The Magnificent Golden Gate Bridge

Summary

Stuff You Should Know — “The Magnificent Golden Gate Bridge”

Podcast: Stuff You Should Know (iHeartPodcasts)
Hosts: Josh Clark & Chuck Bryant
Date: January 29, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this engaging episode, Josh and Chuck take listeners on a deep dive into the history, engineering marvels, controversies, and social impact of the Golden Gate Bridge. They explore why the bridge is so significant—both as an engineering triumph and a cultural icon. The episode unfolds with their signature blend of thorough research, humor, and banter, making even the minutiae of bridge construction feel exciting.

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Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. Personal Connections & Favorite Bridges

• The hosts open with lighthearted bridge talk, revealing personal favorites (Brooklyn Bridge for Chuck; Budapest’s bridges for Josh).
• They note the Golden Gate Bridge is “often named as the most photographed bridge in the world” (Josh, 03:59).
• Chuck admits Brooklyn is his favorite, but concedes the Golden Gate’s iconic status.

2. Why “Golden Gate”?

• The “Golden Gate” name predates the bridge, named in 1846 by U.S. Army officer John Fremont after the ancient Chrysophele (“Golden Gate”) (Chuck, 06:26).
• The Golden Gate describes the strait the bridge crosses—not the bridge’s color.

3. Geography & Early Challenges

• The strait is 300 ft deep with difficult currents and changing depths (Josh, 07:30).
• Early crossings were limited to ferries, which were expensive (about $70–$77 in today’s money for a fare, Chuck, 08:55).

4. Initial Efforts to Build

• Railroad magnate Charles Crocker was the earliest proponent (Josh, 09:33).
• The project was viewed as impossible due to its size—a proposed 2-mile suspension bridge was unprecedented (Chuck, 10:00).

5. Visionaries & Key Players

• Joseph Strauss: Hired in 1921, brought costs down and led the project but was self-promoting (Josh, 11:20).
• Charles Ellis: The “math whiz” who obsessively ensured the bridge’s integrity, ultimately fired by Strauss over time and ego conflicts (Chuck, 12:13; Josh, 21:55).
  • “He was obsessed with making sure that this bridge was not going to collapse.” (Josh, 12:13)

6. Legal, Financial, and Political Hurdles

• Bridge funding risked local assets as collateral; only six of 21 counties opted in (Chuck, 13:40).
• Opposition was fierce: conservationists (Sierra Club), military (Department of War), shipping interests, and rival ferry operators, especially the Southern Pacific Railroad (Chuck/Josh, 14:27–15:59).

7. Engineering Marvels

• The design process involved switching from a hybrid to a world-record suspension bridge (Chuck, 20:18).
• All calculations were done by hand: “They’re not using calculators. They’re doing all these calculations by hand using their noodles.” (Josh, 21:05)
• Model testing at Princeton to ensure tower strength (Chuck, 21:17).
• Firing Ellis led to him obsessively checking the design on his own, without pay (Josh, 22:57).

8. Funding During the Great Depression

• Bonds were hard to sell; Amadio Giannini (Bank of America president) ultimately financed $6 million, saving the project (Chuck, 24:11; Josh, 24:37).

9. Construction (1933 Onward)

• Bridge construction started Jan 5, 1933—overcoming wild tides, fog, storms, and winds (Josh, 24:37).
• The north tower was built into strong rock; the south tower faced complications with underwater serpentine rock (Chuck, 25:58).
• “A lot of big construction is constructing things so you can do the construction” (Chuck, 28:23).

10. Innovations & Iconic Details

• Bethlehem Steel shipped pre-fab steel sections via the Panama Canal (Josh, 35:14).
• The bridge’s distinct color wasn’t intended; it originated as red lead primer. The “Golden Gate Bridge International Orange” was chosen because it harmonized with the environment and maximized visibility (Chuck, 36:55; Josh, 37:05).
• Notable rejected colors: silver, black, and the US Navy’s suggestion of black and yellow stripes (Chuck, 38:11).
• Architect Irving Morrow oversaw aesthetics, including making the towers appear taller by gradually reducing panel size upward (Chuck, 39:22).

11. Pioneering Safety

• Required hard hats—an industry first (Josh, 39:45).
• Strauss introduced movable safety nets, saving 19 lives (“Halfway to Hell Club”), though 11 workers died—a much lower rate than expected (Chuck, 40:00, 40:51).

12. Finishing and Opening

• The main span received four massive cables, each over 25,000 wires (Josh, 42:24).
• The bridge finished ahead of schedule and under budget: 1.7 miles long, 90 ft wide, six lanes, towers at 746 ft, 265 ft clearance (Chuck, 42:48).
• On opening (May 1937), Strauss read his own poem and neglected to mention Ellis, an omission that irked Josh (Josh, 43:36).
  • Quote: “He specifically didn’t mention Ellis … and then he goes to the...audacity to say that’s not being done...” (Josh, 44:14)

13. Bridge Evolution & Resilience

• The Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse prompted the addition of horizontal trusses; intended trains were never added due to weight constraints (Chuck, 45:29).
• Survived the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake without major damage (Josh, 47:14).
• “Constant paint mode”: always being repainted due to the harsh salty environment (Chuck, 47:45).

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The Bridge’s Darker Legacy: Suicides & Prevention

• The Golden Gate Bridge’s notoriety as a suicide hotspot is somber. The first jump was within months of opening (Harold Wober, 1937, Josh, 49:57).
• Over 2,000 confirmed suicides; the official count was frozen at 997 in 1995 to avoid morbid milestones (Josh, 50:44).
  • “...they were worried there was going to be a rash of suicides to become the 1000th person to die...” (Josh, 50:44)
• Documented in the film “The Bridge” (2006); public pressure finally resulted in physical deterrent nets installed, completed in early 2024, reducing suicides by 73% (Chuck, 51:48; Josh, 52:38).
• Studies confirm that most survivors and those deterred do not go on to attempt again: “If you can get someone out of that dire situation, there’s a very, very good chance...they won’t go on to complete.” (Chuck, 53:38)
• A moving aside: the hosts hope to hear from volunteers who help prevent suicides on the bridge (Josh, 53:50; Chuck, 53:58).

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Fun & Pop Culture Moments

• The bridge’s famous orange: “International Orange” is also the color of life vests (Josh, 37:41).
• “The Golden Gate Bridge was where James Bond successfully defeated Christopher Walken, saving Tanya Roberts...” in A View to a Kill (Josh, 54:01).
• The hosts’ bowling stories lighten the mood in otherwise dense engineering segments (29:40–30:52).

