Golden Gate Bridge ‘Sings’ During High Winds

It may not be truly singing, but the Golden Gate Bridge is starting to hum.

High winds on Friday produced tones that are the side effect of a handrail retrofit designed to make the span more aerodynamic on gusty days.

"We knew going into the handrail replacement that the Bridge would sing during exceptionally high winds from the west, as we saw yesterday,'' according to Paolo Cosulich-Schwartz, spokesman for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District.

The phenomenon was recorded and posted on social media, with some describing it as "angelic and peaceful," others calling it eerie, mournful or annoying.

As much as I would‘ve loved this eerie sound to be aliens coming for us, apparently it’s the installation of new wind resistance railing that has turned the Golden Gate Bridge into a huge instrument that can be heard all around the Bay!Hypnotizing! #goldengatebridge #SanFrancisco pic.twitter.com/DhWEnttp2X
— Shirin (@Shirin_Jnk) June 6, 2020

Oops. Engineering fail. New sidewalk barriers supposed to help with wind resistance but they didn’t take into account th crazy loud sound it makes when wind passes through it. Unbearably loud! pic.twitter.com/4jMgWIANVI
— StrategikDJ (@StrategikD) June 6, 2020

During design, the district studied the potential impacts of the project, including wind tunnel testing of a scale model of the bridge under high winds.

The tests revealed that under certain high wind conditions, the bridge would hum as air passed more freely over the Bridge roadway.