Everyone in San Francisco, Marin, and the rest of the Bay Area was up early and left home to see the Golden Gate Bridge on Sunday, May 24, 1987. Thousands of people came on trains, buses, taxis, boats, bicycles, skateboards, strollers, wheelchairs, and on foot to celebrate the 50th birthday of the Golden Gate Bridge. Thousands of walkers marched onto the bridge from both ends after the bridge was closed to vehicles.
Approximately 50,000 people walked across the bridge and witnessed ceremonies in the middle of the roadbed. On both sides of the street, hundreds of thousands of people had already poured onto the roadway and the sidewalk by 5:30 in the morning. Various estimates of the crowd’s size ranged from 250,000 to 800,000. The mass of humanity flattened the arched roadbed regardless of the number. Meanwhile, 30 to 35 miles per hour winds caused the bridge to sway, unnerving the packed crowd.
