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Hardman Knott
Gym climber
Straight Outta Squamton
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Topic Author's Original Post - Nov 9, 2005 - 03:11pm PT
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I grew up in San Francisco. I hear all the time how great the city it is, how beautiful it is.
I agree. I do not take it for granted. I really appreciate all of the really cools things here!
It had been a long time, so I thought it would be cool to do the 1-mile walk across
the bridge from the Marin side and then back again.
If you ever get the chance, you should walk across the Golden Gate Bridge.
Since many of you won't be able to do that anytime soon, I thought you might like
some photos from the tourist-eye view. We see tons of shots of the bridge, but very
few from the bridge.
Here's looking down at an old fort on the Marin side. This is from a long-forgotten era
when military might and defense was considered a good thing by most San Franciscans.
Looking to the San Francisco side, a ferry boat could be seen returning, while another
approaches from a distance:
Looking to the Marin side, a couple of fishing boats return. Angel Island can be seen in the background:
Here's the view from the most popular jumping point at mid-span.
I don't know how anyone could do it. It's a !@#$%^& long way down and it's gotta hurt like hell!!
A zoomed in view of the ferry with Sutro Tower in the background:
I could see a Red and White ferry approaching, and I wanted a pic looking straight
down above it. So I ran like hell across the span––but was too late. However.
another one approached not too long after:
Here's Fort Point on the San Francisco side. It's a popular surf spot (or at least it was before 9/11)
Back at mid-span, the view of the cable facing the Marin side:
Horizontal perspective with The Headlands view-point in upper left. If you ever get the chance,
definitely drive up there and check out the view!!
A little while later the sun broke through and cast such beautiful light!
I hung out a while longer, and very cool things began to happen.
As the sun began to set, the clouds looked really nice over the San Francisco skyline:
Angel Island:
Finally, a view across the roadway as the sun went down––and the ships sailed into the distance:
I was on the bridge for 3 hours, and it went by in a flash! Be advised that it's a good idea to have a camera
when lingering for long periods of time, and be sure to smile at passing bridge personnel and/or CHP.
Otherwise you might have some explaining to do!
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JuanDeFuca
Big Wall climber
Northern Mexico
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Dingus, if you are ever in burbank again let me take you out to lunch!
Juanito
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WBraun
climber
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When the passing bridge personnel and/or CHP come by you give them that "look" and prop one leg up on the railing. Then when the sparks start to fly and they ask you WTF are you're doing you say you're stretching.
Good stuff Knott, I love bridges.
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Hardman Knott
Gym climber
Straight Outta Squamton
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 9, 2005 - 03:54pm PT
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LOL Werner.
I'll have to try that!!
Looks like this guy was knott joking:
The bridge's 4-foot railing didn't deter a potential suicide this spring, but a
California Highway Patrol officer was able to persuade the young man not to jump
Officers help a young man back over the bridge railing.
They persuaded him not to jump just hours after the
bridge directors voted to seek funds to study a barrier.
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David
Trad climber
San Rafael, CA
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Nice shots Dave. I always like seeing your photos. You're developing an eye for it.
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WBraun
climber
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Well I’ve got to be honest that a situation like this (the suicide scene above) creates a double edged sword. On one hand you don’t want the person to jump but at the same time the curiosity of the mind wants to see the person jump. Not that someone has no compassion, but the mind (not the heart) will express this fickle curiosity.
Good thing intelligence is there to override that fickle mind.
No intelligent design?
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spyork
Trad climber
Fremont, CA
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I had a cousin who has since died who was once a member of a very small club:
He jumped off the bridge and survived. He got pulled out by a fishing boat soon after he hit the water.
I dont know the exact number of jumpers who survived, but its not very big. Over 1000 people have commmitted suicide, though.
I used to live in Mill Valley and many times rode my bike across the span and walked across as well.
My favorite view of the span is from below, near the north tower, from a sailboard. You get a real feeling for the massiveness of the bridge.
