Among officers who suffered from battle fatigue, there were incidents of reckless behavior, daredevil attempts meant to prove their bravery like rushing into a line of fire with little regard for their own personal safety or that of their men. On the battlefield, victims of shell shock in the First World War were often accused of cowardice, and in extreme situations it was suggested that, like deserters, they be shot on the spot. It was not uncommon among former soldiers for depression to be accompanied by shame. In the 30s, although vets such as Wobber would have been treated compassionately, very little was known about an illness that was only recently classified as such. More than half a century later, the situation remains a point of contention and ongoing debate. Most of the significant medical literature was published after World War II, in the late 1940s and early 50s, and despite being studied, the various mental problems experienced by returning soldiers were not yet adequately treated. Mental health services in the 1920s and 30s may have improved as a direct result of returning World War I veterans who suffered from combat stress and nervous breakdown, but the practice of psychotherapy was still relatively primitive.

How Wobber would have been treated in 1937, if at all, is a matter of speculation. Now, of course, the severe-at times crippling-anxiety associated with the sort of psychological trauma experienced most frequently by war veterans is commonly referred to as PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).

Do we memorialize those who are haunted in this way, or are there only memorials by default?Ī 47-year-old bargeman, Wobber was a World War I veteran who had been treated at a VA hospital in nearby Palo Alto, where he was diagnosed non compos mentis, or “not of sound mind.” At the time, doctors would have blamed Wobber’s suffering on shell shock. Unhealed wounds, of course, are not only the burden of the vanquished but of the victor, and even among the victorious there are those who remain deeply traumatized, are resigned to emotional defeat and forgotten. Built in the midst of the Great Depression-a convulsive period of economic crisis, increasingly nationalistic aggression, and lingering resentments from the First World War that served as the ominous prelude to the second-it is one of the lasting achievements of its time. In 1937, against a backdrop of seismic world events-from murderous purges in the Soviet Union to the Spanish Civil War and Japan's invasion of China-the bridge would also symbolize the heights to which humans could aspire. Set high above a rocky coast, it offers an unparalleled view of the ocean and the Golden Gate from its wild, windswept cliffs. Traveling the country from east to west, one might end up in a San Francisco park named Land's End. San Francisco and the Pacific, however, represent a greater unknown and a sense of freedom, connected to nature and Eastern thought, to the cycle of life and eternity.

In America, New York and the Atlantic can be thought to look back, forever bound to the customs of England, Europe, and the past. At night the bridge is floodlit and shines with a golden luminescence that reflects off the waters of the bay and creates a magical effect.While there are beautiful bridges all over the world, the Golden Gate looms in the collective imagination, a stunning structure set within an equally magnificent landscape. The bridge’s orange vermilion color, suggested by consulting architect Irving Morrow, has a dual function, both fitting in with the surrounding natural scenery and being clearly visible to ships in fog.

Route 101 and California State Route 1 (Pacific Coast Highway) across the strait and features a pedestrian walkway. Although other bridges have since surpassed it in size, it remains incomparable in the magnificence of its setting and is said to be the most photographed bridge in the world. The Golden Gate Bridge came to be recognized as a symbol of the power and progress of the United States, and it set a precedent for suspension-bridge design around the world. Upon its completion in 1937, it was the tallest and longest suspension bridge in the world. Golden Gate Bridge, suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate in California to link San Francisco with Marin county to the north. Fog enveloping the Golden Gate Bridge, which spans the entrance to San Francisco Bay in northern California.

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