UPDATE: Loud Hum On Golden Gate Bridge To Finally Be Silenced Next Year
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) – Recent construction on the Golden Gate Bridge made it become the world's largest tuning fork, emitting an eerie sound when conditions were windy.
With the help of top physicists and scientists, that song will be silenced.
In June of 2020, on the Pacific Ocean side, new slats were installed between the handrail and the driving deck to make the iconic bridge resistant to 100 mile per hour sustained winds.
Video: Howling Atmospheric River Winds Making Golden Gate Bridge Sing
The thinner slats between the two towers stabilized the structure and also emitted a 1,000 hertz tone that could be heard for miles on windy days.
"Yesterday, it was so loud. We live in the Outer Richmond and we could hear it from our house," said Brianne Howell of San Francisco.
"Typically, those were very high winds with wind coming at the railing from a perpendicular angle from the west or a slight angle from the north or the south," said Paolo Cosulich-Schwartz, spokesperson for the Golden Gate Bridge District.
The fix has arrived, in the form of 24,000 U-shaped aluminum clips only 1/8th of an inch wide, along with rubber inserts. Each slat, all 12,000 of them, will get two clips and rubber inserts and will be of course, painted international orange.
Officials said it would take Golden Gate Bridge workers about six months to install.
"They will be installed on the slats on both ends, the sort of sharper edge of slats. And they will be vertical, so they'll go top to bottom, covering both ends of the slats. Underneath those clips, is a small rubber sleeve or insert, that will help dampen some of the vibrations further," Cosulich-Schwartz told KPIX 5.
The fix, which costs $450,000, should be completed by the end of 2022.
