"Magic curtain of fog envelops the...Golden Gate Bridge on an autumn afternoon. The south tower was sunk 35 feet (11 meters) deep into bedrock, a next-to-impossible feat because of the furious currents in this strait. Cables expand and contract with changing temperature and traffic load. Approaching ships are assured a minimum clearance of 220 feet (67 meters) in the main channel beneath the span. A tanker bearing crude oil—the area's largest import—slips into the bay, which is still, as Richard Henry Dana wrote in 1859, 'emporium of a new world, the awakened Pacific.'"

(Text and photograph from "San Francisco Bay, the Westward Gate," November 1969, National Geographic magazine)