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• “Often named as the most photographed bridge in the world. I can believe that.” — Josh (03:59)
• “You got saltines and grape Kool-Aid. That was the only food on board. Just like Southern Baptist communion!” — Chuck (09:16)
• “They’re not using calculators. They’re doing all these calculations by hand using their noodles.” — Josh (21:05)
• “He was obsessed with making sure that this bridge was not going to collapse.” — Josh on Charles Ellis (12:13)
• “It’s not named Golden Gate Bridge because of the color, because it’s really not golden in color.” — Chuck (36:55)
• “That’s how every single piece … made its way to the Golden Gate project.” — Josh, on shipping steel via the Panama Canal (35:14)
• “Those 19 [saved by the safety net] became known as the Halfway to Hell Club.” — Chuck (40:00)
• “He specifically didn’t mention Ellis...and then he goes to the audacity to say that’s not being done here at this grand ceremony.” — Josh (44:14)
• “They averaged about 20 [suicides] per year for a very long time.” — Chuck (49:46)
• “If you can get someone out of that dire situation, there’s a very, very good chance that that will be not something they go on to complete.” — Chuck (53:38)
• “The Golden Gate Bridge was where James Bond successfully defeated Christopher Walken.” — Josh (54:01)

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Key Timestamps

• 01:49–06:10: Opening banter, personal bridge favorites, origin of “Golden Gate.”
• 08:00–15:59: Early calls for a bridge, logistical/geological challenges, ferries, cost.
• 16:00–22:57: Visionaries and math heroes (Strauss & Ellis), fiery ego clashes.
• 23:23–24:37: Depression-era financing, Bank of America’s intervention.
• 25:34–29:58: Taming tides and terrain; tower construction challenges/innovations.
• 35:04–38:11: Steel transport, painting, and the International Orange color saga.
• 39:45–41:13: Safety revolutions—hard hats, nets, fatalities vs. expectations.
• 42:48–44:52: Opening day, incompletion of Ellis’s recognition, Strauss’s poem.
• 45:29–47:45: Wind, weight, and rail impacts; earthquake survivability; perpetual painting.
• 49:30–54:01: Suicide history, prevention nets, effect on public safety.
• 54:01–End: Pop culture (“A View to a Kill”), closing thoughts, listener mail.

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Conclusion & Takeaways

The Golden Gate Bridge is lauded as an engineering marvel and symbol of both collaboration and controversy. The episode doesn’t shy away from the less glamorous aspects—particularly worker deaths, financial risk, and the bridge’s difficult history with suicides—but also celebrates its design ingenuity, aesthetic vision, and positive social interventions in suicide prevention.

Befitting the hosts’ style, technical rigor is balanced with wry humor and humanity. The bridge remains a testament not just to innovation, but to the teamwork and perseverance (and occasional egotism) that built it.

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If you or someone you know is struggling, there are resources and support available. The Golden Gate Bridge’s story shows that intervention is powerful, and hope is never lost.

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For bridge fans, history buffs, and anyone who loves seeing how human ambition and empathy meet at the crossroad of steel and fog, this episode is not to be missed.

Transcript

[Announcer]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Chuck Bryant]

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[Josh Clark]

Hey and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh and there's Chuck. And Jerry's hanging with us too. And it's Stuff youf Should Know. And. And we are headed west and yeah, think so.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, I mean we're recording on the Golden Gate Bridge. I guess. This is like two weeks. Wow. Two weeks to the day. I think.

[Josh Clark]

What?

[Chuck Bryant]

From our live show in the city of San Francisco.

[Josh Clark]

That's true. Cause it's the 15th. And our show's on the 29th.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right. On a rare Thursday.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, show.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, yeah. Oh, by the way, too, I meant to mention, and I hope this is okay with you, I got booked to do a show on Friday and I haven't mentioned that to people, but on Friday, I will be performing in the hanging with Dr. Z show.

[Josh Clark]

Do you know that Dr. Zayas.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. Do you know about this?

[Josh Clark]

No, no, no. I don't know anything about this.

[Chuck Bryant]

This is the one in which comedian Dana Gould is. He owns a professional, like, full blown Dr. Zayas costume, and he's been doing this for years. And it's like a talk show with him as the host is Dr. Zayas. So I'm on that and I'm very excited because not only is Janet Varney in it, co founder of Sketchfest, and dear friend, but Dave Foley. I get to, like, be on stage with a kid in the hall.

[Josh Clark]

What? Man, that's going to be amazing.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. And the great Andy Daly. So if anyone wants to see that on Friday night, just go to the Sketch Fest website and check it out. I think it's kind of one of the small comedy clubs.

[Josh Clark]

Do you? Oh, okay. So it's at a comedy club.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, it's one where I did Movie Crush one year. I can't remember the name of it, though.

[Josh Clark]

Well, do you remember how to find your way back there, though?

[Chuck Bryant]

Boy, I hope so.

[Josh Clark]

I hope so, too. That's awesome, man. Congrats. And yes, I second that. Everybody should go see it, whether you're in San Francisco or not, because I'm sure that's going to be awesome.

[Announcer]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

I mean, you can come. I imagine you'll be on a plane home, huh?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. All right.

[Josh Clark]

But thank you. I appreciate the invite. I'll be there in spirit supporting you. You text me immediately after and be like it was a triumph or. No, it won't be anything but a triumph.

[Chuck Bryant]

All right, so Golden Gate Bridge.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. That's why we started talking about California and San Francisco in the first place. Because if you don't bother to look at the titles of episodes and you just let it roll one into the other, that's what we're talking about in this episode, the Golden Gate Bridge. There's a pretty good chance you know what we're talking about. It's often named as the most photographed bridge in the world. I can believe that.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, it's my second favorite.

[Josh Clark]

What's your first?

[Chuck Bryant]

Brooklyn Bridge, man.

[Josh Clark]

Okay.

[Chuck Bryant]

It's gotta be the bb.

[Josh Clark]

Okay. All right. All right.

[Chuck Bryant]

What about you?

[Josh Clark]

I don't know. I don't know that I have a favorite bridge. I kind of like the ones that look like sailboats. There's a few of those around.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, those are nice. Tower bridge in London is also quite magnificent.

[Josh Clark]

Sure. And then I'm gonna sound so obnoxious, but in Budapest it's not obnoxious. No, just being like, what's your favorite bridge? Oh, mine's in Budapest.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, no.

[Josh Clark]

But they have, I think, seven different bridges. And they went. They did seven different designs for all the bridges that go through the city and connect Buddha to Pest. Right. And it really is like a city of amazing bridges. They're all just really well done and they're just different. It's cool.

[Chuck Bryant]

I agree. I forgot about that. I will also. I mean, since we're shouting out bridges, we can't not talk about Pittsburgh because I went to a baseball game there in that beautiful stadium. And you get the. Those beautiful bridges there. It's lovely.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, it's like eight Bridges Stadium.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, I think so.

