Then and now: Photographing the Bay Bridge

Peter Stackpole was just 21 when he brought his Leica A to the top of the still-under-construction San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. It was 1934, and Stackpole had no official authorization to capture images that would eventually land in Vanity Fair. Decades later, photographer Joseph Blum captured yet another bridge project in the bay area. Despite considerably tighter safety restrictions, he made soaring images of the modern construction site. Click through to see samples, then and now.