in the mirror and ask how we are using best-known practices, innovating and staying current. Let’s not go another hundred years before we are willing to be different.