[Josh Clark]

Is that right?

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

Okay.

[Chuck Bryant]

8 or 12. I think they call it 8 or 12 Bridges Stadium.

[Josh Clark]

The does.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right.

[Josh Clark]

So back to the Golden Gate. It's also. Check. One of the seven wonders of the modern world.

[Chuck Bryant]

I didn't know that.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. And the American Society of Civil Engineers named it one of the bridges of the millennium in 2000. Wow. So it's a well regarded bridge. And if you've always wondered or always thought like, hey, I guess the Golden Gate Bridge is called that because the. I guess the weird orange color is roughly golden. I don't know, you would be like me, probably like you, Chuck. And that would mean you were wrong.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right. Because Golden Gate very much predates the construction of that bridge. And with that, we come to our first story.

[Josh Clark]

Okay, I'm gonna make like a horse sound while you tell the story. So this guy will be riding a horse. Okay.

[Chuck Bryant]

You got two heads of coconuts and you're banging them together. 1846. This is the Mexican American wartime. It's going on. And there's an army officer in the United States named John Fremont who basically said, without sounds like, without even asking anyone, hey, California's independent from Mexico. At one point, he was crossing the San Francisco Bay there from Sonoma to San Francisco to fight the Mexican army there. And he named that boy, you're really doing a great job. And he named that mile wide strait that connects the bay to the ocean. What would that be? Chrysophele can't stop. Oh, no, there he goes, off into the sunset, I guess Chrysophele, which means Golden Gate. And later on, rather than the Greek version, he went with the English. And that passage was called the Golden Gate.

[Josh Clark]

That's right. So this is the bridge over the Golden Gate, Right? Did you know that?

[Chuck Bryant]

No, I was yesterday years old, as they say.

[Josh Clark]

Yep. So, yeah. And the Golden Gate in particular is pretty neat. Not just because it's like the. It connects San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean, but geographically it's like 300ft deep right there. But on the shelf in the Pacific side, it's much shallower. And then in the bay. So the bay is like an average of 14ft deep or something crazy like that. So it's just suddenly goes like this huge depression. And this is what they needed to cross, like a 300 foot depression through the Golden Gate with a bridge. And I think the first person to ever suggest it was a guy named Charles Crocker. And one of the reasons they needed a bridge truck in the first place is because if you ever look at a map of San Francisco, it's actually a peninsula. So it's connected to the south to the rest of California. But there's a lot of stuff to the north of that. To get to the north, you have to cross the Golden Gate. So people were like, we've got to get here to there. You know, we like Marin County. We like Petaluma. We like to say Petaluma at least.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, Sausalito.

[Josh Clark]

Sausalito is another fun one to say. So they started with ferries and that worked just fine. But as more and more people showed up, San Francisco was a magnet for immigrants, especially after the gold rush of 1849. They were like, we might need something better than just ferries, like, especially if we want to run railroad cars.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. And Jack, that ferry was expensive, man. Yeah, they were. They were actually just like tanker boats, but they would double as ferries and say, yeah, sure, we'll take you across. It was $2 ahead, which is almost $70 today.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. And you got. Yeah, I saw $77 even.

[Chuck Bryant]

Wow, that's even more outrageous.

[Josh Clark]

And they gave you saltines and grape Kool Aid. That was the only food you had on board.

[Chuck Bryant]

Just like Southern Baptist communion.

[Josh Clark]

That's what I had in nursery school. It's actually a winning combination.

[Chuck Bryant]

That was pretty good, especially if you're in church and you're like hard up for snacks, so.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, there was finally one called the Princess. It was a side wheel Paddle wheel steamer, I guess that was the first official ferry. That happened in 1868. But that guy, Charles Crocker, all the way back in 1872, he said, we need a bridge. And the reason why he said, we need a bridge is because he was a railroad guy. And he's like, we need to get railroads up there. We need to get people, we need to move lumber. We need to do all sorts of cool stuff. So let's get a bridge, guys.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. And people are like, there's no way that's two miles. No one's ever built a suspension bridge that long. And in 1916, there was a San Francisco sun journalist who used to study engineering named James Wilkins. He said, no, I think we can build a suspension bridge. It'll be 3,000ft and it'll cost in those days, dollars, $100 million, which is almost. I'm sorry, it's more than 3 billion today. So everyone said, that's probably not going to happen either. So eventually it took a city engineer named Michael o' Shaughnessy to be on the lookout to say, we do need a bridge, but we got to get this cost lower. And enlisted a guy in 1921 from Chicago named an engineer named Joseph Strauss, who said, here's what we do, everyone. It is possible, but it can't be a straight suspension bridge all the way over. And it can't be just a cantilevered bridge. The suspension will be too flexible and flexy with those winds, and the cantilever would be way too heavy. So if we do a combination of the two, I think that's the winning idea. And it'll cost you only $17 million.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. That was much more in line with what the city engineer knew, that the city of San Francisco would be willing to pay for something like this, right?

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

Joseph Strauss, he became the central figure of the Golden Gate Bridge. He's often credited as the man who built the Golden Gate Bridge. That's a genuinely unfair thing to say because so many people contributed so much to it. But he was. He was not a shy person. He could work with just about anybody. He knew how to work the system. And he was not a self promoter, but he definitely was after the acclaim of being the man who built the Golden Gate Bridge. So just kind of put that in your. In your pipe for later, right?

[Chuck Bryant]

Don't smoke it yet, though, right?

[Josh Clark]

No, no, don't. Don't spark it. But he enlisted a guy named Charles Ellis who is like the. I don't know how you would describe him. I Can't think of an analogous movie character, but I feel like we can get him across a little bit. He was obsessed with making sure that this bridge was not going to collapse.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. I would describe him as a math whiz. He was the guy. I think we did the. When we did the New York Subways episode, we talked about the tunnels that went under the Hudson River. He was the guy that came up with that plan. And so that's a pretty good dude to get if you're trying to build a bridge that no one thought could be built at the time.

[Josh Clark]

Right.

[Chuck Bryant]

Like, super, super math guy. Just keep math in your head. Because as we'll see, math would end up being his undoing.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. But he was not after a claim. He did not, I get the impression, necessarily know how to work with everybody or work the system. He just wanted to do his maths stuff, Right.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

So he was a good guy to have in that sense. And one of the reasons why it was so good is because the design process was so long. At one point, as we'll see, they just completely scrapped Strauss's idea and started over.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

Financing was also a thing. I mean, Strauss had gotten it down to an estimate of 17 million. And I'm sure anybody who was paying any attention was like, we should plan on probably at least double that.

[Chuck Bryant]

Just about right.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. But the state was interested enough that in 1923, they passed the Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District act of California, which basically said to the people in the surrounding 21 counties, hey, you guys want to get in on this and basically vote for a tax district that can create debt to borrow money, basically against our counties. What do you think?

