Hasta La Gadget!

Feb 01

When the Bay Bridge towered over San Francisco

Photographer Peter Stackpole's 1936 picture of the cable spinning operation for the construction of the Bay Bridge, and the gallows that dot the catwalks. The photograph is one of dozens by Stackpole, along with other paintings, drawings, and lithographs included in "The Bay Bridge: A Work in Progress, 1933-1936," a new exhibit at the de Young museum in San Francisco.

(Credit: Peter Stackpole/Fine Art Museums of San Francisco)

These days, the Golden Gate Bridge is by far the most famous span in the world, let alone California, or even San Francisco. Yet, in 1937, when it was completed, it was considered an afterthought by many, overshadowed by a much larger and more ambitious cousin.

That other bridge, of course, is the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, also completed in 1937, an architectural masterpiece that took the Depression-era world by storm.

Today, San Francisco’s de Young museum debuts “The Bay Bridge: A Work in Progress, 1933-1936,” a brand-new exhibit of about 100 photographs and other works.

According to the exhibit’s curator, Jim Ganz, the goal was to showcase not just the Bay Bridge — as beautiful and important a structure as it is — but also the 1930s, a period that was “such an exciting moment in American art.” As Ganz explained, America was just beginning … [Read more]