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In the mid-1930s, two familiar spires towered above the morning fog.
20世纪30年代中期，有两座我们现在熟悉的尖塔耸立在晨雾中。
Stretching 227 meters into the sky, these 22,000-ton towers would help support California's Golden Gate Bridge.
这座高达227米、重达22000吨的塔，将支撑加州的金门大桥。
But since they were currently in Pennsylvania, they first had to be dismantled, packaged, and shipped piece by piece over 4,500 kilometers away.
但由于它们当时位于宾夕法尼亚州，它们首先必须被拆卸、包装，然后一块一块地运到超过4500公里之外。
Moving the bridge's towers across a continent was just one of the challenges facing Charles Ellis and Joseph Strauss, the project's lead engineers.
将大桥的塔移过大陆只是该项目首席工程师查尔斯·埃利斯和约瑟夫·施特劳斯面临的挑战之一。
Even before construction began, the pair faced all kinds of opposition.
甚至在施工开始前，他们就面临着各种各样的困境。
The military feared the bridge would make the important harbor an even more vulnerable target.
军队害怕这座大桥将使重要的港口成为一个更加脆弱的目标。
Ferry companies claimed the bridge would steal their business, and residents wanted to preserve the area's natural scenery.
渡轮公司声称这座大桥将会抢走他们的生意，而居民则希望保护该地区的自然景观。
Worse still, many engineers thought the project was impossible.
最糟糕的是，很多工程师认为这是个根本不可能完成的任务。
The Golden Gate Strait was home to 96-kilometer-per-hour winds, swirling tides, an endless blanket of fog, and the earthquake-prone San Andreas fault.
金门海峡的所在，有每小时96公里的大风、漩涡潮汐、无尽的雾层，还是易发生地震的圣安德烈亚斯断层的所在地。
But Strauss was convinced the bridge could be built; and that it would provide San Francisco's commuters more reliable passage to the city.
但施特劳斯坚信这座桥是可以建成的；它将为旧金山的通勤者提供更可靠的去市里的通道。
He was, however, a bit out of his depth. Strauss's initial plans to span the strait used a cantilever bridge.
不过，他有点力不从心。施特劳斯最初的计划是用一座悬臂桥横跨狭窄的海峡。
This kind of bridge consists of a single beam anchored at one end and extended horizontally like a diving board.
这种桥由一端固定的单梁组成，并像跳水板一样水平延伸。
Since these bridges can only extend so far before collapsing under their own weight,
由于这些桥梁可延伸的长度有限，超过就会因自身的重量而坍塌，
Strauss's design used two cantilevers, linked by a structure in the middle.
施特劳斯的设计使用了由中间的结构连接的两个悬臂。
But Ellis and his colleague Leon Moisseif convinced Strauss to pursue a different approach: the suspension bridge.
但埃利斯和他的同事莱昂·莫塞夫说服了施特劳斯采用另一种方法：吊桥。
Where a cantilever bridge is supported from one end a suspension bridge suspends its deck from cables strung across the gap.
在悬臂桥的一端受支撑的地方，悬索桥的桥面由横跨桥缝的缆绳悬吊。
The result is a more flexible structure that's resilient to winds and shifting loads.
这是一个更灵活的结构，可以适应风和变化的负载。
This kind of design had long been used for small rope bridges.
这种设计长期以来一直用于小型索桥。
And in the 1930s, advanced steel manufacturing could create cables of bundled wire to act as strong steel rope for large-scale construction.
在20世纪30年代，先进的钢铁制造业可以制造出捆扎成束的钢索，这样的坚固钢索可以用于大型建筑。
At the time, the Golden Gate Bridge was the longest and tallest suspension bridge ever attempted, and its design was only possible due to these innovations.
在那个时代，金门大桥是人们尝试过的最长、最高的悬索桥，正是由于这些创新，它的设计才成为可能。
But cables and towers of this size could only be built at large steelworks on the country's east coast.
但这种规模的电缆和塔只能在东海岸的大型钢铁厂建造。
While the recently completed Panama Canal made it possible to ship these components to California, reassembling the towers on site didn't go quite as smoothly.
虽然最近建成的巴拿马运河使这些部件能够运到加利福尼亚，但现场重新组装这些塔的过程却不是那么顺利。
It was relatively easy to find a stable, shallow foundation for the north tower.
为北侧塔找到一个稳定、浅的地基相对容易。
But building the south tower essentially required erecting a ten-story building underwater.
但建造南侧塔实际上需要在水下建造一座十层楼高的建筑。
Since the strait's depth prevented them drilling or digging the foundations, bombs were dropped on the ocean floor, creating openings for pouring concrete.
由于海峡的深度阻止他们钻探或挖掘地基，炸弹被投到海底，为混凝土浇筑创造了开口。
A seawall was built to protect the site from powerful currents, and workers operated in 20-minute shifts between tides.
人们修建了防波堤，以保护该地区不受强大水流的影响，工作人员在潮汐中轮班工作，每轮班20分钟。
The towers had so many compartments that each worker carried a set of plans to prevent getting lost.
双子塔有太多隔间，每个工人都带着一套设计图纸以防迷路。
And at one point, an earthquake rocked the south tower nearly 5 meters in each direction.
有一次，地震使南塔朝着两个方向摇晃了近5米远。
Strauss took worker safety very seriously, requiring hard hats at all times and stretching a safety net below the towers.
施特劳斯非常重视工人的安全，要求工人一直戴着安全帽，并在塔下拉起安全网。
But not even these precautions could prevent an entire scaffolding platform from falling in 1937, carrying ten workers to their deaths.
但即使是这些预防措施也不能防止整个脚手架平台在1937年倒塌，导致10名工人死亡。
Once the towers were complete, workers spun the cables in place, hung suspenders at 50-foot intervals, and laid down the concrete roadway.
一旦双子塔完工，工人们就把缆绳旋转到位，每隔50英尺悬挂吊杆，然后铺设混凝土路面。
The bridge was finished, but there was still one more task ahead: painting it.
大桥完工了，但又一项任务出现了：粉刷。
After production, the steel had been coated with a reddish paint primer it maintained throughout construction.
在生产完成后，钢被涂上了一层红色的底漆，它在整个施工过程中一直保持着这种状态。
But the Navy had been pushing hard to paint the bridge a tactical black and yellow.
但海军一直在施压要将大桥涂成战术上的黑色和黄色。
Consulting architect Irving Morrow actually thought the primer itself paired nicely with the strait's natural backdrop -- and he wasn't alone.
咨询建筑师欧文·莫罗实际上认为底漆本身很好地搭配了海峡的自然背景，而他也不是唯一这样认为的人。
Citing numerous letters from locals, Morrow's 30-page pitch to paint the bridge "international orange" beat out the Navy's plans.
莫罗引用了许多当地人的来信，用30页纸将大桥漆成“国际橙色”的提议，击败了海军的计划。
And today, this iconic color still complements the strait's blue water, green hills, and rolling fog.
直到今天，这个标志性的颜色依然和海峡蓝色的海水、绿色的山坡和翻滚的云雾遥相呼应。
