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STRANDS OF HISTORY GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE ORIGINAL SUSPENDER ROPES

Strands of History produces high quality, hand-crafted luxury items fabricated from the original Golden Gate Bridge vertical suspender ropes.  We design and fabricate these authentic historical suspender ropes into limited edition or completely customized decorative and functional pieces, including mementos, furniture, lighting, architectural pieces and accents, artwork and sculpture.  Because there is a limited quantity of these suspender ropes from the 1930’s, when you acquire one of these genuine pieces of Bay Area history, you’re investing in an asset that will be passed from generation to generation.   

WHAT WE SELL

 

WHY SUSPENDER ROPES VERSUS CABLES?

“Wire rope” is the term used when multiple strands of metal wire are twisted together into a helix to form a composite “rope” with a diameter larger than 3/8 inch. Although the wire ropes used for suspension bridges are often popularly called cables, we use the term suspender “rope” because it is the terminology used on the specifications for the Golden Gate Bridge Suspender Rope and Fittings by John A. Roebling’s Sons Company, the manufacturer of both the main cable and the vertical suspender ropes, which were approved by Joseph B. Strauss, Chief Engineer for the Golden Gate Bridge project, on October 8th, 1935. Learn more Interesting and Educational Information Concerning the Golden Gate Bridge here.

 

STRANDS OF HISTORY

In 2016, we formed Strands of History, LLC with a long-time friend and business partner who had acquired the business and all the remaining 11-foot pieces of the original Golden Gate Bridge suspender ropes in 2006. Over that time, the fabrication methods to clean, bind, cut, polish, and paint these ropes have been continuously improved to create our current high quality products. Each suspender rope is first sandblasted to remove any remaining layers of debris or paint. After cleaning, the galvanized steel rope is fitted with stainless steel bands that are tightly crimped at the appropriate intervals using a custom-made hydraulic press with six pistons exerting 7000 psi. Although these ropes are over 80 years old, they have a powerful tendency to unwind unless controlled by these crimped bands. The stainless steel bands and 2 5/8 inch diameter galvanized steel ropes are then cut using a chop saw with blades specifically designed to cut large diameter steel ropes. Band saws, high pressure water jets, or plasma cutters don’t work on the suspender ropes because the individual wires vibrate too much no matter how tightly they are crimped; its like trying to cut a bundle of toothpicks with a hand saw. After cutting, the ends are ground and polished to reveal the unique lay (organization) of the 229 individual wires. Below are figures to illustrate the unique lay of the vertical suspender ropes from the George Washington Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge. Both of these bridges’ original vertical suspender ropes were manufactured by the John A. Roebling’s Sons Company (as was the Brooklyn Bridge, but we haven’t found that diagram yet). The mid-70’s replacement suspender ropes for the Golden Gate Bridge were made by U.S. Steel and have different lay compared to the original ropes. The unique, signature lay of the wire ropes guarantees that you have the original Golden Gate Bridge suspender rope and not some generic cable!

Our products are painted with Sherwin Williams’ direct to metal acrylic, semi-gloss paint, custom color matched to the iconic International Orange of the Golden Gate Bridge.