Fun & Interesting Events at the Bridge
September 5, 2014: Two black-tailed deer made their way across the Golden Gate Bridge during the evening commute. Traffic stopped in both directions while the deer made their way from San Francisco to Marin County. Watch a video of their safe crossing HERE.
April 2012: NBC Bay Area Golden Gate Bridge 75th Anniversary float at the Petaluma Butter and Egg Days Parade.
August 4, 2011: For a BlogHer conference in San Diego, CA, the Hersey Company, as a sponsor of the conference, Twizzler-ized the Golden Gate Bridge along with New York’s Statue of Liberty and Seattle’s Space Needle.
June 22, 2011: More than 100 race fans joined NASCAR driver Clint Bowyer (No. 33 Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet) for a walk across the Golden Gate Bridge.
October 21, 2011: A group of people did jumping jacks trying to set a Guinness World Record for the most people doing jumping jacks in a 24-hour period as part of First Lady Michelle Obama's physical fitness campaign. The group was joined by Jennee LaLanne and Chris LaLanne who pointed out that the Jumping Jack was named after their grand uncle Jack LaLanne.
January 27, 2010: At 6:45 am, the Queen Victoria was greeted by the Golden Gate Bridge foghorns. The Queen Victoria, Cunard's newest luxury liner and the company's second largest, was making her Maiden Call to San Francisco during her current world voyage.
February 17, 2010: Daytona 500 champion Jamie McMurray crossed the Golden Gate Bridge in a cable car during his victory tour of San Francisco.
March 16, 2010: Three massive cranes aboard the Zhen Hua 15 which came from Shanghai, China en route to the Port of Oakland, passed under the Golden Gate Bridge just after 8:30 am. The crew spent the past weekend in Drakes Bay lowering the structural apexes of the cranes as they are 253 feet high at full height and the midspan clearance of the Golden Gate Bridge is 220 ft.
April 2010: The Harlem Globetrotters walked across the Bridge after a bit of showing off for the crowd at Vista Point.
February 16, 2009: While enduring a torrential downpour, Amgen Tour of California peloton headed south towards Santa Cruz via the GGB roadway at 8:40 am. Lance Armstrong was among the top world class racers cheered on by the very hearty and wet spectators on-hand to witness this first-ever milestone.
March 11, 2009: The largest crane barge on the west coast passes under the Golden Gate Bridge. The crane, nicknamed the "The Left Coast Lifter,'' is fixed to a barge that measures 400 feet by 100 feet. The crane’s boom is 328 feet long, weighs 992 tons, and is capable of lifting 1,873 tons of materials. The crane will be used in the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Seismic Safety Project and will place all of the self-anchored suspension bridge deck sections and the lower portions of the new span's tower, projected to stand 525 feet tall.
May 3, 2009: At about 6:20 pm, the CHP stopped a horseback rider who was crossing the Golden Gate Bridge sidewalk. Horses are not allowed to cross the Bridge sidewalks due to safety considerations.
April 7, 2008: Three pro-Tibet protesters climbed the Golden Gate Bridge vertical suspension cables at a location near the south tower at about 10:30 am and unfurled two banners intended to draw attention to Chinese human rights violations in Tibet. The protest by Students for a Free Tibet came the day before the Olympic Torch was set to arrive in San Francisco for its only North American stop before this summer's games in Beijing. One banner read, "One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 08," a play on the official slogan of the Olympic Games, "One World, One Dream." The other read simply, "Free Tibet." The protesters also hung two Tibetan flags.
August 10, 2008: At 2:44 pm, a dazed pelican that unable to fly was safely recovered from the Bridge roadway. She was transferred to the International Bird Rescue Research Center, Cordelia, CA where she was named “G.G.” by her caretakers. She was released back to the wild a month later.
January 1, 2007: CHP took 10 war protesters with into custody at the Golden Gate Bridge after a three-hour standoff that backed up traffic. The confrontation began at noon when members of the women's peace organization CodePink prepared to walk across the bridge as a vigil to remember the 3,000 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq.
February 4, 2007: The Queen Mary 2 made maritime history when she makes her Maiden Call to San Francisco. Thousands of maritime enthusiasts and well-wishers gathered on and all around the Bridge to view the ship as she sailed beneath the Golden Gate Bridge.