Steve
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Shack
Big Wall climber
So. Cal.
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Yep...Did that walk once and it was really cool.
HK, nice job of capturing the "feel" of the bridge.
The bridge has quite a bit of "wobble" and "sway" as the cars go by...
Is there still that "freeway to nowhere" up there?
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Roger Breedlove
Trad climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
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Nice pictures HK.
Dingus, I my wife and I lived in the City for several years before we moved to the Midwest. I don't much like the Bay Area any more, but I love the City and I always feel like I am home when I am there. We have a good friend whose house in the Berkely Hills that looks across the bay to the Golden Gate--I could waste my life away staring at the that scene.
I think SF is probably the prettiest major city in the world.
Roger
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spyork
Trad climber
Fremont, CA
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Nope, and since he is dead now I guess I can say it.
His name was Jack Hart. He lived many more years and died of natural causes.
My family has a great history of narcissistic behaviour, alcoholism and drug addiction chief among them. The big rule was never to talk about it. I didnt know about his failed suicide attempt until many years later.
I rummaged around in google and could not find the list of 26 names who survived the jump.
Edit - Those pics are Knott from DMT!
Steve
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Josh Higgins
Trad climber
San Diego
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I once talked someone out of jumping off a bridge. I think that I was mentally wrecked for a full day afterwards...
Josh
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David Nelson
climber
San Francisco
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This is an interesting question:
The suspension cables are far too heavy to lift onto the tops of the towers. How did they get them there?
(once an engineer, always an engineer)
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cintune
climber
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Nice pics. But am I the only one who was waiting for the last caption to read:
"And here are the homeland security officers asking me to very slowly, with no sudden moves, hand them my camera."
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JuanDeFuca
Big Wall climber
Northern Mexico
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The science of winding steel wire for bridges dates back to the Brooklyn Bridge. Maybe before. Steel wire built empires.
Probally a good book out there on the golden gate?
Juanito
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Zander
Trad climber
Berkeley
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Nice photos Mr.. Knott. Recently we took the Bart from Berkeley to SF. We rode our bikes accross town and then the bridge to Tiburon where we caught the Ferry back to SF. I hadn't rode a bike accross the bridge since I was 16 (1976). We used to ride from San Rafael over to the city for the day. It is great being way up there, with the wind blowing. You may be higher when you're on a climb but you don't get that feeling of empty space below. Z
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Hardman Knott
Gym climber
Straight Outta Squamton
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 9, 2005 - 09:23pm PT
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Thanks for all the kind words. The bridge really is a !@#$%^& magnet!
Here's some shots I took a couple years ago, but never really did anything with.
From near the top of The Headlands road:
Here you can barely make out Sutro Tower in the middle. All those lights on the right
are the Richmond district and Sunset district; the black horizontal line going down the center is
the 1/2 mile wide, 4 mile long Golden Gate Park dividing the two. Is that cool or knott?
Here's the view from Vista Point. Sutro Tower can be seen on the left:
And in case you didn't know, the Bay Bridge is kinda cool too!
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spyork
Trad climber
Fremont, CA
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David,
They wound the cables in place, one bundle at a time. You can see the individual bundles in the main cable if you look closely.
There are massive piers at each end. The bundles are anchored individually in the piers.
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Nov 10, 2005 - 01:25am PT
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age 7 "Golden, then why is it red?"
age seventeen, driving across in my first car, a'64 VW Bus, and geting blown one lane East.
But the coolest crossing was running the '98 SF Marathon. They bused us to the Marin side and closed down the two North bound lanes, rerouting that traffic onto the other side. It was unreal to be on foot where usually only cars go. It seemed to me that there was more 'give,' on the pavement than there is on the pedestrian walkway. I swear that every footfall shook the span, and the odd chronicle or Sourdough truck, felt like ~3.8's or so, truly eerie!