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. And they said, well, what does that mean? That sounds weird. And they said, well, it means that all the businesses and all your homes in your county are going to be put up as collateral jointly against that. That loan. And surprisingly, maybe six out of the 21 county said, we're in. We see this progress as something that we need. As far as the remaining counties that weren't into it, you know, some of the obvious reasons is they just didn't want to do that. A. Some worried about the cost overruns and like, hey, this isn't even going to be enough. Other people didn't, you know, this was the early 1920s, so it was still, you know, kind of a. I mean, it was a Bustling City for 1920s, but there were areas of rural, you know, ruralness.

[Josh Clark]

Sure.

[Chuck Bryant]

Across the other side. And like, they were like, we don't want this bridge, like, we've got livestock over here and we're cutting down our lumber. And even back then they had conservationists agitating against stuff like this. Notably the Sierra Club was like, we don't want a bridge in that beautiful bay. And there were a lot of other people that came out with a lot of good reasons to bring up lawsuits, like, you know, earthquakes. There was one in 1906 that was recent enough to where like, what about this earthquake thing? Like, what if that happens?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, the first big one.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

Shippers were like, well, you know, we can make it through the Golden Gate to the Pacific pretty easy. Right now we're a little worried that just building this bridge is going to hamper our ability to make MAD cache. The Department of War, which had a heavy presence in that area, was like, look, we, we run like really important warships in and out of this harbor. We're worried that this, this bridge is going to block our progress. But then also we're worried that it's going to become a real target for saboteurs and that they will blow up the bridge and block the harbor with the debris. And then the Southern Pacific Railroad stepped up and said, we run the ferries. Like, we're going to lose a bunch of money if you guys build a bridge. So all these people together were either parties to or had their own lawsuits against the bridge authority saying like, no, you can't do this. And against all of those odds, the people in favor of the bridge managed to overcome that.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. And before we break, I do want to mention before we get some email, we mentioned Department of War not in Bended Knee to Pete Hegseth. That was the original name that later became the Department of Defense.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, I forgot that's what it's called again now.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. Is now to the tune of what I just read was going to cost $125 million to change that name back to the Department of war and another.

[Josh Clark]

125 to change it back to the Defense Department again eventually, probably so.

[Chuck Bryant]

So just wanted to point that out. Let's take a break and we'll be right back. Hey everybody. The new year is here. So you need to get back into an at home routine that you love and elevate your space with Wayfair.

[Josh Clark]

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[Chuck Bryant]

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[Josh Clark]

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[Announcer]

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[Chuck Bryant]

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Yep, that's why LinkedIn ads generates the highest B2B ROAS of all online ad networks. Seriously. All of them.

[Chuck Bryant]

And get this. If you spend $250 on your first campaign on LinkedIn ads, you get a free $250 credit for the next one. Just go to LinkedIn.com sysk that's LinkedIn.com sy Terms and Conditions apply. So the first design, this hybrid design, was pretty ugly. There was a critic that said it looked like an upside down rat trap. So they said, all right, we got to redesign this thing because it's got to look good. Ellis gets together with consulting engineers. Leon, I guess that would be Moiseef and. Oh, Aman. And they got together with Strauss and they said, all right, let's go back to this old idea, but a new design of a full suspension bridge.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

The longest one ever. And it'll end up being the tallest one ever at the time at least, because, you know, all the winds and the water and the boats and everything, this thing needed to be tall and super long.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. And it also needed to be tall because the angle of the cables to hold up such a long deck had to come down at a crazy angle.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

Which meant that those towers had to be really tall. So this is going to be the tallest bridge in the world. The longest suspension bridge in the world. And they're like, let's do that. Let's make the impossible happen. And it's worth pointing out, Chuck, like, these guys aren't using cad. They're not using any sort of computer. They do not exist yet. They're not using calculators. They're doing all of these calculations by hand using their noodles.

[Chuck Bryant]

Slide rules.

[Josh Clark]

Slide rules. Pencils. Like, that's how this bridge was designed. That's how they calculated the stresses on it. That's how they figured out how to engineer it, all by hand and using their heads.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. Amazing. They did all kinds of testing, obviously, some. Some pretty impressive stuff, as you'll see. They created a model that was 1:56 scale, took it to Princeton University there in New Jersey and did a scaled down equivalent of 120 million pounds of vertical load to test to make sure those towers could take that. Passed that test. And like I said, there was so much math going on, eventually Strauss got irritated. So the guy Ellis that they hired because he was great at math got fired because the math was so irritating to Strauss.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. Ellis later recorded that Strauss said that the structure was nothing unusual and didn't require the time that Ellis thought necessary for it.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, man.

[Josh Clark]

I also saw elsewhere somebody say that Strauss was envious of or resentful of, I guess, the respect that Ellis got from the board whenever he went and spoke to them.

[Chuck Bryant]

I could see that.

[Josh Clark]

So, yeah, this is. And I also think that Strauss was getting leaned on. He was the one that was getting pressured to meet the time. And Ellis was like, no, it's gonna take six months more than that. So finally, Strauss fires Ellis in the most, like, cowardly way a person can. He forces him to take a vacation, and then before his vacation's over, he sends him a telegram saying, you're fired.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, that's pretty bad. Ellis didn't receive a lot of credit at the time, and in fact, he didn't get a lot of credit until after he passed away in 1949. So we're taking our hat off to you, Mr. Ellis, for your great work and your great math, because we are both math whizzes ourselves, and we have a lot of respect for maths.

[Josh Clark]

That's right. He also. He didn't have anything to do. He couldn't really find much work because this was during the Depression, and he was fired. He went back and he went over all the figures again, all of the calculations to make sure they were right. He was spending, like, 70 hours a week, and it took him months. And he did. And he was like, yep, this is going to work. Even though no one was listening to him, he wasn't being paid for it. He just wanted to make sure that this thing was going to work.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's great. So in 1928, they kind of mired their way through, or got their way through the mire of the legal activity and all the protests and everything. The state government of California said the Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District is now a thing. They're going to pull off every facet of this bill. And in November 1930, the district issued $35 million in bonds to finance this thing, which was a problem at the time, though, because it was during the Great Depression, obviously, and they couldn't find any buyers for these bonds. And all these legal matters were scaring people away. And so they turned to kind of one of the heroes of this whole thing in 1932, a guy named Amadio Giannini. The president of bank of America.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. One of the most revered and respected banks in the world. Everyone loves bank of America. They're basically a mascot here in the U.S. that's right.

