The First proposal for the Golden Gate Bridge came from James Wilkins, who at the time was an engineering student. The cost of James Wilkins Bridge was unrealistic at the time which was 100million dollars, but none the less it set the bar for other bridge engineers to try to work out a cheaper solution. During this time a young Joseph Strauss had graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a degree in Business and Economics. Joseph was an avid student at his school and was the class president and poet for his class. Joseph’s interests with engineering and bridge design some might say happened by chance, in that, one day Joseph once tried out for his school’s football team but got injured and taken to the infirmary. During his stay, he gazed outside the window at the Cincinnati-Covington Bridge. Little did anyone know, Joseph was on his way to becoming a leader in his society and a hero amongst most. Joseph spent some time working at an office for an engineering firm which designed bridges, and after a preposition to his firm was rejected, he though to start his own firm and take his idea with him. Joseph went on to create the Strauss Bascule bridge company of Chicago where he amped up the modern day bascule bridge (draw bridge) with his designs and ideas.
At the Strauss Bascule bridge company of Chicago, Josephs worked on the Burnside Bridge in Portland in the year 1926, the Lewis and Clark Bridge in 1930, the Cherry street Strauss and Trunnion Bridge, the Washington Street Bridge, the Hoquiam Bridge, the Skansen Bridge and finally worked as the chief engineer on the golden Gate Bridge. All of this was done without a proper degree in engineering. Joseph first tackled the idea of designing the Golden Gate Bridge with a plan of having two double cantilever spans linked by a central suspension segment. This design was rejected and later on a fellow engineer working on the project under Joseph by the name of