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KarlP
Social climber
Queensland, NorCal, Iceland
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Nov 10, 2005 - 06:27am PT
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Thanks for the Bay Bridge shot, I still reckon it's a cooler bridge. I really reckon they should paint it's spans rainbow colours. (and knock out the side walls on both decks so you can actually get a good view off the sides)
But the GG does have some great lookouts, and a pretty sweet location, so it's understandable I guess.
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Patrick Sawyer
climber
Originally California now Ireland
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Nov 10, 2005 - 08:15am PT
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Growing up in the East Bay, I had a dislike for large cities, even San Francisco. It wasn’t until I started traveling and seeing other cities that I realised what a special one the City is. Also, having met and talked with far more ‘worldly’ and cosmopolitan travelers over the years, just about to the person they all say that Baghdad by the Bay either rivals or surpasses the other great cities of the world, including Singapore, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janiero, New York, Chicago, Tokyo, London, Paris, Sydney, Rome, etc etc.
Having worked in the City (I kinda agree, the Bay Bridge is a nice one too, even while commuting), partied there, and played football there (San Francisco Celtic, San Francisco Concordia, San Francisco Hungarians, AC Mexico), it holds a special place in my heart, even though I am East Bay ‘Grease’
And hey, don’t diss the fog. (I won’t cite the Twain quote.)
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imnotclever
climber
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Nov 10, 2005 - 03:39pm PT
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I did that walk once. My wife still gives me crap about it.
You see it was our honeymoon and we were at the Palace of Fine Arts and thought we could catch the bus from there to the bridge to check it out. Well we get to the stop and there are no busses that day, I can't remember what day of the week it was. So, I convince her that if we start walking towards the bridge we'll find anoter bus stop.
Well, we did find another bus stop, when we actually got to the bridge. After all of that walking we still walked across and back. We only went all the way across, because we figured there be some place to buy food- vending machine or something. Turns out there wasn't. I was 0 for 2 that day, and even though it was our honeymoon there was NO honeymooning going on that night.
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short-rope penis-head
Trad climber
nor cal biiiaaaatch
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Nov 10, 2005 - 03:54pm PT
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Yeah!
San Francisco is rad! The bridge is so cool; to bad the SF Chronicle is running a multi-segment article about suicides on the bridge, and the debate over a proposed baracade to prevent jumpers. That's kind of a bummer.
SF (and east bay) also is home to some of the best valley climbers ever!! What what!
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Apocalypsenow
Trad climber
Cali
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Nov 10, 2005 - 07:09pm PT
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Hardman...do you have any idea what the fine is for climbing the bridge?
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kevin Fosburg
Sport climber
park city,ut
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Nov 10, 2005 - 07:49pm PT
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Back in about '83 a buddy and I climbed the bridge from the Marin side in the early a.m. It was great.
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Apocalypsenow
Trad climber
Cali
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Nov 10, 2005 - 07:51pm PT
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Didn't get caught?
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rockermike
Mountain climber
Berkeley
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Nov 10, 2005 - 09:24pm PT
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Nice photos but its much more impressive from a windsurfer or kayak. Every time I go under the thing I get chills, its so cool. And when you go to the west a little you are instantly transported into a wild wilderness like setting. Big ocean swells, seals, sharks?. but you can still see the skyscrapers in downtown. Sort of a weird juxtaposition.
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WBraun
climber
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Nov 11, 2005 - 06:52pm PT
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Bump
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Hardman Knott
Gym climber
Straight Outta Squamton
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 11, 2005 - 09:10pm PT
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Thanks for the bump! I can't believe nobody commented on this;
it's not like you see a 14-year old on the GG Bridge cable every day...
Clearly this was before 9/11; I don't know how you could get away with it today.
Here's another pic from a slightly different angle––the Bay Bridge can be seen on the far left:
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WBraun
climber
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Nov 11, 2005 - 09:19pm PT
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Don't sea gulls live 14 years?
