WPC: Admiration

Show us someone or something you admire (and tell us about them, too)!
—WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge

I have a deep sense of admiration for the people who designed and built the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California.

As one of the stewards who helped maintain the structure for 15 years, I found that every day at work was an honor and a privilege. Working rotating shifts in the Electric Shop meant that I got to see the bridge in every kind of weather, every hour of the day, throughout the years.

Sunrise and sunset are equally gorgeous in my experience. Foggy days and nights are on an even playing field with clear ones.

I miss “testing” the foghorns at the stroke of midnight on New Years Eve. C’mon now, wouldn’t you do it if you had the chance?

I have memories and photos to last a lifetime and it would not be possible without the foresight, talent and intelligence of Joseph Strauss, Charles Ellis, Leon Moisseiff, Irving Morrow who designed and supervised the construction of “The Bridge that couldn’t be built”.

The Golden Gate Bridge is much more than a means to cross the Golden Gate Strait to and from Marin County. It has an allure and magic of its own. Ask any commuter what the view is like as they exit the Waldo Tunnel heading South into The City. It is a gift to the eyes and a grounding emotion for the start of the workday.

There is no way to give up San Francisco, once you have fallen under its spell. You keep looking for the magic, and now and then, when the wind and the light are right, and the air smells ocean-clean, and a white ship is emerging from the Golden Gate mist into the Bay, and the towers are reflecting the sun’s last rays – at moments like that you turn to the ghosts and ask, ‘Was this the way it was?’ and there is never an answer… —Anonymous