Eerie Golden Gate Bridge ‘music’ fills San Francisco after railing replacement
San Francisco’s iconic Golden Gate Bridge has found its voice... and it’s already driving some locals nuts.
The city’s helpline says the noise ― described as a whistle, hum, howl or even scream ― is caused by “high winds blowing through the newly installed railing slats along the bike path on the bridge.”
It’s not constant, only when the winds are just right, as was the case on Friday:
Anthony J.:
“Engineers designed new sides for the sidewalk to help with wind resistance but didn’t take into account the EXTREME sound it creates when wind passes through it. The bridge sings crazy songs now it’s so trippy. It hurts the ears and unbearable it’s that loud.” pic.twitter.com/GWdVia1GNS— Mark Krueger (@markkrueg) June 6, 2020
It can be heard for miles throughout the City by the Bay and beyond:
THANK YOU!!!! Here’s the sound from Land’s End pic.twitter.com/JjEWy6zrlX
— chilibrianno (@chilibrianno) June 6, 2020
The Golden Gate Bridge now makes music. You can hear this whistle all over the city pic.twitter.com/W1V9Dw4sXb
— Raemond (@RaemondBW) June 6, 2020
Local public radio station KQED referred to the bridge as a “a giant orange wheezing kazoo.”
“The Golden Gate Bridge has started to sing,” Paolo Cosulich-Schwartz of the Bridge District told the station. “The new musical tones coming from the bridge are a known and inevitable phenomenon that stem from our wind retrofit during very high winds.”
He added that the retrofit is “necessary to ensure the safety and structural integrity of the bridge for generations to come.”
In other words, unless there’s another retrofit, the haunting sounds are here to stay.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