[Chuck Bryant]

And he was also just a California hero. He kind of kickstarted the Hollywood movie industry, the California wine industry. So he was a guy to go to, and he was like, I got you. I got a big room with $6 million over here, and I'll buy those bonds and you can get started on your project.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. Which is pretty cool. And he is one of the heroes, for sure. So they got started. They Started during the Depression, as we saw. And on the one hand, that meant financing. It was difficult. On the other hand, it meant that they had a huge pool of laborers to tap because there were a lot of out of work people. So they got everyone they needed basically immediately to get started. It started on January 5, 1933. And there are a lot of issues that construction faced that made this a unique construction job. Every day, four times a day. So two times in and two times out, the tide brings in and takes out 390 billion gallons of water through the Golden Gate while these guys are trying to build their bridge. There's tons of fog, there's a lot of storms, there's high winds. It was not just like a walk in the park. Like, apparently the Bay Bridge was to build.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, I mean, apparently the Bay Bridge is more impressive in some ways and was built and finished before. But it didn't get nearly the press because it was just an easier job overall.

[Josh Clark]

Right. It's like eight miles long, which is the exact distance from downtown Detroit to Eminem's house.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, man, I didn't see that coming. When you said Detroit. I didn't even see it coming. Nice work.

[Josh Clark]

Thanks.

[Chuck Bryant]

All right, so it's a difficult job. Super, super hard because of the. The terrain and the water and the wind and the fog and everything going on. The north tower was built on the Marin county side on the coastline there into a very strong layer of basalt and sandstone. And that's great. So they were like, the north side is fine because this stuff is very, very sturdy to build into. The South Tower was about a thousand feet offshore and a bed of serpentine rock, and they went. This side is a little trickier. So we're going to have to take our time a little more.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. They got this guy named Andrew C. Lawson. He's a great example of how many people were thoroughly involved in this. Because every person you mention in this story, just imagine there's dozens or maybe hundreds of people working beneath them in coordination with that person. He was a geologist, and he basically took to test the bedrock. He. I'm not exactly sure how he did it, but he put the equivalent of a railroad boxcar, fully loaded, that amount of weight and force onto a 20 square inch area, and it held up fine. That's incredible. It is. I could not find out how he did that exactly. It's just such a spectacular way to put it that I guess everyone's like, no one cares what actually happened.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, just tell him he did it.

[Josh Clark]

Right. And then he Put on an old timey diving suit and diving bell and went down to the bedrock and hit it with a hammer. And apparently, if it makes this sound, like a dinging sound, that's what you're looking for. Because not only is it strong, but it's also flexible, which is going to come in handy whenever the San Andreas gives California the big one. The 8.6 magnitude earthquake that everyone says is inevitably coming someday.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, for sure. In order to ensure that stability, they had workers dive 90ft down to put explosives down to blast out even more rock so they could go even deeper. They had to get rid of those fragments to even get out to that tower. They have all these materials. So a lot of big construction like this is constructing things so you can do the construction. And that was the case here. So they had to build a road, basically on a trestle just to get out to that tower. And then they had to protect this thing from, like, being bumped into by a ship.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. If you look at the concrete foundations that the towers are built on, you'll notice that they're, like, oval. And those were designed to basically act as fenders, Kind of like if you play bumper bowling.

[Chuck Bryant]

Okay.

[Josh Clark]

It's basically like that. And imagine the bowling ball is a ship that. That's being captained by somebody who's not paying attention, probably on his phone.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, yeah.

[Josh Clark]

And they will hit that. That fender, the bumper, and it will keep them from running into the actual tower itself. And because of the oval shape, hopefully kind of push the ship away from the fender itself. Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

While the captain says, what was that? Yeah, they weren't. I think they said it looked like a giant bathtub is what they referred to it. But, you know, they filled that thing once. It was peeking above the surface partially with concrete, pumped out the water, reinforced it with steel, more concrete, and all of a sudden, you've got a protected tower with that billiards bumper bowl.

[Josh Clark]

Bumper bowl.

[Chuck Bryant]

Is that what you called it?

[Josh Clark]

Bumper bowling?

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, okay. I thought you were talking about, like, bumper billiards.

[Josh Clark]

No, no. Bumper bowling, where they put those guardrails down in the gutters.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. We went bowling last week, and Ruby still uses those.

[Josh Clark]

I. I do, too, sometimes. I can still manage to miss pins. Bumper bowling, but.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, okay. I thought you meant just roll a gutter ball. I was like, man, who can't.

[Josh Clark]

No, I'm saying even. Even bumper bowling, I can miss the pins still.

[Chuck Bryant]

I did the usual. I know I mentioned this before, but with bowling, usually for. And I think the other day, I hit like, a like a 140 and then like a 70.

[Josh Clark]

I don't remember. Are those good?

[Chuck Bryant]

I mean, 140 for someone who doesn't bowl much, I feel like is a pretty strong number.

[Josh Clark]

Is that dude or Jesus level good?

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, no, no, no. Like 300 is a perfect game. But I mean, 140 means you've hit plenty of strikes and spares and probably had a good last frame out. I don't know if that's what they call it, but 70 is bad. My whole point was though is I'm good for one game and then my game really drops off.

[Josh Clark]

Okay, well, were you drunk by the second game?

[Chuck Bryant]

No, no, no, no, no. I had but one beer. A PBR draft. It was delicious.

[Josh Clark]

Okay. Yeah, sometimes those are the best ones. The really cruddy ones.

[Chuck Bryant]

I don't do that much anymore, but it was super refreshing and delicious.

[Josh Clark]

Great.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, that's Chuck Goes Bowling.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. And pbr. Uh huh. So you want to take a break?

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh yeah, yeah. We're there already. Let's do it.

[Josh Clark]

Okay.

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[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, for sure. You can target your buyers by job title, industry, company role, seniority skills, even company revenue. So you can stop wasting budget on the wrong audience.

[Josh Clark]

Yep, that's why LinkedIn ads generates the highest B2B ROAS of all online ad networks. Seriously, all of them.

[Chuck Bryant]

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[Josh Clark]

Yeah, the nearly borderless Infinity Edge display is iconic in its design and immersive in its experience, drawing you into vivid detail. Whether you're perfecting your latest project or indulging in a cinematic escape, it's everything you imagined crafted for you. Check out the all New [e-mail] XPS. So, Chuck, they've got the foundation poured. It's a nice fender, a bumper around the towers. Apparently once they got that foundation done, they erected the south tower, which was the more difficult of the two towers. The one closest to San Francisco, they erected it in like six months, which is really amazing, especially as you find like that added up. That was not an anomaly for this project. It kept like hitting milestones ahead of time. And that used quite a bit of steel. Thanks to Bethlehem Steel Corporation of Pennsylvania. And as we know from our Christmas episode, the reason it is Bethlehem, Pennsylvania is thanks to our Moravian friends who moved there in the 18th century.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right. New Jersey chipped in too. Gotta shout out New Jersey for sure.