July 11, 2007: Durham, NC elementary school custodian Joe Venable’s life-long dream came true when he visited the Bridge. His 5th grade students raised $2000 to send him and his wife to San Francisco. San Francisco Mayor proclaimed July 13, 2007, as Joe Venable Day.
August 29, 2005: A female 6-foot-tall ostrich busted its way out of a cargo van at about 4:45 pm, stopping the evening commute traffic in both directions and sending dozens of tourists racing for their cameras.
June 14, 2005: A third and final shipment of massive cranes, standing at a maximum height of 227.7 feet above waterline, bound for the Port of Oakland from China, pass under the Golden Gate Bridge with an estimated clearance of about 9 to 10 feet.
May 19, 2004: A young deer bounding onto the Golden Gate Bridge and loped across the entire span as Bridge officials and motorists watched in amazement. The deer zipped through a FasTrak lane, took the 19th Avenue exit and then disappeared into the Presidio.
May 1, 2002: The second of three shipments of massive cranes, at a maximum height of 227.7 feet above waterline, bound for the Port of Oakland from China, passes under the Golden Gate Bridge with an estimated clearance of about 12 feet.
February 5, 2001: In the wee hours of the morning, students from University of British Columbia School of Engineering claimed credit for dangling a VW bug off the side of the Golden Gate Bridge, per their past tradition of hanging something large from a known structure. The so-called prank tied up traffic for several hours that morning.
October 24, 2000: The first of three shipments of massive cranes with a maximum height of 223.75 feet above the waterline bound for the Port of Oakland from China passes under the Golden Gate Bridge with an estimated clearance of about 8 feet.
September 3, 1998: United States Postal Service unveils Golden Gate Bridge commemorative stamp.
May 1, 1997: As part of the public outreach efforts to raise awareness about the Bridge’s 45 mph speed limit, 15 NASCAR Winston Cup race cars crossed the Bridge with “taxi-top” signs reading “I Can Drive 45 on the Golden Gate Bridge."
November 23, 1996: Actor Woody Harrelson and eight other demonstrators were arrested for climbing onto the Golden Gate Bridge main cable and south tower with a banner protesting the logging of ancient redwoods in Humboldt County. The protest tied up traffic for hours.
September 18, 1987: During his 1987 spiritual outreach tour of several U.S. cities, Pope John Paul II made a stop at a Golden Gate Bridge Vista Point in San Francisco.
February 22, 1985: One billionth car crosses the Golden Gate Bridge.
September 29, 1984: The District Board of Directors decides to allow a British production company to film a scene of a new James Bond movie on one of the Golden Gate Bridge main cables, at a height of more than 700 feet above water. The film, "A View to a Kill," features Roger Moore as Bond. One of the more spectacular scenes is a fight between Bond and a villain on the north tower of the Bridge with the loser of the fight falling to his death from the main cable.
February 5, 1976: It snowed up to two inches on San Francisco streets with a in dusting the Marin Headlands, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. See photo for the snow here: http://blog.pictopia.com/blog/2011/02/23/featured-photo-snow-in-the-san-francisco-bay-area/
1954: At age 40, one of the founding fathers of fitness, Jack LaLanne, proved his belief that “anything in life is possible if you apply yourself” by captivating the entire world when he swam the length of the Golden Gate Strait (approx 1.7 miles) with 140 pounds of equipment strapped to his body. A year later, he swam from Alcatraz Island to San Francisco while handcuffed.
July 16, 1945: The USS Indianapolis sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge with a top secret cargo heading to Hawaii for refueling, then to Tinian island where it unloaded its cargo, the uranium and major components of the atomic bomb to be dropped on Hiroshima by the Enola Gay on August 6.
April 2, 1942: Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle and his 80 Raiders steamed under the Golden Gate Bridge aboard the USS Hornet with 16 B-25 Mitchell bombers tethered to the aircraft carrier’s deck. The Hornet departed from Alameda at 10 am, cleared the Bridge shortly after noon, and gave the armed forces their last view of the continental United States. The Doolittle Raid on April 18, 1942, was the first strategic bombing by the U.S. to strike the Japanese archipelago during WWII.
1936: Pan American Clipper aircraft fly over the Golden Gate Bridge when the roadway was under construction.