When the Golden Gate Bridge was under construction the military got involved. The Navy wanted to make sure that big ships wouldn’t hit the bridge. The Navy proposed it be a bumble bee design with black and white stripes. The army proposed red and yellow stripes. Other proposals were to paint it all black or all gray.
When the steel arrived to San Francisco it had a primer paint of “International Orange”. Irving Marrow, a consulting architect, had written a lengthy report on every aspect of the bridges appearance. He decided that the orange looked good and that it would be bright enough to stand out in the fog. That is when they decided to keep the color of the primer.
The Golden Gate Bridge is almost constantly being repainted due to its sheer size with every inch getting new paint every 20 years or so.
I wonder how popular the bridge would bee ? if it had a different color?