[Josh Clark]

I don't believe the Moravians had much to do with naming New Jersey.

[Chuck Bryant]

No, no, no. But as far as the steel goes, okay, yes.

[Josh Clark]

And so Bethlehem Steel provided 44,000 tons of steel for each tower that was each tower. And this is not like a quick thing. They prefabricated them, put them on a barge, and then sent them to San Francisco, down the east coast, past Florida, through the Panama Canal, and then up to San Francisco. That's how every single piece of steel, prefabricated steel, made its way to the Golden Gate project.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, that's right. Via the Panama Canal. They get there, they obviously use these giant cranes to lift these steel sections into place and start kind of just putting this thing together like a kit at this point. And at this point, they haven't even. You know. Eventually they had temporary elevators built so people could get up and down quicker. But before that, it would take a worker 20 minutes just to climb a ladder. I can't imagine how terrifying that would be just to be climbing a ladder that high that takes 20 minutes to climb. But that's how they got to the top. And then we get to the color. Like we mentioned before. It's not named Golden Gate Bridge because of the color, because it's really not golden in color. It got there, like we said, prefab. Then it was painted with an orangish red lead primer just to kind of make sure it made the journey there okay without getting rusted out. And once it got there, consulting architect Irving Morrow said, man, that looks pretty darn good, everybody. What do you think? And everyone went bule bully. And so they started searching for sort of related colors and ended up landing on what is now known as Golden Gate Bridge. International orange.

[Josh Clark]

I would have kept my mouth shut, but I would have been looking around like, you guys think that looks good? That's the color we're gonna paint that.

[Chuck Bryant]

I'm into green, personally, but.

[Josh Clark]

Okay. So one of the things that is great about that particular color orange, and I think one of the reasons people said boli for it was because it didn't. It didn't. Well, it harmonized with the surrounding area. It's nice, hilly, shrubby. It, like, it was a good choice for sure for that. And I think it also kind of placated a lot of people, too, there. Like, that actually kind of goes with everything. Doesn't stick out like a sore thumb. So it was a good idea. And that international orange is still used today. You can thank international orange for the color of your life vest. If it's orange.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right. That is just regular international orange. The Golden Gate Bridge International orange is a little different. It's like a variation on that, but like you said, it blended in well, and it also did the job that it was really supposed to do was stand out for ships and boats there in the fog. Rejected colors included silver, black, and then black and yellow, which was suggested by the US Navy. Like, you know, striped black and yellow, because that was the best color for visibility to them.

[Josh Clark]

It's the best color for Christian metal too.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right. It's funny because I can. That striper. The stuff looks so good, but I can't picture a bridge in yellow and black stripe. It just looks too safety industrial, you.

[Josh Clark]

Know, Or Cliffs Notice.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, yeah, true.

[Josh Clark]

Didn't the dude, the drummer from Stryper, have black and yellow striped drumsticks even?

[Chuck Bryant]

I think he had a black and yellow striped everything, if you know what I mean.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, I see. He had a black and yellow striped gnome on. Let's keep going. Oh, boy. That's good.

[Chuck Bryant]

All right. So Morrow, we mentioned Irving Morrow. He's the consulting architect who said, like, I like this color. He also obviously played a part in a lot of the aesthetic decisions. That's tough. Good band name, but also bad aesthetic decisions. No one could ever say it. Who you going to see tonight? Aesthetic decisions. One of the things that he designed aesthetically was to make it look a little taller. Was those tower panels decrease in size from bottom to top. Pretty good idea.

[Josh Clark]

Yep. And the. Well, I guess Lawson was like, let's do this, and let's add a little bit of this and maybe put bows on the top kind of thing. Strauss, who, again, is the man at the center of all of this. He was way ahead of his time as far as safety goes. Apparently, the Golden Gate project was the first one that required hard hats on site, which is now fairly ubiquitous. Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

Good little fact.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. And then he also created a safety net that was movable. So I think the people who were in the highest risk of falling to their deaths got to use the safety net while they were up there working.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. And use it they did, because that thing ended up saving the lives of 19 construction workers. They became known. Those 19 became known as the Halfway to Hell Club, which is pretty funny in a way, but there were some deaths. In February of 37 scaffolding collapsed due to an accident. 13 men on it. The net failed, and 10 of them died. But in the end, 11 people died from this project, which is pretty good. I mean, it's awful that 11 people died, but for the time, they would say, like, for every million dollars of a project, you can expect one death. And this thing came in at like, 35 million or so. So they expected, you know, 30 to 40 deaths, and there were only 11. So that was. That was, I guess, a win for safety for the time, at least.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, for sure. I find that a really strange rule of thumb. For every million spent, you can expect a death. Like, I guess what that's based on is just the complexity increases by the price, Maybe the height.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, probably just that means it's big and difficult and complex. I think you're right. But it's definitely a weird way to calculate something.

[Josh Clark]

It really is. So, yeah, there's 34 people dead. And one person's like, how much is this bridge going to cost you? Like 35. And you're next.

[Chuck Bryant]

There's the cost overruns and you know what that means.

[Josh Clark]

So they've completed the towers, both towers, in 1935. Remember they started this whole thing. I think they started building that temporary roadway to the first foundation in 1931. They're moving along. And after the towers were complete, it was time to create those four iconic cables that are the actual things that hold up the. The road deck, the bridge itself. The point of the bridge is held up by these cables. And if you see one of those cables in person, you will find that it is 3ft, 1 meter, 36 inches. Let's see, 300 centimeters in. Let's see. It would be a third of a decameter in width or in diameter. And it's actually made of 25,000 wires. Each of those cables are all twisted together.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. And to get that done, they hired John A. Roebling's Sons Company is the name of the company. And they had worked on the Brooklyn Bridge. So they were obviously great people to call for that. But like you said, I think you said it was completed ahead of schedule. This was April 19th, 1937. About a million three under the $35 million budget.

[Josh Clark]

Not bad.

[Chuck Bryant]

Just a little housekeeping here. It's 1.7 miles long, 90ft wide, holds six lanes of traffic, two sidewalks, seven hundred and forty six foot high towers with the main span between them being 4,200ft. And at its midpoint, the span hangs 265ft above the average height of the water below. And people were really excited to get on this thing.

[Josh Clark]

They were on opening day. The first day they let pedestrians across. The next day was cars. And at the grand opening, I think this kind of gets across the type of person Joseph Strauss was. He read a poem that he wrote for the day and he was a poet, so it's not bad. I like the rhythm of it. The meter, is that correct?

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, I think so.