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Mr_T
Trad climber
Somewhere, CA
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Nov 11, 2005 - 09:51pm PT
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Once upon a time it was safe to climb the bridge cables. I tried in 1995, but the cops showed up in the parking lot on the north side as we were pulling on harnesses - just parked and stared at us. We decided it was time to leave...
If you try climbing it now, they'll probably shoot you (terrorist). And worse, Bill O'Reily will talk smack about you when you're dead...
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Loom
climber
167 stinking feet above sea level : (
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Nov 12, 2005 - 12:54am PT
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I climbed it with a housemate when I was in college.
I had scoped it out a couple years before with a friend I used to climb with. When I was in college I tried to get someone to do it with me, but it wasn't until I pitched my brilliant idea of climbing it in the early a.m. of October 19th, 1989 that I got a bite; I argued that the cops would be too busy to care about our little mischief.
We drove over the Richmond bridge; the other one being out-of-order. As we hiked up the cable we could see that the Marina district was still smoldering.
Some cops did come through and shine their lights, but we were on top of the north tower, and they soon left.
You really can feel the movement when there are some cars on the bridge, but especially when there are some big rigs. Once, I felt the bridge shake quite a bit, and I looked down expecting to see some big trucks, but there was nothing.
We ended up staying too long. My brilliant plan hadn't included an early exit. It should have though, because the morning traffic was much increased because of the bay bridge being closed. As we were coming down it seemed that hundreds of eyes were on us as we ran out of there.
One of my college friends had suggested that we put up a banner that would have said something like, "SHAKE IT OFF SF". I'm really glad that I at least had enough sense to know that was stupid.
Later we found out there had been a 4 or 5 aftershock while we were up there 30+ hours after the Loma Prieta earthquake.
This is looking south from the north tower
Sorry about the poor quality. This is the better of the two photos I could dig up.
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Denise Umstot
climber
Princess of the El Cap Bridge!
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I was down at Baker beach during the Loma Prieta earthquake. The cars came to a stop and the cables on the Golden Gate sounded like guitar strings! That is a sound that I will never forget! The Golden Gate is Awesome!!
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rich sims
Trad climber
co
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How many more STers are in the nite climb club Mr C what do you say Bro, just wondering who holds the record for most accents?
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Jingy
climber
Somewhere out there
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Great shots Hardman Knott!!!
Should I take me new segway out there?
do you thing I'll get the look? from the CHP and passersby?
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bjj
climber
beyond the sun
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Dunno if it got mentioned anywhere above but there's a documentary called "The Bridge" about people who jump off. The film makers set their cameras up in the park on the SF side and caught more than 20 people making the leap over the course of a year. They then interviewed the family and friends of a bunch of them. Absolutely haunting and mesmerizing.
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pc
climber
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Not so pretty for me anymore. Lost a friend there.
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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I served my apprenticeship in the early 70's with the company that built it (American Bridge) at the LA plant.
By the 80's it was gone. A victim of the intransigence and stupidity of the United Steel Workers and U.S. Steel management.
You'd be hard pressed to find an outfit that could repeat the feat.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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TGT I agree. Your point really becomes clear watching the old tech movies on the making of this beauty. American Bridge is still in business though, but gone from LA. They built the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge just a couple of years earlier.
However the contracts for the four-year project to build the GGB went as follows. All ten prime contractors are no longer in business:
The fabricated steel used in the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge was manufactured by Bethlehem Steel in plants in Trenton, New Jersey and Sparrows Point, Maryland and in plants in three Pennsylvania towns: Bethlehem, Pottstown, and Steelton. The steel was loaded, in sections, onto rail cars, taken to Philadelphia and shipped through the Panama Canal to San Francisco. The shipment of the steel was timed to coincide with the construction of the bridge.
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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Every time I drive through San Francisco, I stop and walk across the bridge and back.
Free parking. Free admission. Best deal in San Francisco.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Chaz, is this the same Dobie?
