The Golden Gate Bridge - on the Screen

A visual history of The Golden Gate Bridge as depicted in the movies.

Some quick facts: Construction on the bridge began in 1933 and the bridge-opening ceremony was in 1937. Total length 8,981 feet (1.7 miles.) and 90 feet wide. The towers rise 746 feet above the water. 83,000 tons of steel was used. 41 million vehicles cross it each year. It's colour is International orange aka orange vermillion. The bridge is a suicide magnet. More people jump to their death from the Golden Gate Bridge than any other famous landmark in the world.

The Golden Gate Bridge as it appears in the western How the West Was Won (1962). This shot is at the very end of the film, Spencer Tracy narrates telling us how the USA has progressed since the Old West. The film was shot in Cinerama which used three cameras shooting at the same time and merging the shots on the big big screen, hence the very wide screenshot.

The bridge under attack from a giant octopus in It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955), the effects were by stop-motion legend Ray Harryhausen. It was actually more sextopus than octopus, the low-budget film had to cut corners and so Harryhausen's monster lost two tentacles.

James Stewart saves Kim Novak after she jumps into the sea in Hitchcock's classic psychological thriller, Vertigo (1958).

Superman the Movie (1978). Lex Luthor sends a nuclear missile into the San Andreas fault resulting in a major earthquake which threatens the Golden Gate Bridge with destruction. Superman saves the day.

Star Trek The Motion Picture (1979) San Francisco in the future, is it me or has the bridge changed a bit?

Kirk and Spock in 1986 San Francisco after travelling back in time to grab a couple of Humpback whales to save Earth's future in Star Trek IV The Voyage Home (1986).

James Bond vs Max Zorin atop the Golden Gate Bridge in A View to a Kill (1985) guess who wins?

A giant wave threatens the Golden Gate in James Cameron's The Abyss (1989).

Undersea aliens showing off their ability to manipulate water, luckily they turn out to be friendly aliens, well for now anyway.

It's a two level Golden Gate Bridge in the future in the Robin Williams sci-fi movie Bicentennial Man (1999). Does anyone remember this film?

The Core (2003) The Golden Gate Bridge melting because of some strange phenomenon the writer's dreamt up.

You see the Earth's core has stopped spinning and it's causing worldwide catastrophe, a team of scientists are sent to the centre of the earth in a special drilling machine - I'm not making this up - to jumpstart the core and save the Earth, Aaron Eckhart and Hilary Swank star.

The Hulk jumps onto one of the Golden Gates towers in Ang Lee's Hulk (2003) starring Eric Bana and Jennifer Connelly.

X-Men 3.(2006). Magneto (Ian McKellen) unleashes his magnetic powers and lifts up the Golden Gate Bridge, and moves it over to Alcatraz Island. There's something you don't see every day.

Monsters vs Aliens at the Golden Gate Bridge in the 2009 animated film.

A very large shark takes a bite out of the bridge in the utterly butterly bonkers Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus (2009). In another scene the shark is seen leaping out of the sea and chomping on an airplane flying thousands of feet up. Yep.

Romulan nutjob Nero attempts to destroy Earth in Star Trek (2009). Starring Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto.

The Apes rise and take over the Golden Gate Bridge at the climax of hit reboot Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011). Starring James Franco and Andy Serkis (as Caesar).