The CBS broadcast this short video clip to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge. The video is perfect for intermediate students to develop their listening skills while they find out some facts about the bridge's history.
Self-study activity:
Watch the clip and say what the following refers to. You can check your answers by reading the transcript below.
1937
75
hideous
fog
a frequent question
births on the bridge (how many?)
suicides (how many?)
what the bridge usually inspires is...
the bridge is a symbol of what?
1937, Opening Day.
In the depths of the Great Depression rose a feat of unparalleled engineering.
The closing members are lowered into place. The Golden Gate is bridged.
Californian Historian Kevin Starr:
75 years ago the Golden Gate Bridge says, yes you can do great things in America.
But it almost looked like this. The original design wasn’t nearly as…
Oh, it was…, the original design was hideous. In fact, one of the critics called it an upside down inverted rat trap.
Now the elegant span is admired by millions from around the world. On days like this the bridge makes a perfect backdrop for tourists’ photos, but often it disappears in the fog.
In the summer we can have days on end when there is fog, and you can’t even see the bridge.
On those days, Mary Curry, the Bridge’s Communications Director faces a frequent question:
Where’s the bridge?
A new Visitors Centre now deals with those grey day blues with the magic of green screen technology. So no tourist needs to go home without the perfect photo. The bridge has special significance for Eric Taylor. He doesn’t remember the first time he was here, although his mother, Danielle Romo, can’t forget it.
He was born right in the car.
Right here in the car?
In the car. His birth certificate says Place of Birth Golden Gate Bridge, city and county of San Francisco.
Do you think about this every time, any time you cross?
All the time, any time. Yeah.
Three babies have entered the world on the Golden Gate Bridge, but over one thousand have left the world here, jumping to their deaths.
Why does so many people want to end it all here?
The reverse success of the bridge that has life also becomes makes it a theatrical place for ending life.
Fortunately what the bridge usually inspires is wonder.
Most bridges are silver grey and they’re a bridge you cross it point A to point B. This bridge, you experience, and you experience while you’re on it, off it, around it, below it, above it.
What lesson should we take from this 75 years later?
Here’s a visible symbol of American technology, American know-how. Here’s proof positive that we can develop the environment without destroying it.
At 75, the Golden Gate Bridge spans both space and time.