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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Yup. Same one.
She gets around.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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She is extremely cool!
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Unfortunately for us the GGB has the added connotation of suicide--- after all there are so many of them off of it, the first a mere 10 weeks after completion in 1937. In fact, it is the most popular place in the world to give up. Most victims choose the bay side of the bridge. They fall for 4 seconds hitting the water around 87 miles per hour, entering the 47-F degree water. The channel below can be as deep as 360 feet. While it was being built only 11 died working those 4 years.
By 2005 apparently there were more than 1200 recorded jumpers, averaging two a month during that year. But these figures are acknowledged not to be precise as a very sizable number more jumps go unwitnessed. As well, in 2006 apparently the CHP was able to stop another 70 individuals. The uncertainty in the counting process is underlined by occasionally abandoned rental cars with no person acccounted for as well as recovered bodies in the water but no witnesses of a jump, as well as other evidence found elsewhere. And of course even witnessed jumps may not result in recovered bodies as the current can be tremendous down there--- 8 knots at time; bodies when found are often no where near the bridge itself but miles away. Fatality is apparently 98%, although with the difficulty in really counting events, it probably is even higher. By 2006 only 26 had survived; they usually entered the water feet down and slightly angled. One incredible incident in 1979, a young man not only survived the plunge but then swam to shore and drove himself to a hospital....he had several cracked vertebrae though.
Eric Steel did a documentary called “The Bridge”; it quite good and shown on PBS. They spent a whole year, 2004, filming the bridge from a bunch of spots and did get 23 jumps plus some aborted ones. It goes on to detail the situation for the family members of the victims. Also they managed to get Kevin Hines’ interview--- he survived a jump in 2000 and spends time now as a big proponent for the barrier system which is now supposed to go in maybe if money holds out. It will be a plastic-coated stainless steel rope net below the bridge, kind of a trampoline affair. Its construction price will be something like $50 million, design 10% of that. The view won’t be obscured for walkers and drivers.
For those of us who drive the Bridge a bunch as I do, the Doyle Drive Federal Improvement Project now underway is planned to end in 2013; it is an intense project by the way and we have quite a long time still for the craziness of it to end. It will be a toll road, by the way..
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Chaz, can one fly a kite (legally) off the bridge? If so, might provide some cool photos, though with high risk of camera loss or damage due to all the obstacles and entanglements.
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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Such a neat place. It's tough to imagine not being at least tempoarily cheered up while walking on the bridge.
It seems every bridge has that problem. Someone hopped off the Deception Pass Bridge this summer while I was visiting my folks, and that bridge is about tied with the Golden Gate Bridge for scenic beauty.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Mighty Anders, that thing is under Homeland Security; they have a big interest in it. Not a play zone as far as they might be concerned. All the national icons are part of their focus.
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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Anders,
I'm not aware of any regulation that would prohibit flying a kite off the bridge, assuming it could be done safely ( or at least without looking dangerous ).
Some of the kite guys have shots of the Golden Gate Bridge ( though not from actually on the bridge ):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kap_cris/2314183258/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21073721@N02/3863394685/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/50728930@N02/4972746389/
( these are NOT my photos, they were taken by others )
You have me thinking about possibly flying a camera from the bridge itself. The big cable drops damn close to the roadway in the exact center of the span. I'll bet I could launch a kite over it there without too much trouble.
My usual photo-kite, the nine-foot delta, would be my first choice - assuming I could be certain of being able to fly un-molested. But the bridge is lousy with cameras I'm sure, so I'd have to use a more compact lifter.
A small parafoil kite ( like a Flowform-8 ) and a keychain video camera ( http://www.chucklohr.com/808/ ) might just work.
If I get the camera flying quickly, I'll be able to get at least a few pictures before anyone official has time to show up and tell me to knock it off. I'll have to make double-sure I carry my book of photos with me, so I'll have a shot at being able to talk the Homeland Security guys out of taking me to jail.
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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