[Josh Clark]

I would say go look it up and read it yourself. I'm not going to read it, but it's called the Mighty Task is done by Joseph Strauss. The thing that bothers me, aside from a couple of clunky lines, he says essentially like that all the people who were involved of this are glorified. And that no selfish urge stains its life. No envy, greed, intrigue, or strife. And I'm like, dude, he specifically didn't mention Ellis, Charles Ellis at this whole thing. And then he goes to the. He has the audacity to say that that's not being done here at this. This grand ceremony.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. And they built a trellis, so you had a word there in the bag.

[Josh Clark]

That's right. Good point, Chuck.

[Chuck Bryant]

Man, I don't know about Strauss now.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, he's not really talked about like that from what I can tell. I just kind of put this together from different places. But there's a bronze statue of him in Golden Gate Park, I think, and there's books about him and his amazing feat. And it's just I don't like people like that who take full credit for something that. Yeah, hundreds or thousands of people have done and that they did, like, backbiting along the way with. It's just. I don't. I don't like people like that.

[Chuck Bryant]

I'm with you. He actually had a trellis line. He was like, what rhymes with trellis? I got nothing.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, he scratched it out like Ellis.

[Chuck Bryant]

Is outside the window holding up a sign. The math checks out.

[Josh Clark]

I saw that. No one can say for certain whether Ellis ever saw the Golden Gate Bridge himself. I'm sure. Sure that he went and saw it at some point because he died a decade or two. Yeah. A good decade after it opened. So I would guess, unless he had like a horrible aversion at just even the thought of the bridge, I'll bet he went and visited it.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, I bet you're right. So we can compare it to other suspension bridges in a few ways because I think that's fairly interesting. It's got a lighter roadway than most. It does not have train tracks on it. But it seems like that was one of the original ideas, is they wanted a train to be able to run across that thing. But they realized that the winds were a real problem in 1940 after the Tacoma Narrows Bridge disaster. And they saw Those things in 40 mile an hour winds twisting around. They're like, we need to. Because we get winds up to like 75 miles an hour. So we need to stiffen this thing up. So they added horizontal trusses to stiffen the structure against twisting. And that's what brought the total weight of the deck too high, basically to where they could not end up putting railroad tracks down.

[Josh Clark]

No. Like, they were close to the limit of it, I guess. Right.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. Couldn't do it.

[Josh Clark]

Okay. So the Golden Gate, it was the longest suspension bridge until 1964, when the Verrazano Narrows took over that for a while. And like we said, there's Golden Gate park, that's. That predates the bridge. But Golden Gate National Recreation Area was created on either side of the bridge after the bridge was already around for a while. And there's some pretty neat things about it. One of the things, remember we talked about how people were worried about earthquakes? Well, it actually survived the Loma prieta earthquake, the 1989 earthquake that took place when the A's and the Giants were playing each other in the World Series and just killed a lot of people. The Bay Bridge, apparently a section of that collapsed and the Golden Gate survived with no damage whatsoever, from what I could tell, or very little of it.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, pretty good. And this is something I heard early on in my life was that the Golden Gate Bridge basically is in constant paint mode, basically. So, like, it's always being painted. Apparently, like it takes so long to paint and sort of, you know, take care of the corrosion because of all that salty fog and salty air and water that it's just. It never stops. It's not like, all right, we're done and we're going to take a few months off. It's continuously being kept up.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. And one other thing about the earthquake thing. Somebody at some point figured out that the San Andreas could produce most 8.6 magnitude earthquake. And then they went and figured out that the Golden Gate would probably not be able to withstand that. So they started, I think, back in. Well, after the Loma prieta earthquake in 1989, they started a bit of a retrofit to try to make it earthquake proof. Up to 8.6 magnitude. And one of the things that they were having to shore up, Chuck, was that they didn't bolt the towers to the foundation because they're like, these are so heavy, we don't even need to waste the time or money on bolts. In an 8.6 earthquake, they realized if you stand stiffly with your legs stiff and then you kind of fall to the side and one of your feet comes off the ground. When you go back to center again, your feet comes down. And imagine one of the towers doing that. When it comes back down on that foundation, they're like, that foundation is not going to hold that up.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

So that's what they're trying to retrofit now.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, that's a big foot stomp is what they said for sure. So we have to close now with some sort of darker stuff. Because the Golden Gate Bridge, if it's known for. It's known for many things, but one thing it's very much known for is that there have been many, many suicides attempted and completed over the years. They averaged about 20 per year for a very long time. Hundreds of others had been stopped by, obviously, volunteers that are stationed there to watch for this sort of thing. Bridge workers, cops. Sometimes just random people like you see in a movie. And they took a very long time to eventually get a safety net, Even though it was possible. They really dragged their feet getting that thing up, didn't they?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. I saw that there was opposition to it that included. It will be ugly.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, God.

[Josh Clark]

So every. I think, since the first guy who died by suicide, his name was Harold Wober, he was walking on the bridge all the way back, just like a few months after it opened, and he was walking with a friend. He said, this is as far as I go. And he became the first person to jump to his death from the bridge. That was in 1937.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. What a thing. What a last line, you know?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. Imagine being that friend and being like, wait, what? And then. Yeah, I can't imagine that since then, at least 2,000 people. Maybe a little more, probably more, because I think they assume that there's plenty of people who have jumped and their bodies were never found. Right. But at least 2,000 confirmed people have jumped to their deaths from the Golden Gate bridge. And in 1995, the California highway patrol, which had been keeping an official count, stopped their official count at 997 because they were worried that there was going to be a rash of suicides to become the 1000th person to die by suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. So officially, the count's 997, but I think most credible sources put it at over 2,000 now.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. And what a thing to think about. What an awful thing to consider. But, like, thank God they thought of something like that, because they're probably right. You know.

[Josh Clark]

What, the security net?

[Chuck Bryant]

No, the stopping the public count, because. Oh, yeah, you know, I would never have thought of something like that. So I'm glad they thought of that. There was a really. I don't know what to call it. Interesting and awful documentary from 2006 called the Bridge. I saw it. I'm not sure. Did you see that one? Yeah, there's a lot to it. The point was to drive awareness about this and about suicide and suicide prevention. But it was very controversial in that they captured Footage. They had cameras trained on the bridge from the mountains nearby, and they captured footage of 23 suicides, including a survivor. And they, you know, filmed family members and interviewed them about their loved ones. It's a very moving and upsetting documentary from When? Did I say, 2006?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, it is. So, yeah, that definitely raised public awareness and kind of, I think, amplified the public outcry about this and made people be like, yeah, we probably should do something about this, because 20 to 30 people a year were taking their own lives at this time. Right. They finally, finally, in 2020, the beginning of 2024, they finished putting up these safety nets, essentially, that stick out from the side of the bridge, so that if you jump off the side of the bridge, you're going to land in the steel net. The whole thing cost $224 million, and completed suicides dropped by 73% after they were installed. And even more amazing than that, I think there were 200 attempts and 30 completed suicides a year on average after the nets were installed. That fell to 132 and 8 in 2024. And there were no suicides in the last seven months of 2025. So these nets are actually preventing people from completing suicide and also deterring people from attempting suicide.

