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.
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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.
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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.
舊金山大橋75年周年
This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.
這里是美國之音慢速英語科技報道。
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.
金門大橋正在慶祝其75周年,這座大橋于1937年5月28日建成通車。從那時起,已經(jīng)有超過20億輛汽車駛過這座架設(shè)在舊金山和加州馬林縣之間的著名建筑。每天有多達11.2萬輛汽車駛經(jīng)這里。
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.
金門大橋建成之時是當時世界上最長的懸索橋,兩個橋塔之間的懸空車道綿延1280米。今天它仍被認為是現(xiàn)存跨度最大的十大橋梁之一。
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.
瑪麗·居里(Mary Currie)就職于金門大橋高速公路和運輸區(qū)。她說,金門大橋一直都是最不尋常的工程項目之一。
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:“金門大橋無疑是一個工程奇跡,這座大橋因為自己在土木工程和結(jié)構(gòu)工程中的意義而不斷獲獎。它也囊括了很多第一。比如,它是首座需要變換車道的懸索橋。”
51VOA注:金門大橋為緩解堵車采用了可變車道。一共8條車道,根據(jù)上下班高峰不同的車流走向,上午為6+2車道,下午為2+6車道。而不是我們常見的兩邊各4條車道。
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.
金門大橋得名于金門海峽,這一狹窄水道連接了舊金山灣和太平洋。 約瑟夫·施特勞斯(Joseph Strauss)是金門大橋項目總工程師。該項目于1933年開工,歷時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.
該橋全長2788米,寬27米,兩條巨型鋼纜穿過橋塔頂部,橋塔高于水面227米,高于路面152米。每條巨型鋼纜上連著超過2.75萬根鋼繩。
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對垂直吊索將支撐鋼纜與吊橋連接起來。這就是大橋能夠上下移動近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年完工時,金門大橋重達81.15萬噸。舊金山紀事報稱這項完工工程為“價值3500萬美元的鋼質(zhì)豎琴”。
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.
建筑師歐文·莫羅(Irving Morrow)因為大橋的亮橙色廣受贊譽。海軍曾希望這座大橋涂成黃色和黑色,空軍則曾建議涂成紅色和白色。
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:“但幸運的是,莫羅知道亮橙色能與環(huán)境融為一體,它能和海洋和天空形成鮮明對比,也能讓藝術(shù)裝飾風格體現(xiàn)出來。”