The Golden Gate Bridge appeared on campus on Oct. 28. Only, it was 25 feet long, made of cardboard, and a Halloween costume. This model suspension bridge was the creation of sophomores Ravi K. ’28 and Dav R. ’28—a feat of craftsmanship that doubled as their Quest project.

“It started with us asking, ‘Can we build that out of cardboard and put two people in it?’” Dav said. “If the answer was yes, then we built it.”

The costume took shape over three months and more than 108 hours of planning and construction, not including the design process. Every Sunday afternoon since August, Dav and Ravi met in Dav’s garage. Piece by piece, they transformed their materials into the iconic landmark that could actually be worn.

The two spent a long time planning before starting to build. First, they modeled the bridge using Computer-Aided Design after hours of research about the bridge’s proportions. In the process, Dav even read through an engineering report from the 2014 earthquake retrofit to understand the tower’s exact dimensions. 

“You can find the length and width of the bridge in, like, 4,000 places online,” Dav said. “But if you want to know the height of the holes in the towers, you have to dig deeper.”

That precision, he explained, guided their design and was a good reference, even if the final costume didn’t match every measurement perfectly.

Despite their preparation, the process was not without challenges.  They started the build with cardboard, cutting boxes into the right shape and stacking them on each other to create the tall stanchions of the bridge, but soon found that it couldn’t support the structure’s weight. To strengthen it, they added a PVC frame—but even then, the connectors that held the structure together kept breaking under stress.

“We learned that glue alone wasn’t enough,” Ravi said. “Eventually, we used PVC cement, which was actually my dad’s idea, and it finally held everything securely.”

However, for them, all the work was worth it. When they brought the bridge to school, the response was immediate and enthusiastic. 

“People kept saying, ‘That’s a big bridge,’” Ravi said. “It was also too large to wear to class, so people wondered where it was stored.”

What people might not know is that two engineers had created the bridge with a special feature; the roadway in the middle could actually telescope, and the whole bridge would fold up and fit into Ravi’s parents’ car.

“That was a lot of work and it was very finicky but we’re very proud of designing that part on our own,” Dav said.

For them, that Tuesday was also a “task failed successfully.” It acted as a final stress test for the bridge before the real deal—Halloween night.

That evening, they brought the bridge to San Francisco, where it attracted even more attention. Strangers stopped to take photos and clapped for them on the streets.

“We turned into a photobooth for a while, and people would come to take selfies with us,” Ravi said. “It was overwhelming, but it was also amazing.”

Their creation sparked conversations even beyond the night itself. Ravi said their father later overheard people at their local coffee shop in San Francisco still talking about the costume.

For both creators, the most rewarding moments came during the ending stages of construction. 

“When we finally put the roadway on, it was like ‘wow, it looks so much more bridge,’” Ravi said. “That was really cool.”

For Dav, that moment of awe came when they painted the bridge, a final step that turned  months of trial and error into something unmistakably real.

The finished costume now rests folded up in Dav’s garage until its next planned appearance at the Quest Expo, and the two are already thinking about future projects for next year.

“We have some ideas, but we know it’s going to be big,” Dav said.

After months of hard work, their creation became more than a costume; it became a celebration of imagination and persistence. To them, this is what a great Halloween costume should be.

“We noticed that the people trick-or-treating were mostly little kids with store-bought costumes,” Ravi said. “In my eyes, it’s something that nobody else is doing or that’s unique. It doesn’t even have to be that big.” 

“It’s also about the dedication,” Dav added. “Everyone should spend this much time on their Halloween costume, because it’s fun and that’s what makes it stand out.”