A Wild Flight of the Imagination: The Story of the Golden Gate Bridge eBook

As hundreds of thousands of admirers of the Golden Gate Bridge begin to converge on the San Francisco Bay area to celebrate the 75^th Anniversary of the world-renowned icon, the California Historical Society has released its first multi-media eBook for iPads that captures the rich history and amazing story of the Bridge through a selection of rarely seen artwork, photographs, video, memorabilia, stories, images and much more.

The free iPad eBook, A Wild Flight of the Imagination: The Story of the Golden Gate Bridge, can be downloaded through the California Historical Society’s new, dynamic and image-rich website at www.californiahistoricalsociety.org.  The app is also available on Apple's iTunes App Store as a free download under the name “GG Bridge.” 

Published by the California Historical Society and produced by Sol Editions and Wild Blue Studios, the eBook was funded through a grant provided by United Healthcare.

“The story of the Golden Gate Bridge is a remarkable one, captivating millions of people around the world with its themes of promise, innovation, perseverance, and artistic inspiration,” said Dr. Anthea Hartig, Executive Director of the California Historical Society. “This eBook will help share that story and bring the amazing history of this California icon to life in an interactive way.”

The eBook’s title is drawn from the exhibition of the same name currently on view at the California Historical Society galleries. The phrase is borrowed from a 1921 promotional prospectus for the Golden Gate Bridge in which the authors, chief engineer for the bridge Joseph Strauss and San Francisco city engineer M.M. O’Shaughnessy, used inspirational language to set a tone for the enormously ambitious engineering feat.

The interactive multimedia app extends the reach of the California Historical Society’s exhibition and makes over 350 historic objects, including dozens of photographs, letters, journals, reports and other ephemera from its own holdings and 19 other collections available to readers of all ages.

Highlights include photographs by Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange, paintings by Maynard Dixon, Ray Strong, and Chesley Bonestell, and architectural drawings by Irving F. Morrow and John Eberson, the two architects who worked on the bridge design. Audio highlights include the heroic and poignant voices of men who built the bridge and an opening music selection from composer Rob Kapilow’s “Chrysopylae,” A Golden Gate Opus, written with contributions from sound designer Fred Newman.

Readers of all ages can also watch a short film of Chief Engineer Strauss speaking to a reporter on the bridge during construction, examine the family scrapbook of Fred Dummatzen, one of the workers who tragically lost his life when a scaffold collapsed, and even view some of the proposed bridge color schemes that were ultimately rejected.

“This exciting new format allows us to bring the richness of our historic collections to a much larger audience, including teachers and students, and will allow many more people around the world to share in the Golden Gate’s 75^th Anniversary, even if they cannot be here in person,” Hartig said.