San Francisco, CA - Walking the Golden Gate

Time to get back to San Francisco. I’ve been a bit under the weather while we’ve been here and it’s time to get over that bridge and into town. It was cool and overcast but we didn’t want to miss this opportunity since we leave here in a week. We ate, dressed warmly and were off - after 9:00 to avoid the rush hour traffic. One of the goals today is to walk across the bridge and we did that first - gotta do the priorities first. What an entryway to a city, what a walk and what a great icon.

Alcatraz in the middle of the bay. Looks like a foggy, overcast day.



Since it was cool and overcast, we didn’t have a lot of competition for the walk - except for the bikes. Boy, you’ve got to watch those tourists on bikes, they’re so busy looking at the bridge above them and the ships below that they seem to miss the pedestrian in front of them. Some didn’t realize that the line down the middle of the ‘trail’ had a picture of a bike on one side and a picture of a pedestrian on the other. But, you know, some of the walkers didn’t see that either. Those darn tourists.

Check the size of the cable in my hand - and that’s one of the little ones.

We’re all tourists here and all were happy. Couples holding hands, families taking selfies, lots of foreigners speaking in different languages all having a great time walking across the bridge. Of course, we had to have our picture taken - an iconic bridge and an ‘iconic’ t-shirt.

The VC has not just trinkets to buy but also some artifacts from the building of the bridge. Here’s a leather hard helmet along with a hard helmet of today.

Actually the industrial ‘hard’ helmet originated with Edward W. Bullard who was a local manufacturer of safety equipment. He modified the mining helmet he had developed into an industrial hard hat that Joseph Strauss, the chief engineer of construction for the bridge required be worn on the job. Other safety equipment were glare-free goggles, special hand and face cream to protect against the wind and special diets to help fight dizziness. Actually, the Golden Gate Bridge project was not the first project to feature hard hats but it was the first to enforce their usage with the threat of dismissal.

On the patio in back of the VC was this cable, a slice of one of the main cables to show you its composition.

And, here’s what the inside of that cable looks like - thousands of steel cables wires.

Before we left we caught a glimpse of a small sliver of sunlight on the bridge.

Our next goal was the Palace of Fine Arts, build for the Panama Pacific International Exposition in 1915. It is a mere relic of what it was then but still stands tall, to show off a great triumph of San Francisco which had been devastated by the earthquake and subsequent fires of 1905. Since San Francisco had rebuilt much of the devastated area and the Panama Canal had just been built, civic and business leaders visualized San Francisco as the centerpiece of a great world’s fair to celebrate these two. In 2 hours, they raised $2,000,000 and beat out the others in contention for this fair: New Orleans and Washington DC.

They built it on 635 acres reclaimed from the bay, then built 11 huge exhibit palaces. Everything about this fair was HUGE. one of the exhibit halls even held a Ford assembly plant. Yep, they even built cars here. A new vehicle was produced every 10 minutes and those built were sold out by the end of the fair. There were 1500 sculptures throughout the grounds, 65 acres of amusement park concessions, 21 countries, 48 US states, 50 California counties built displays. And did I mention that it was HUGE?

But it was the Palace of Fine Arts (in the lower right hand corner) that was the centerpiece. It held art from the Renaissance to the Modern era. And, like all the other structures in the exposition, it was destined to come down. It was not a permanent structure. Ha, ha, that was what they thought. They didn’t reckon with the Palace Preservation League.

There were other smaller displays. These two intrigued me.

On opening day, February 20, 1915, 255,149 people walked through the entry gates and, by the time the exposition closed nine months later, more than 18 million people — about 20 times the population of San Francisco at the time — visited the exposition. Some wept when the festival closed with fireworks and a solitary bugler playing Taps.

We saw a family getting their formal portraits on the steps.

But the Palace was saved by the Palace Preservation League and is still a great attraction in the city. And, here we are marveling at this timeless structure. The fair was more successful than anyone could have imagined. But, in the end, San Francisco showed that it was back after the devastation of the 1905 earthquake and fire. It was able to re-establish itself as a major port for global commerce, ensuring its continued economic dominance of the West. And, hey, with the sunshine, the warm climate and the abundant produce displays - it persuaded many to relocate to California.

We walked around but we also had a Ghirardelli’s coupon burning a hole in Gary’s pocket. We had only 3 days left to use this and this was the day. Don’t want to leave anything to chance. However, we had already walked 5 miles and Ghirardelli’s was 2 miles further. We both thought that, though I had my knee brace on, I had better sit here while Gary walked back 2 miles to get the car. Nope, I’m not going to sit: I’ll walk 1 mile towards Ghirardelli’s, Gary will walk 2 miles back to the car and meet me at the Safeway.

Along the way, I passed these homes and many others like it. I can’t even imagine how much these must cost.

We parked and then walked to Ghirardelli’s. Ummm. Just as good as the one we had last week here in San Francisco and the one we had in February in San Diego. And, guess what? They gave us the coupon back - I wonder why. Maybe we’ll save it for the next time we’re in town - there’s no date on it. And, isn’t that just what they want?

The walk back to the Safeway to the car was just a much fun as the walk to but we were on the coast with the views across the bay. We actually haven’t walked out on that long curved pier - next time.

We saw a hat vendor with these most colorful choices.

On the way, we took this pretty dull staircase (in fact, it looks as if it should be condemned)

to this beautiful walk through the bushes and ivy. You never know what you’ll find up some staircases in San Francisco. Take them.

Back in the car and heading home, we stopped at Vista Point on the north side of the bridge for one last view today. The bridge was filled with walkers but it was sunny now and that just draws people to walk. Vista Point was also filled with cars and tourists but we found a spot and snapped away. I don’t care what time, what weather or what view, the Golden Gate Bridge is magnificent.

As you can tell from the pictures at the beginning of the day and this one at the end of the day - the sun made a glorious appearance.

‘Sometimes I lie awake at night and I ask, "Why me?", then a voice answers "Nothing personal, your name just happened to come up.’


                                        Charles M. Schulz