Entraînement à la Grammaire Anglaise à Distance

Back Story New York Times 5.01.2018.

Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge began (1) on this day in 1933, more than 60 years after it was first proposed. Calls for a major thoroughfare connecting San Francisco to Marin County, to the north, began after the city's population increased tenfold (2) during the Gold Rush. Before the bridge was painted in its iconic "international orange," architects considered a U.S. Navy proposal for a striped design (3) to make the structure more visible to ships and airplanes. The distinct reddish-orange hue was chosen to complement the bridge's natural surroundings: the hills, the fog and the San Francisco Bay. The city hired the engineer Joseph Strauss (4) to build the 1.7-mile-long bridge, the longest and tallest of its kind at the time. The bridge opened (5) four years later to great fanfare. The Times called it "one of the greatest engineering structures of man," and Mr. Strauss penned a poem (6), "The Mighty Task Is Done", for the occasion. "The bridge is a triumphant structure (7), a testimony to the creativity of mankind," the historian Keven Starr wrote (8) in 2010, offering "enduring proof that human beings can alter the planet with reverence."