1937 — The Golden Gate Bridge is completed in San Francisco. The main section is 4,200 feet long, making it the longest span up to that point.

Also that year:

• John Steinbeck publishes Of Mice and Men.
• Artie Shaw, clarinetist, forms an early swing band which, the following year, features singer Billie Holiday as the vocalist.
• J.R.R. Tolkien, English writer, publishes the fantasy novel The Hobbit.
• Edwin Land establishes the Polaroid Corp.
• Amelia Earhart disappears while on a flight across the Pacific Ocean.