The bridge carries about 112,000 vehicles per day according to the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District.

The U.S. Navy had lobbied that the bridge be painted in blue and yellow stripes to increase its visibility. But when the steel arrived in San Francisco painted in a burnt red hue as primer, the consulting architect decided the color was both highly visible--and more pleasing to the eye.

Each cable is made of 27,572 strands of wire. The total length of galvanized steel wire used to fabricate both main cables is estimated to be 80,000 miles (130,000 km).

Before the bridge was built, the only short route between San Francisco and what is now Marin County was by boat across a section of San Francisco Bay. The Sausalito Land and Ferry Company service launched in 1867 and eventually became the Golden Gate Ferry Company. By the late 1920s, it was the largest ferry operation in the world.

Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge took a total of 1,604 days or a little more than 4 years and 4 1/2 months. Work began on January 5, 1933, and the Bridge opened to vehicular traffic on May 28, 1937.

Chief Engineer Joseph Strauss innovated the use of movable safety netting beneath the construction site. During construction, the net saved the lives of 19 men who became known as the "Halfway-to-Hell Club."

The initial toll for the bridge was 50 cents each way--roughly equivalent to an $18.00 roundtrip today--a hefty price to pay in the midst of the Great Depression. Today, Golden Gate Bridge tolls are collected in one direction only, heading southbound into the city of San Francisco.

The speed limit was reduced from 55 mph to 45 mph on October 1, 1983, to reduce the potential for critical accidents. On September 13, 1996, the Bridge was designated a double-fine zone to aid in enforcement of the 45 mph speed limit.

In May 1987, as part of the 50th anniversary celebration, the Golden Gate Bridge district closed the bridge to automobile traffic and allowed pedestrians to cross the bridge. The bridge became congested with roughly 300,000 people, causing the center span of the bridge to flatten out under the weight. Officials quickly closed the bridge, preventing an additional 600,000 people from crossing, but engineers afterward said that the bridge, which was built to bend, was never in danger of collapsing.

Charles Alton Ellis did much of the technical and theoretical work that built the bridge but received none of the credit during his lifetime. In November 1931, Chief Engineer Strauss, perhaps with an eye toward self-promotion and posterity, fired his collaborator, but Ellis, obsessed with the project and unable to find work elsewhere during the Depression, continued working 70 hours per week on an unpaid basis, eventually turning in ten volumes of hand calculations. In May 2007, the Golden Gate Bridge District issued a formal report on 70 years of stewardship of the famous bridge and decided to give Ellis major credit for the design of the bridge.