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When it opened in 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge that connects the city of San Francisco to Marin County, California, was both the longest and the tallest suspension bridge in the world. Although it no longer holds claim to either of those titles (Japan's Akashi Kaikyō Bridge exceeds it in both respects), the Golden Gate Bridge remains one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World, is one of the most-photographed structures on Earth, and stands as a globally recognized symbol of one American city. As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, the official opening of the Golden Gate Bridge in 1937 was a huge event that spanned nine days of celebrations, with two separate opening days — one for pedestrians and one for cars — drawing hundreds of thousands of bridge-crossers: In recent years, a photograph said to depict that (first) opening day in 1937 has frequently been shared online with the caption The Golden Gate Bridge opening to the public for the first time back in 1937, and yes, it almost collapsed: But this picture doesn't date from 1937, nor did we find any contemporaneous accounts stating that the Golden Gate Bridge almost collapsed at that time. Although this photograph is displayed in black-and-white and therefore looks fairly old to modern eyes, it was actually taken in 1987, when an estimated 300,000 people swarmed the bridge during its golden anniversary celebration. The original image was captioned as follows: Shot from the South Tower facing south down onto the roadway overlooking a mass of people at the 50th anniversary celebration for the Golden Gate Bridge. The crush of pedestrians who crossed the bridge that day in 1987 did cause it to sag about 7 feet at its mid-section, and some onlookers did fear at the time that the structure was in danger of buckling, but engineers maintained that the combined load was well within the bridge's capacity:
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