Golden Gate Bridge a True Wonder of America

The biggest icon (by height, weight, length and cinematic popularity alike) is the Golden Gate bridge, and I’ve seen it, touched it, even smacked it with an open palm to test its metal, but I have to say I’m not impressed. It’s big, sure, but I have to beg the powers that be (and were a hundred years ago), isn’t it perhaps a bit too big?

It’s a fine bridge, really it is. I’ve seen it on the television during interludes on Charmed, Mythbusters, Dharma and/or Greg and more too. What can I say, the darn googol of googol-tons of steel photographs well. Sure, the locals filed hundreds of lawsuits to prevent its construction and it took four years to build, but that’s only because the citizens of (the old city, from the dumb era of the world in ) San Francisco asserted it would ruin the vistal outlook.

Man, people in 20/20 hindsight retrospect sure were dumb, don’t you think?

But the bridge was built, the tourists and locals alike loved it to kibbles, bits and scraps, and since completion it’s been as much a testament to the prowess of man in engineering as it has been an unmistakable icon of tourism the world around. Let’s face it, if you were going to visit San Francisco, what would you put atop your “must see” list? It would have to be the bridge, right? But still, I just think it’s too long and too large overall.

We parked down by Fort Point, walked up to the bridge and were fully dedicated to hoofing our way to Sausalito, but we were defeated by the wind, by the weather, and by even our own resolute commitment to stroll across it. As pretty and photogenic as this relic of America’s manufacturing era may be, it’s nothing more than the most prime example of where man shouldn’t traverse.

The bridge is ubiquitous with screaming wind, blinding fog, terrifying traffic and any number of other unacceptable circumstances.

When we read up on the Golden Gate bridge on Go City Kids it said that your trip would be incomplete without traveling across the bridge, but it had the best advice of any of our sources. It said that, sure it’s free, sure it’s right out there begging for your attention, but if you really want to cross it, do it with a car.

In short (as it is long), my sum summary of the Golden Gate Bridge is that it’s just too darned long to be of any good to anyone. If you’re a commuter from Sausalito to the city proper, you need to buy a boat and advocate this silly structure be town to the ground. It’s grand, for sure, but more grand is the wind, weather, traffic and everything else unsavory about it.

Given the opportunity, I’d scuba my way across the bay, even with the genuine tide and fictitious sharks in mind.

Golden Gate Bridge simply too large
Above – It’s like a bridge of bridges, and it’s exactly the sort of thing you need to make the time to see when you visit the great city of San Francisco.