The Golden Gate Bridge has started to sing. The new musical tones coming from the Bridge are a known and inevitable phenomenon that stems from the current wind retrofit project during very high winds.
The wind retrofit project is designed to make the Bridge more aerodynamic under high wind conditions and is necessary to ensure the safety and structural integrity of the Bridge.
As part of the retrofit, the bridge authority has been replacing handrail on the west sidewalk with new railing that has thin vertical slats designed to allow more air to flow through them. Designers said they knew going into the handrail replacement that the Bridge would sing during exceptionally high winds from the west.
The singing began last week.
As part of the design process, the District did extensive studies of the impacts of the project, including wind tunnel testing of a scale model of the Golden Gate Bridge under high winds, mimicking the conditions we experience over the entrance to the Bay. These tests revealed that under certain high wind events, the Bridge would begin to hum as air passes more freely over the Bridge roadway.
Leave a Reply