The mighty and ever-beautiful Golden Gate Bridge. I’ve been to the top (of the south tower), as well as underneath it in a kayak journey from my home beach into San Francisco.
Plus my dad went out on a plank walkway to the south tower when it was being built in 1933.
I got a connection with this bridge!
P.S.: The true designer of the bridge was Charles Alton Ellis, not Joseph Strauss. See John Van der Zee’s book, The Gate, on the true story of this elegant design.
About Lloyd Kahn
Lloyd Kahn started building his own home in the early '60s and went on to publish books showing homeowners how they could build their own homes with their own hands. He got his start in publishing by working as the shelter editor of the
Whole Earth Catalog with Stewart Brand in the late '60s. He has since authored six highly-graphic books on homemade building, all of which are interrelated. The books, "The Shelter Library Of Building Books," include
Shelter,
Shelter II (1978),
Home Work (2004),
Builders of the Pacific Coast (2008),
Tiny Homes (2012), and
Tiny Homes on the Move (2014). Lloyd operates from Northern California studio built of recycled lumber, set in the midst of a vegetable garden, and hooked into the world via five Mac computers. You can check out videos (one with over 450,000 views) on Lloyd by doing a search on YouTube:
Beautiful photo, Lloyd. Thank you again for your artistry. And thank you for sharing your connection.
For those of us never there/not gonna get there, your experience/history/words, somehow give/share a connection for me/us. Very nice.
and on a similar sort of note, and you probably know this, but
I recently read a pocket novel with a reference to the Golden Gate Bridge, and that the “Golden Gate” does not actually refer to the bridge, but………………………………… (since I saw this post here, I looked it up to check)
—“In fact, according to the website, “The term Golden Gate refers to the Golden Gate Strait which is the entrance to the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean.Dec 2, 2021”
Yes Anon,
On August 5, 1775 Juan de Ayala and the crew of his ship San Carlos became the first Europeans known to have passed through the strait, anchoring in a cove behind Angel Island, the cove now named in Ayala’s honor. Until the 1840s, the strait was called the “Boca del Puerto de San Francisco” (“Mouth of the Port of San Francisco”). On July 1, 1846, before the discovery of gold in California, the entrance acquired a new name. In his memoirs, John C. Frémont wrote, “To this Gate I gave the name of ‘Chrysopylae’, or ‘Golden Gate’; for the same reasons that the harbor of Byzantium was called Chrysoceras, or Golden Horn.”[6] He went on to comment that the strait was “a golden gate to trade with the Orient.”[7]
From Wikipedia.
Jeffrey Sinder, Thank you….when I googled it, did not go to “that far” ….just did a quick look.
It is very nice to get “proper” background on names/icons/places I have grown up “knowing”. (am fr Canada, but of course
it is well known all over). Constantly amazes me, when such “accurate” background info, “shows up”/”disrupts”, what
I had (and others) commonly accepted as “fact”…grin. All good. What is even nicer is when others also find it interesting…
Anon, I am not a native of the Bay Area but have been awe of this bridge for over 50 years. Puts me in a trace when I see it no matter how rainy, foggy, windy, cold, sunny, or warm it is when I am near and it steals my mind. Can humankind actually improve on Mother Nature with just steel and paint? In this case the answer is “yes”. Lloyd in the past has also made reference to a “secret” Civil War era fort that is under the south side of the bridge and also very worth visiting. It never fired any of it’s cannons in aggression.
I too “ got a connection with this bridge.” I grew up in San Mateo, and it was always a big deal when we’d all pile into dad’s ‘41 Packard for a trip to “ the City !”
To a small kid “ Frisco” was a magical place, and the highlight was walking out onto that big orange bridge, especially in a thick, mysterious fog, with those foghorns moaning.
Dad was a fireman, and one of his fireman buddies would swim across the “gate” every year. This was before wetsuits were invented, so Wayne and his equally hardy and intrepid friends would coat themselves with vaseline, lanolin, whatever, to ward off the cold. I was in awe of that guy. Out on the bridge, looking down at the dark water below, I’d think of him and just couldn’t believe he’d swim it. Also thought of the “ jumpers” who would climb over the railing and take their last high dive. Yes, being out there both awed and spooked me!
My father was there on opening day, May, 27, 1937, a young man of 24, just arrived in California, leaving Iowa behind forever. Said he was in the front of the mass of 200,000 people who walked the bridge that day.
I was invited, but missed out on going to the top of the north tower 20 years ago. Had to work, dang it ! My girlfriend and her sister went up. Blew their minds. A couple of friends climbed it, stealthily, at night, TWICE ! I always wanted to do that too. Never did.
Ah yes, that beautiful bridge, so many memories, so many stories. I haven’t been on or across it for many years. I’m due. High time to see that old friend again !
Thanks for posting it Lloyd !
Amazing memories
Colin….Magnificent memories…Thank you for sharing them with us…
Please consider writing this all down for your kids/grandkids/neighborhood kids/memory keepers club/seniors center. Really good / interesting/nice memories be a shame to have them lost to the fog of the bridge. If you print something up and hand out copies, especially to the seniors centers…bet you’ll be pleased at the responses.