Golden Date

The Golden Gate is the narrow passage into San Francisco Bay. It was a hidden inlet to sailors for years until 1846, when Army officer John Fremont "discovered it and named it the Golden Gate. This was 2 years prior to the California gold rush of 1848, which lead to the influx of 49ers the following year looking to strike gold. Nearly 100 years later a bridge would be built to span this narrow inlet that would soon become one of the greatest engineering feats in history. The structure would be called the Golden Gate Bridge. It would connect the city of San Francisco with the Marin headlands to the north. Fremont named it Chrysopolae (Golden Gate) after the Bosporus harbor in Istanbul. Another 30 years would pass before the state of California would recognize "The Golden State" as its official nickname after the gold rush. But the bridge was named after the inlet and not the gold rush. Many people thought the bridge would ruin the scenery, and the press regarded the design as ugly. There was a large amount of opposition. Once it was approved, many thought that the color should be gold because of the relation to the gold rush in 1848. The designers saw some of the steel that was manufactured in New Jersey had a reddish paint that was added during fabrication. They realized that this would be a great color that would stand out in the fog shrouded harbor. It turns out that the orange vermilion or "international orange" color they went along with would become iconic like the bridge itself. The icing on the cake. The paint protects the Bridge from the salt that corrodes and rusts the steel components. The Bridge held the title of longest suspension bridge for 37 years until the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in New York opened in 1964. During the 50th anniversary of the opening of the bridge, officials closed it to vehicular traffic and invited pedestrians only to cross. 500,000 people showed up! 250,000 people made their way on to the bridge before engineers realized the bridge was flattening out, and dropped 7 feet, and the two towers started to lean toward each other. They did some quick calculations and immediately closed the bridge off to any more people. There has never been another walk over since! Can you imagine almost 300,000 people plummeting 220 feet to the water as the bridge collapsed! Someone was not paying attention to density and weight. On the north side of the bridge, the Marin headlands have trails that lead to overlooks of the bridge. It is interesting looking down on such a huge structure, and its color and backdrop are unrivaled. I walked across the bridge and stood at the midpoint, imagining myself a construction worker walking up the giant cables to the top of the towers. For many sailors, the bridge was a sight for sore eyes as they returned from one of the three wars that were fought in the Pacific after its construction. For my father returning from the Korean War, it was a special moment to stand on the deck of his aircraft carrier, CV-33 Kearsarge, and cruise under the magnificent span into the bay. The moment was short lived. As the carrier docked and the sailors exited the ship to exuberantly greet friends and family members, there was no one there to greet him. His Golden date would have to wait. After 4 years at war he would have to wait another week before arriving in San Diego, and then a long flight back to Michigan before he would get his reunion. The Golden Gate bridge is one of those rare structures that become iconic the moment they are completed. They seem to transcend time, and it is hard to imagine them not occupying their current location. They fit in perfectly. Like the Empire State Building, or the Eiffel Tower, they amplify the greatness of their city. Even the name seems to shine like glitter and gold.