"Made it, Ma! Top of the world!"
A trip to the top of the Golden Gate Bridge
It was September 13, 2000, and I got the thrill of a lifetime. Lew Lewandowski, who worked for Shelter at the time, had told me that his girlfriend Krystal Allen had gone to the top of the bridge. What?
Turns out that Krystal was working in a frame shop and knew Bob David, the bridge photographer and its staff architect, and he’d taken her to the top.
“If there’s ever any chance…” I told Lew…
A few months later, on a warm Fall evening, Krystal called: “Can you meet us at the parking lot by the toll plaza.” Zoom.
I get there and we ride out to the south tower in a Cushman Truckster and then cram into a very small elevator.
The elevator has steel mesh sides, so you see the interior structure of the towers as you ascend. Finally we get to the end of the line, the lower surface of the top cross beam. Here we disembark and there’s a steel ladder with round and worn rungs about 20 feet long going up to the top, where there’s a hatch cover. Bob tells me to go first.
I climb up, then through the hatch cover, and step into the warm night, the sun getting ready to set, and I’m 700' above the water, it has to be one of the greatest thrills in my life. I’m surprised to feel perfectly safe; there’s a railing. I’m not crazy about heights, but this feels OK. It’s a unique vantage point. On one side, San Francisco: Baker Beach, the Presidio, downtown, the ocean. On the other side, Marin: Angel Island, the little yacht harbor, the brown hills.
You can watch the cars going north and south, and see boats sailing or motoring and occasionally crossing under the bridge with white wakes. You look around at the construction, the heavy steel plates, the bolts, it’s amazing how good it looks after 65 years.
When I say something about Krystal’s hard hat, she starts singing,
”Y-M-C-A.”
I just can’t do justice to the thrill of popping out up there, after a lifetime of going back and forth over that bridge (I commuted from Marin for five years), and looking down at the water, the roadway — San Francisco to the south, Fort Baker to the north.
It’s a nice night, a comfortable temperature. The three of us stay up there about an hour, talking, admiring the view. It’s pleasant, we’re just hangin’ out. Bob loves the structure and he likes seeing people appreciate the magnificence of it all.
The sun starts to set and orange light filters through the air. The bridge turns a deeper shade of orange. It’s one of those moments that’s etched in my memory forever.
I say to Bob, “You’ve changed my life.”
And it has, because now every time I see the bridge, from above (as you often do from an airplane leaving SFO), or driving across, or from below, or from the hills, I’ll always be remembering what it’s like on top.
Several years later, I went under the bridge in a kayak:
On a Saturday afternoon, I went up to Marshall and rented an ocean kayak— not telling them what I was going to do with it.
The next morning I got up at sunrise and took the kayak down to the beach. I drove the truck home and then walked back down to the beach – I wanted to go on my own power from my doorstep into San Francisco.
I was equipped with flares and a horn (for big ships that might not see me), a compass, water, and power bars.
There was very little swell so I got out into the ocean from the channel with ease. About 4-1/2 hours later, I put in at Rodeo Beach — got out, stretched, ate a power bar and then continued on. It took me six hours to get to the bridge from Bolinas, and then another two hours to get to Aquatic Park. There was an outgoing tide, but an incoming wind, so it was about equalized.
Going under the bridge, I felt like the kayak was a toothpick. A thrill to have made it there on my own power.
I pulled into the cove. Sunny day. The blues festival was going on over at Fort Mason and you could hear the music clearly. I got a Polish hot dog, enjoyed the warmth of the sun, then got two Irish coffees at the Buena Vista Cafe. Could it get any better?
Lesley picked me up in the truck for the ride home.
One more Kahn connection with the bridge
In 1934, my dad knew one of the construction workers on the bridge and got invited out for a visit. Both towers were built, but not the roadway, so they walked out on a wooden walkway made of two 2 x 12’s side-by-side, with cables along both sides to hold onto. There was a net below, but…
My dad and his friend were so nervous when they got out to the tower that their construction worker friend said you boys look like you need a shot of whiskey, and they took an elevator down to the bottom of the tower, had a shot, then went up to the top, back down — and waltzed back to land on the walkway with no fear.
History of bridge
https://www.goldengate.org/exhibits/the-history-of-the-design-and-construction-of-the-bridge/
Great book on bridge
By John Van der Zee on the unheralded genius engineer/artist responsible for the shape and design of the bridge, George Ellis. Try to find a used copy of the original book (as shown below) and not the more recent poorly printed version.
"Made it, Ma! Top of the world!" is the dramatic ending of the 1949 film noir “White Heat,” starring James Cagney.
Wow!! Lucky you. Thank you for sharing.
Great post, Lloyd. I never made it San Francisco, but thanks to you, I’ve been to the top of the Golden Gate Bridge! Thanks for sharing that golden memory...