The Gant Bridge is a suspension bridge in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. It is part of the Las Venturas Highway connecting San Fierro with Las Venturas.
Description[]
Gant Bridge is an iconic landmark of San Fierro, San Andreas, connecting Juniper Hollow and Palisades in San Fierro to Tierra Robada and Bayside. Spanning San Fierro Bay, the bridge also serves as the western gateway to the waterways which divide San Andreas state.
The bridge is clearly modeled after the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, but is shorter and tends to be bathed only in a low morning fog. Like the Golden Gate Bridge, the Gant Bridge is a suspension bridge supported by two pillars and painted International Orange. Other similarities include a toll plaza on the San Fierro side, and a large steel latticework structure supported by concrete and built over an old fort at Battery Point and into the hillside, providing the anchorage on the San Fierro side.
According to the bridge facts sign in the Visitor Center, the total length of the bridge is 159.7 m., but it is obviously much longer; The measured distance by car from end to end is approximately ~874 meters. Other than the similarity to the Golden Gate Bridge, the Gant Bridge is not a particularly necessary roadway in the city, given the presence of the Garver Bridge to the east. The small freeway that comes off the bridge in San Fierro ends unexpectedly on a relatively minor road in Downtown San Fierro, instead of connecting with something more major.
The bridge appears to be undergoing some refurbishment, as its southeastern side has scaffolding. This scaffolding provides Carl with access to a hard-to-reach area in Ice Cold Killa, and the end of the scaffolding forms a unique stunt jump; however to do this jump requires Carl to sacrifice his motorbike and shouldn't be attempted until a) the Desert area opens up (otherwise the jump fails due to the "invisible wall" preventing Gant Bridge from being crossed prematurely) and b) Carl completes the Paramedic mission and receives enhanced health. This is due to the fact Carl may land on the concrete pillars of the bridge far below rather than in the water; this is fatal if Carl doesn't receive the extra health boost provided by completing the side mission.
An Easter egg can be found on the top of the southern suspension tower - a sign that reads "There are no Easter Eggs up here. Go away." A parachute can also be obtained on top of the northern tower.
Gant Bridge Visitor Center[]
The Gant Bridge Visitor Center, which consists of a "gift shop, boring museum and tourist information", is situated on the San Fierro side of the bridge, on both sides of the border between Paradiso and Juniper Hollow. Although the building housing the gift shop and museum are inaccessible, a handful of trivia about the bridge are exhibited outside, and an adjoining pedestrian bridge and walkway at the back leads to the San Fierro end of the bridge. A small diner, also inaccessible except while on a date with one of Carl's girlfriends, is also adjoined to the gift shop and museum.
The museum's display features an actual piece of cable used for the creation of the suspension for the Gant Bridge. It is accompanied by a sign reading:
ACTUAL PIECE OF CABLE
- Oooooh amazing
- Thats mind blowing
- Actually, no, its simple physics And not really that impressive
Second display consists of a board sign stating some facts about the bridge. Along those facts are also featured some technical information relating to the internal game files (which serves as an Easter egg):
BRIDGE FACTS
- length - 159.7m
- height - 60.3m above sea level
- 16000 polygons inc. LODs
- 600m draw distance
- 11 textures
- Takes up a staggering 1.27mb of disc space
The sign changes in The Definitive Edition of the game, to accompany the Grove Street Games development team. It now reads:
BRIDGE FACTS
- length - 159.7m
- height - 60.3m above sea level
- 34815 polygons inc. LODs
- 3 babies born during construction
- 40 textures
- Takes up a staggering 38.9mb of disc space
In the original version of GTA San Andreas, when measuring the bridge's length in-game using an in-game units (one in-game unit corresponds to one meter) reveals the length of approximately ~874 meters at the very least. The bridge's height at its lowest point above sea level is approximately ~55 meters, while its highest point is approximately ~67 meters - the median of these values (~61 meters) indeed roughly corresponds with the fact stated on the board. The bridge's suspension towers' height is approximately ~225 meters above sea level.
When excluding the tollbooths, the bridge's main models use a single texture container named goldengate_sfw.txd, containing ten textures. The northern end of the bridge consists of a model named GGbridgeend_SFN.dff which uses yet another single texture container named GGbridge_SFN.txd, containing six textures - although five of them are reused from the goldengate_sfw.txd texture container. This would make a total of 16 textures featured in texture containers whose names specifically point to the bridge. However, it is in fact eleven individual textures, if excluding the repeated ones.
The entire bridge model along with its towers and texture containers – excluding the collision files – makes the total size slightly higher than stated on the board, while not surpassing two megabytes.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Before the player has unlocked the Las Venturas landmass, there will be large invisible walls around the bridge that prevent the player from entering or crossing the Gant Bridge. The player can land a helicopter or airplane on the "roof" of this invisible solid area, and since it is invisible, the player and the aircraft will look like they're floating in mid-air as seen in the gallery above.
- Because of this, the player must be careful when flying around the bridge early on in the game, as he might crash into this invisible wall.
- Also, the player is unable to perform the Unique Stunt Jump located on the east side of the bridge until the mission Yay Ka-Boom-Boom is completed since it will crash on the invisible wall.
- Gant Bridge is the longest bridge in San Andreas and is the tallest bridge in the Grand Theft Auto series.
- Occasionally, if CJ is near the Gant Bridge when the weather is foggy, a foghorn can be heard, possibly from the Gant Bridge, as some bridges in real life, like the Golden Gate Bridge, are equipped with foghorns to help warn ships during fog conditions.
- In Hashbury, a mural of the Gant Bridge is present. However, it is more detailed, slightly longer and is visibly identical to the real Golden Gate Bridge.
See Also[]
- Woodside-Sunview Bridge - 2D Universe counterpart of the Gant Bridge.