A Walk Across San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge

As you know, I arrived in the Bay Area a day early so I made a drive over here on Saturday, October 1st after picking up my rental car and visited the Vista Point on the north end of the bridge before driving to Emeryville to go railfanning. My original plan was to visit here on October 4th and actually walk across the bridge. It had been raining overnight in the Vacaville area and so I was a bit worried that it might be raining in San Francisco but that turned out not to be the case. I had breakfast at Burger King and made the drive to San Francisco coming in from the north. This necessitated paying a $6.00 toll on the Golden Gate Bridge as you only pay the toll going south on the bridge. I had a fun time trying to find a parking space by the bridge but eventually found one (that was free for 4 hours no less!) and started the walk across the bridge. Unfortunately, there was construction going on on the sidewalk where pedestrians can access the bridge so I was only able to walk across about 90% of it. No big deal as I saw the Vista Point where you would otherwise walk to, back on Saturday when I first arrived in the area. It was cloudy but I was still able to get some great photos nonetheless. Included here is a photo essay of my walk across this incredible marvel of engineering!!!

On Saturday, I got a few photos from the Vista Point on the north end of the bridge. This is looking south.

The beautiful city of San Francisco as seen from the Vista Point.

Another view looking south from the Vista Point.

LEFT: A sample of the main cable that spans the length of the bridge. The bridge is 4200 feet long!
RIGHT: A statue of Joseph B. Strauss who was the Chief Engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge.

The bridge looks like its hiding in the bushes!

An anniversary flower bed on the south side of the bridge.

It looked all day like it was gonna rain! Oh well, we can't control everything!

One thing clearly visible from the bridge...Alcatraz!!!

And now I begin the walk across the bridge!

One of the many ferry boats that pass under the bridge everyday!

Looking back at the City Of San Francisco!

LEFT: Yes, there are these emergency phones throughout the span of the bridge and they offer crisis counseling as well. I don't
think I need to explain why! RIGHT: Another view walking along the sidewalk heading north, oh, and there's NO U-TURNS!!!

There are several of these platforms along the route of the bridge which provides this type of view, this is looking south.

LEFT: Continuing the walk now moving towards the second tower of the bridge. RIGHT: The second tower on the bridge.

The walkway is clearly marked as to which side should be used for each type of transportation allowed on it.
The left side is for Schwinns and Treks and the right side is for Nikes, Reeboks, or in my case, Asics!

Now looking on the north side of the bridge in Marin County.

This would be as far as I could walk since the rest of the sidewalk was closed due to construction. No big deal, I visited the
Vista Point back on Saturday so I wasn't missing much.

On the walk back, I grabbed this quick photo of the toll booths which are only on the south side of the bridge. There is also
a nice bike path available as well. I need to get a bike!

At first glance, this picture could have been taken in Germany maybe? The license plates though wouldn't look right if this
was Europe! The 3 cars in the foreground however are a Mercedes Benz and 2 BMW's!!!

After coming back from walking the bridge, I walked over to the bike path on the south side of the bridge to get this view!

One of many freighters that pass underneath the bridge each day!

The bike path on the south side of the bridge.

And one more for the road! This was taken over near where I parked the rental car by the entrance to the Presidio Coastal Trail.
That trail was under construction when I was there, but it is something I need to come back here to experience! I used to be an
avid bike rider years ago and this looks like a really cool trail to ride!

On the walk back to the south side of the bridge, I pulled out my iPod and started listening to some music that was rather "fitting" for walking over this bridge! Among the songs I listened to were "We Built This City" By Starship (which references the bridge in the song), along with "California Soul" from Marlena Shaw! After walking back to the rental car, I noticed the Presidio Coastal Trail was under construction (my car was parked near it), that is definitely a trail I want to someday bike ride on! After leaving the bridge, I headed back towards Vacaville as this was my last full day in the Bay Area. On the way, I stopped at Chick Fil-A which we STILL don't have in Buffalo! They have the best chicken sandwich in the known universe!!! Once I got back to the hotel, I did laundry and started packing and would eventually call it a day as I would be heading home tomorrow. Next up is a collection of pictures I took that really didn't fit anywhere else in the travelogue but I still wanted to include them, so here they are! Check out the link below...