Golden Gate Bridge Approach Looking North
Golden Gate Bridge and Surfer as seen from Fort Point National Historic Site (also location of famous scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Movie Vertigo)
Golden Gate Bridge in Infrared as seen from Fort Point National Historic Site
Golden Gate Bridge Welcome Center Viewpoint
Golden Gate Bridge Walkway Looking North
Golden Gate Bridge Panorama of San Francisco Bay Area (click to enlarge)
Golden Gate Bridge Tower’s Art Deco Style
Golden Gate Bridge Art Deco Lightposts
Close-up of Golden Gate Bridge’s Art Deco Lamp
Golden Gate Bridge Historic Plaque
Golden Gate Bridge Span Cable and Wire Statistics
Close-up of Single Golden Gate Bridge Cable
Golden Gate Bridge as Viewed from the Water Looking North (tours from Pier 39)
Golden Gate Bridge Span as seen from Marin Headlands Looking South (at Battery Spencer)
Golden Gate Bridge Tower as seen from Marin Headlands (at Battery Spencer)
Richard and Pam (author) at Marin Headlands by Foggy Golden Gate Bridge
Whimsical Golden Gate Bridge and Dinosaurs Card
In February this year we made a return visit to San Francisco, California. We left just before the Pandemic and lockdown occurred. We look forward to the day when life returns to normal. Meanwhile we’ll enjoy thinking about the good times we had and more to come (note all pictures can be clicked to enlarge).
The iconic Golden Gate Bridge first opened on May 27, 1937. This suspension bridge is an engineering marvel that is 1.7 miles long and contains 80,000 miles of steel wire – enough to circle the Earth three times! Painting the bridge is a never-ending job. Read a fascinating story about it at: https://www.citylab.com/life/2015/04/the-fascinating-neverending-job-of-painting-the-golden-gate-bridge/390453/
The U.S. Navy originally wanted to paint the bridge black with yellow stripes. Others wanted to paint it aluminum grey to evoke the beauty of a dirigible airship. Architect Irving Morrow decided to keep the bridge the same color (International Orange) as the original red primer on the steel. He thought it blended well with the nearby hills, ocean, and sky throughout the seasons.
San Francisco is famous for its fog. It forms most often in summer when warm air flows over the cool Pacific Ocean. Some visitors never see the bridge because of the dense fog! Poets have described the fog as “moving art”. Our time-lapse video of fog streaming past the Golden Gate Bridge can be viewed at: https://naturetime.wordpress.com/2012/05/27/our-best-video-of-the-golden-gate-bridge-and-fog-time-lapse-10x-speed/
San Francisco is consistently voted one of the top ten cities in the world by travelers. The “City by the Bay” has inspired the following quotes:
Billy Graham: “The Bay Area is so beautiful that I hesitate to preach about Heaven while I am here.”
Walter Cronkite: “Leaving San Francisco is like saying goodbye to an old sweetheart. You want to linger as long as possible.”
Julia Child: “It is simply a very romantic place…you couldn’t be anywhere else.”
Larry King: “The ultimate for me would be one perfect day in San Francisco. There’s no city like it anywhere.”
Rudyard Kipling: “San Francisco has only one drawback…it is hard to leave.”
Frank Sinatra: “I left my heart in San Francisco.”
And on a funny note, a famous quote attributed to Mark Twain is: “The coldest winter I ever spent was summer in San Francisco.”
You can read about the history and features of the Golden Gate Bridge at: https://www.goldengate.org/bridge/history-research/
Huell Howser of California’s Gold has a must-see video about the Golden Gate Bridge and the men who work there – an absolute classic and one of my favorites: https://blogs.chapman.edu/huell-howser-archives/1993/12/10/golden-gate-bridge-californias-gold-407/
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