You'd think the color of the most photographed bridge in the world would have a more exciting name than "international orange." Something like "vermilion" or "terra cotta" or "burnt sienna" might seem more appropriate.
Whatever you call it, it's the vivid, unmistakable color of the Golden Gate Bridge, which turns 75 next year. But back in the 1930s, the now-iconic hue was a radical choice.
A painter at work in 1937, the year the Golden Gate Bridge opened. It was the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time; painters had to cover more than 10 million square feet of steel.
First, to set the record straight, the bridge is named not for its hue, but for its location. It's built above the Golden Gate Strait, the entrance to the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean.
The color came about thanks to Irving Morrow, the Golden Gate's consulting architect, who noticed the striking reddish-orange primer painted on some of the steel.
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