[Announcer]

There's.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

And, you know, they've done studies where they've interviewed people who did survive. Most of them don't ever try again. Which is, like, very encouraging to know. I think there was a study in the 1970s by a guy named Richard Seiden, and he followed up on 515 people who had been stopped. These aren't people who jumped and survived, but they were stopped from jumping in the 35 years prior to the study. And he found that only 35 of the 515 went on to die by suicide. So that's really great to know that. If you can be an EMT or a police officer or a random passerby who can get someone out of that dire situation, there's a very, very good chance that that will be not something they go on to complete.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. And you mentioned those volunteers that are stationed along the bridge just for that very purpose. I would wager that there's at least one stuff you should know, listener who does that, and I would love to hear from them.

[Chuck Bryant]

I bet you're right. And I hope someone comes to our live show and stands up at the end and tells everybody that they do that. I bet you that happens.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. They will get thunderous applause.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right.

[Josh Clark]

I feel like we should end on a high note. And the high note is the Golden Gate Bridge was where James Bond successfully defeated Christopher Walken, saving Tanya Roberts in the bargain.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right. A View to a Kill.

[Josh Clark]

Probably the best Bond movie ever.

[Chuck Bryant]

Hmm, interesting.

[Announcer]

All right.

[Josh Clark]

I mean, that was the one I grew up on, so that's probably why I like that. But there's no kid who grew up on, like, the Living Daylights and was like, that's the best one ever.

[Chuck Bryant]

Good stuff.

[Josh Clark]

Chuck said good stuff. Which is where I was trying to push him because that unlocks listener mail.

[Chuck Bryant]

All right, this is a chance to plug friends of the show here. Hey, guys, Just finished the episode on the radio. The national radio Quiet Zone found it very fascinating. And by the way, we got a few emails from people pointing this out. I wanted to reach out with a recommendation of one of the McElroy pods. The McElroy brothers, Justin Griffin and Travis McElroy, have long done my brother, my brother and me. And I've known those guys for a long time. Super cool dudes. And then they do a show with their dad called the Adventure Zone, which is where they play D and D, and that's become hugely popular.

[Josh Clark]

That's awesome, man. What a cool thing to do.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, it's super cool. But the second season of Adventure Zone is called Amnesty and it is. Well, it's a tabletop role playing game, so I don't know if it's always D and D, but Griffin has set it in the Green bank area. Oh, yeah. So the folks in that area that it attracts and the lack of communication is a plot device and really drives the story. It's one of my favorites that they've done. I hold stuff you should know dearly in my heart. Thanks for doing what you do. And P.S. i loved hearing a few of the McElroys on Movie Crush. I loved hearing Josh on Behind the Bastards, and so on. All of my favorite podcasters crossing paths now and then really drives those parasocial bonds. So go listen to Josh on Behind the Bastards. Your past episodes. You were on a couple of times, right?

[Josh Clark]

Yes, I was. And on Daily Zeitgeist. No, I was on behind the Bastards once. I was on Daily Zeitgeist a couple times.

[Chuck Bryant]

Zeitgeist a couple times. And then I had Griffin on Movie Crush and his favorite movie, which he claims is not his favorite movie only, but also the best movie was Groundhog Day.

[Josh Clark]

It is a good movie.

[Chuck Bryant]

And I had Justin on. And Justin, I think I can remember every single guest in Their movie still. His was with Nail and I. I've never seen that.

[Josh Clark]

Isn't that a Morrissey album?

[Chuck Bryant]

I don't know, but it's a British independent film, so it wouldn't surprise me.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, his is Vox. All Ni.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, okay. With Neil and I. Richard E. Grant. It's really good. I think you and Yumi would both like it.

[Josh Clark]

All right, we'll watch it then. Chuck.

[Chuck Bryant]

It's from, like, the indie movie revolution of the 90s and from England, and it's really, really great.

[Josh Clark]

You know, I think I was talking to Smack not too long ago about PT Anderson. I don't know if it was on the podcast or not. And that I basically hadn't liked anything. It has since Boogie Nights, maybe Magnolia.

[Chuck Bryant]

Okay.

[Josh Clark]

Then I saw One Battle After Another, and I'm like, buddy, this guy is back in my estimate. Not only did he direct it, he wrote it too. It's a good movie.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, he write and directs all his movies.

[Josh Clark]

He.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, I loved, loved, love. One Battle After Another. I think it was my favorite movie of the year. That and Sinners were probably tied.

[Josh Clark]

I've not seen Sinners yet. Is it. It's pretty good. All right, I'll check it out. Don't tell me anything. That's fine. All I needed to hear was, oh.

[Chuck Bryant]

Man, capital G. Great. And it's right up your alley.

[Josh Clark]

Okay, cool. Great.

[Chuck Bryant]

And that, by the way, is from Ryan Pinto, who's coming to see us in Denver. And I'm sorry, Ryan, but we're not doing it on the Pinto. We've already done that live show.

[Josh Clark]

That's a shame. You can go back and listen to it and imagine that you're there, because we did release it eventually as an.

[Chuck Bryant]

Episode, and he might have been. Who knows?

[Josh Clark]

Thanks, Ryan. We'll see you in Denver. If you want to see us in Denver or Seattle or San Francisco, where you can also visit the Golden Gate Bridge, you can go to stuffyshouldknow.com and get tickets. And in the meantime, if you want to email us like Ryan did, you can send an email to stuff podcastheartradio.com.

[Chuck Bryant]

Stuff youf Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts, my heart radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

[Josh Clark]

Hey, everybody. This message is brought to you by Pizza Hut. Because if you're yelling Hut on Sundays, why not yell Pizza first?

[Chuck Bryant]

Pizza Hut has been challenging quarterbacks to say pizza before Hut during a televised game.

[Josh Clark]

Don't forget to order Pizza Hut before the first hut is yelled.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right. And here's the move everybody. The big New Yorker. It's their biggest pizza for the biggest games. It's massive with slices so big you have to fold them like true New York slices. And right now it's just 10 bucks.

[Josh Clark]

Yes. So before that first hut, grab the big New Yorker and you're set for the whole game.

[Chuck Bryant]

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[Josh Clark]

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[Chuck Bryant]

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[Josh Clark]

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[Chuck Bryant]

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[Announcer]

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[Chuck Bryant]

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[Announcer]

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[Chuck Bryant]

Offers may vary. Visit albertsons or safeway.com for more details. This is an I Heart podcast. Guaranteed human.