Monday, May 20, 2013

Golden Gate of the Modern World


            I have talked about lots of different places around the world. Now it's finally time I write a blog that is more of a travel distant to all those who live by my area. The Golden Gate Bridge is not like the other places I have talked about in my other blogs. This bridge is not technically a tourist site rather it is more of a way to cross the Pacific Ocean. This uniquely colored bridge links the northern part of San Francisco to the Marin county located in the north San Francisco Bay Area. There are many ways to actually cross the bridge whether it is on it or not. Some of the ways to cross it is of course by car, walking, biking, or ferry. I prefer to bike across the bridge myself because I really love biking! Taking the ferry across seems like it is really fun too since there's no work that has to be done to cross it and I can enjoy all the scenery that is there for people to see.
            Let's get this boring history part out of the way first. First thoughts about crossing with a bridge came up in 1872 by a railroad entrepreneur by the name of Charles Crocker. But no one really had the idea or any motives to actually work on the bridge until a newspaper editor brought it to attention in 1916! That's a really long time until someone finally decided to bring back up this plan for a bridge in my opinion. In 1919, the head engineer of the case O’Shaughnessy started having meetings with engineers across the country to see how much building the actual bridge would cost and in the end they came up with a total of 30million dollars. It took around nine years from the beginning of construction to the end for the bridge to be actually completed. The opening celebration for the bridge took place on May 27th, 1937 and the people partied for one whole week! I wish we had festivals like nowadays. Everyone is like too serious now, not enough parties and celebrations to hold. Both the official Golden gate bridge website and a traveling fact site states that the bridge is one of the seventhWonders of the Modern World!
            Alrighty now that the lame and boring part of the blog is over I can talk about some neat facts about this superb bridge. Even though the bridge is named "The Golden Gate Bridge" it is not actually gold, why? The answer to that is because the name didn't come from the color itself but instead it came from what it was referring to at the time it was being built. It was referring to the Golden Gate Strait that connects the pacific ocean to San Francisco Bay. Not many people know this but the Golden Gate bridge is the top suicide place in the world! More than 1,500 people have committed suicide on this bridge! That is way too much for one location and for that to be the pride and joy of San Francisco too! It's really shocking to see so many people died on it. The last interesting fact I am going to name since there is so many and I don't want to put anyone to sleep is that it is the second longest suspension bridge in the nation right after Verranzo Narrows Bridge in New York City.
             I have only been to the Golden Gate Bridge once and it so happen to have been this year too. Like I said earlier this was a bit different than what I have been normally writing but I chose to do this bridge because I seen how beautiful it is myself and for all who live in this area they have a better chance to see this amazing site first hand too and wouldn't cost as much as going to the other places I have mentioned. So please if anyone has time go check out this bridge! Please don't go there for suicide though! It would give me lots of regret because I'll think it's my fault. So please go somewhere else to end your story not that I want people to die anyways. But yea anyways Bye!
            

No comments:

Post a Comment