Folding Golden Gate Bridge

Photographs taken during the folding of my suspension bridge model, May 2021.

The paper used for this is a 100 x 25cm sheet of kozo that I coated with wax (encaustic) paint. Besides the color (which is obviously not an exact match for Golden Gate Bridge), this also imparts transparency.<br>In the background (top left) two earlier versions of the bridge are visible. The first part of the folding process is precreasing the grid necessary to make all the folds.<br>Here, the vertical precreases are already folded (compare the length of the sheet to the previous photo). Closer view of the narrow vertical pleats.<br>Besides evoking the cables that hold up the bridge deck, these pleats, as narrow as they are, also allow for the edge to be curved, and thus serve a dual purpose: both esthetic and structural. After the narrow cable pleats, several sets of pleat crossings are folded, to enable the forming of the towers and the feet. One of the central curves has been formed in this view, and the forming of the other is just beginning.<br>The first step is to fold a sharp curved crease that traces the desired concave curve.<br>This lifts up a fan of paper that is then collapsed onto a narrow strip along the curve, by folding back and forth.<br>The pleats allow for the opening and lengthening of the folded edge. Both central curves folded. View from the other side of the sheet (which will become the outside of the bridge, visible when the model is completed. In the process of folding one of the end curves. Four of the six curves completed. Curves complete. This is the last point at which the model is flat. Raising a box to form one of the feet of the bridge towers. Both feet raised by one unit (three more to follow on each side). Finished bridge. Finished bridge. Closer view of the finished bridge.