This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.

The Golden Gate Bridge is celebrating its seventy-fifth anniversary. The bridge opened to vehicle traffic on May twenty-eighth, nineteen thirty-seven. Since then, more than two billion vehicles have crossed the world famous structure between San Francisco and Marin County, California. As many as one hundred twelve thousand cars make the trip each day.

The Golden Gate Bridge had the longest suspension span in the world, at the time it was built. The suspended roadway stretches one thousand two hundred eighty meters between the bridge's two tall towers. Today it still rates among the top ten longest bridge spans in existence.

The Golden Gate Bridge is now 75 years old

Mary Currie works for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District. She says the bridge is one of the most extraordinary engineering projects of all time.

MARY CURRIE: "The Golden Gate Bridge is an engineering marvel certainly, and it gets award after award after award for what it means in civil engineering and structural engineering. It's also a place where things happen first. For example, we were the first suspension bridge to have to change the roadway deck."

The Golden Gate Bridge is named after the Golden Gate Strait. That narrow passage of water connects the San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. Joseph Strauss was the chief engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge project. Work began in nineteen thirty-three. The project took four years to complete.

Builders at work on the Golden Gate Bridge in 1935

The bridge is two thousand seven hundred eighty-eight meters long from one end to the other. It is twenty-seven meters wide. Two large cables pass over the top of the bridge's towers. These structures stand two hundred twenty seven meters above water and one hundred fifty two meters above the road. Each cable holds more than twenty-seven thousand five hundred strands of wire.

Two hundred fifty pairs of vertical suspender ropes connect the support cables to the suspension bridge. This is part of what enables the bridge to move up and down by nearly five meters.

The Golden Gate Bridge weighed eight hundred eleven million five hundred thousand kilograms when it was completed in nineteen thirty-seven. The San Francisco Chronicle newspaper called the finished project, "a thirty-five million dollar steel harp!"

Architect Irving Morrow gets credit for the bridge's bright orange color. The Navy wanted the bridge painted in yellow and black. The Air Force had suggested red and white.

MARY CURRIE: "But we were fortunate that Irving Morrow knew that that color would blend with the environment, it would contrast with the ocean and the air above, and it would also allow the art deco styling to really stand out."

And that's the VOA Special English Technology Report, written by June Simms. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our reports are at chinavoa.com. We're also on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English. I'm Steve Ember.

旧金山大桥75年周年

This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语科技报道。

The Golden Gate Bridge is celebrating its seventy-fifth anniversary. The bridge opened to vehicle traffic on May twenty-eighth, nineteen thirty-seven. Since then, more than two billion vehicles have crossed the world famous structure between San Francisco and Marin County, California. As many as one hundred twelve thousand cars make the trip each day.
金门大桥正在庆祝其75周年，这座大桥于1937年5月28日建成通车。从那时起，已经有超过20亿辆汽车驶过这座架设在旧金山和加州马林县之间的著名建筑。每天有多达11.2万辆汽车驶经这里。

The Golden Gate Bridge had the longest suspension span in the world, at the time it was built. The suspended roadway stretches one thousand two hundred eighty meters between the bridge's two tall towers. Today it still rates among the top ten longest bridge spans in existence.
金门大桥建成之时是当时世界上最长的悬索桥，两个桥塔之间的悬空车道绵延1280米。今天它仍被认为是现存跨度最大的十大桥梁之一。

Mary Currie works for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District. She says the bridge is one of the most extraordinary engineering projects of all time.
玛丽·居里（Mary Currie）就职于金门大桥高速公路和运输区。她说，金门大桥一直都是最不寻常的工程项目之一。

MARY CURRIE: "The Golden Gate Bridge is an engineering marvel certainly, and it gets award after award after award for what it means in civil engineering and structural engineering. It's also a place where things happen first. For example, we were the first suspension bridge to have to change the roadway deck."
居里：“金门大桥无疑是一个工程奇迹，这座大桥因为自己在土木工程和结构工程中的意义而不断获奖。它也囊括了很多第一。比如，它是首座需要变换车道的悬索桥。”
51VOA注：金门大桥为缓解堵车采用了可变车道。一共8条车道，根据上下班高峰不同的车流走向，上午为6+2车道，下午为2+6车道。而不是我们常见的两边各4条车道。

The Golden Gate Bridge is named after the Golden Gate Strait. That narrow passage of water connects the San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. Joseph Strauss was the chief engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge project. Work began in nineteen thirty-three. The project took four years to complete.
金门大桥得名于金门海峡，这一狭窄水道连接了旧金山湾和太平洋。 约瑟夫·施特劳斯（Joseph Strauss）是金门大桥项目总工程师。该项目于1933年开工，历时4年完工。

The bridge is two thousand seven hundred eighty-eight meters long from one end to the other. It is twenty-seven meters wide. Two large cables pass over the top of the bridge's towers. These structures stand two hundred twenty seven meters above water and one hundred fifty two meters above the road. Each cable holds more than twenty-seven thousand five hundred strands of wire.
该桥全长2788米，宽27米，两条巨型钢缆穿过桥塔顶部，桥塔高于水面227米，高于路面152米。每条巨型钢缆上连着超过2.75万根钢绳。

Two hundred fifty pairs of vertical suspender ropes connect the support cables to the suspension bridge. This is part of what enables the bridge to move up and down by nearly five meters.
250对垂直吊索将支撑钢缆与吊桥连接起来。这就是大桥能够上下移动近5米的部分原因。

The Golden Gate Bridge weighed eight hundred eleven million five hundred thousand kilograms when it was completed in nineteen thirty-seven. The San Francisco Chronicle newspaper called the finished project, "a thirty-five million dollar steel harp!"
1937年完工时，金门大桥重达81.15万吨。旧金山纪事报称这项完工工程为“价值3500万美元的钢质竖琴”。

Architect Irving Morrow gets credit for the bridge's bright orange color. The Navy wanted the bridge painted in yellow and black. The Air Force had suggested red and white.
建筑师欧文·莫罗（Irving Morrow）因为大桥的亮橙色广受赞誉。海军曾希望这座大桥涂成黄色和黑色，空军则曾建议涂成红色和白色。

MARY CURRIE: "But we were fortunate that Irving Morrow knew that that color would blend with the environment, it would contrast with the ocean and the air above, and it would also allow the art deco styling to really stand out."
居里：“但幸运的是，莫罗知道亮橙色能与环境融为一体，它能和海洋和天空形成鲜明对比，也能让艺术装饰风格体现出来。”