That doesn't sound right. You need 15-20 people to make up the weight of an average city car, nevermind a SUV or truck, plus 4+ passengers and load. That's a crowd of 30 for every car the bridge can support.
Yes, but you can pack the bridge more completely with people.[1] It's apparently an urban legend that the Golden Gate was in any danger of collapsing when people were allowed to walk on the roadway for its 50th anniversary--but it may well have been a peak load.
“It was probably the biggest load the bridge had ever seen,” said Mark Ketchum, a San Francisco bridge engineer who studied the Golden Gate Bridge from 1989 to 1991. “But it did not exceed the design load capacity of the bridge.”
“It was probably the biggest load the bridge had ever seen,” said Mark Ketchum, a San Francisco bridge engineer who studied the Golden Gate Bridge from 1989 to 1991. “But it did not exceed the design load capacity of the bridge.”
[1] http://www.mercurynews.com/2012/05/23/the-day-the-golden-gat...