On Jan. 5, 1933, construction on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco began. It was an epic task that lasted 4½ years during the depths of the Great Depression. Construction required incredible strength and extraordinary precision, much of it taking place hundred of feet in the air. That often left workers looking for ways to relieve the tension. Unfortunately, one way they did that can only be described as despicable. Portable toilets had been installed on the 15-foot-wide catwalks and the waste stored in traps beneath them. Driven by a combination of anti-Japanese sentiment and mounting tension, a group of workers released a full load from one of the toilet traps just as the Japanese freighter Shensu Maru passed beneath, aiming for its smokestack. The contents missed the smokestack but splattered onto the ship's deck, causing an angry protest. The perpetrators were never caught, and no further incidents of that nature took place for the remainder of the construction.
