Lommel, fascinated by the bridge, asked Marsh to help write a screenplay centered around it. Marsh based the screenplay on Streamline Duchess, a short film he had written in college about a woman living in Eureka, California, who becomes drawn into a life of prostitution after watching local prostitutes congregate at a motel across the street from her home. Marsh had based this film on a short story by French writer Guy de Maupassant.
