Large Blueprint Copy of “Proposed Highway Crossing - San Francisco to Sausalito”

Description

A fascinating and expansive six-foot-wide 1950s copy on paper of a historically important and rare 1923 panoptic engineering blueprint titled … more A fascinating and expansive six-foot-wide 1950s copy on paper of a historically important and rare 1923 panoptic engineering blueprint titled “Proposed Highway Crossing - San Francisco to Sausalito” by John G. Little & Co. It depicts a pair of suggested solutions for bridging the world famous Golden Gate, the mile-wide strait where San Francisco Bay meets the Pacific Ocean.

Both crisply rendered San Francisco-to-Sausalito crossings are meticulously drafted in full at 1” = 400’ scale, with each having a total length of 22,780 feet (4.31 miles). The proposal at top depicts a high-level bridge with three 1,100 ft. spans, and the proposal at bottom depicts a combination trestle-and-tube design that presciently evokes the similarly submerged Transbay Tube that would open fifty years later nearby. Little estimated their respective costs to be $14,000,000 and $11,000,000—or approximately $215,333,000 and $169,190,000 when adjusted for inflation.

As shown in the aerial view map at top right, the proposed connection points would’ve been near where Van Ness Avenue ends at Aquatic Park in San Francisco, and where the Bridgeway Promenade adjoins Sausalito Point in Sausalito. Of additional interest are copious water depth notations, recorded by the U.S.S. Natoma in 1920 at city engineer M.M. O’Shaughnessy’s request to sound the Golden Gate Channel in preparation for bridge feasibility studies.

Title block at lower right reads in full:

“Proposed Highway Crossing San Francisco to Sausalito John G. Little & Co. Civil Engineers 251 Kearny St. San Francisco, Calif. Ralph E. Dodge, Consulting Engineer June 11, 1923”

Of particular note is the final image showing a contemporaneous article that appeared in the July 5, 1923, issue of “Engineering News - Record” (Vol. 91, No. 1, p. 34). It recounts a well attended meeting at San Francisco City Hall that was convened to discuss the still nascent—yet rapidly progressing in both planning and public support—endeavor to bridge the Golden Gate. Both of Little’s proposals shown in this blueprint are described in detail, as is the eventual winning proposal by J.B. Strauss.

John G. Little (b. 1880–1955) was a World War I vet who rose to the rank of U.S. Army major, and who established himself after the war as a well respected civil engineer with a long career in the Bay Area. That then-Capt. Little’s proposals were under serious consideration for such a monumental undertaking is an incredible testament his talents. He’s laid to rest in San Francisco National Cemetery in the Presidio, mere steps away from where Strauss’ Golden Gate Bridge begins its iconic Art Deco arc toward Marin.

We believe this to be a 1950s direct copy of the original 1923 blueprint, and extensive online research was unable to uncover any other pictorial examples of either the original blueprint or similar copies of it. In our view, that makes this very scarce item illustrating a much lesser known aspect of the story behind how one of the greatest engineering feats of the 20th century came into creation an important historical document in its own right, and especially to those with ties to the Bay Area. less