Special Features
- General Article: Urban Planning in the San Francisco Bay Area
- General Article: The Golden Gate Bridge and its Environment
- General Article: Spinning the Cables
- General Article: The Golden Gate Bridge's Opening Day and its 50th Anniversary
- Interview: 1930s Engineering
- Teacher's Resources: Teacher's Guide
On May 27, 1937, 200,000 people thronged to the newly-completed Golden Gate bridge and walked, climbed, skated or cycled across. After 18 years of struggles to complete the bridge, San Francisco's jubilance was unrestrained.
My American Experience
Share Your Story
From the Empire State Buiding to the carvings on Mount Rushmore, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the Space Needle, the U.S. has dozens of impressive, important, and iconic structures. Which ones have you been to? Which has had the biggest impact?
The Great Fever
Major Walter Reed's discovery in 1900 that mosquitoes spread yellow fever halted an outbreak and led to the disease's eventual eradication.
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Radio Bikini
While the U.N. debated strategies for control of atomic energy, the U.S. Navy was preparing for nuclear tests on Bikini Island.
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New York: The Center of the World
Postwar New York City and the global economic order told through the story of the World Trade Center.
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Test Tube Babies
The effort of pioneering researchers to conceive babies through in vitro fertilization.
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Spy in the Sky
In 1960, Francis Gary Powers' U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union.
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Race to the Moon
The historic journey of Apollo 8 captivated the world in 1968 -- a bright spot in a year marked by political assassinations, race riots, and the Vietnam War.
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The Iron Road
Begun during the Civil War, the transcontinental railroad employed 20,000 men, mostly immigrants, who built the iron road with their bare hands.
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Meltdown at Three Mile Island
Equipment failure, human error and bad luck led to the country's worst nuclear accident in 1979.
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