Date: July 19, 2013
Event: Walking Across the Golden Gate Bridge
Location: San Francisco, California
Cost: FREE
Summary: It was overcast, foggy, windy, and cold. And I loved it.
Work took me back to the west coast again for a week in the San Francisco Bay area. When I spend a week there, I usually try to get a very early morning flight on Friday back to New York. But this trip I ended up booked on a 4:00 pm flight Friday. I was very grumpy about that. Until I came up with a plan: use the extra time in SanFran on Friday to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge.
This plan made me less grumpy.
The weather, however, didn't exactly cooperate. It was overcast. It was foggy. And I was there early (6:45 am) before any of the fog and clouds were burned off. But you know what? That's okay. It made everything very moody but I still loved the walk and I loved the pictures.
A couple impressions of Golden Gate -- it's loud. You're walking right next to the road deck where cars and trucks are whizzing by at 45 to 50 miles an hour. Also, it's windy and cold. Take a jacket. It's might be a bit scary for those who don't deal well with heights, but not too bad. The railing along the majority of the bridge is not super high but you certainly couldn't accidentally fall off or anything, and the bridge does move a bit (shakes and rumbles) as bigger vehicles go by. But, as someone who does have issue with heights, I was able to make the walk without any problems.
But it is worth the effort. The bridge itself is spectacularly beautiful, of course and an engineering marvel. The walk is really pretty easy -- 3.5 miles round trip to go all away across and back. And it's just wonderful to get outside and do something different!
And best yet -- I was able to get standby on the 11:20 am flight. So I got to walk across the bridge AND get back to NYC at a not completely unreasonable time. Win-win!
Okay, some mysterious and moody pictures...
Event: Walking Across the Golden Gate Bridge
Location: San Francisco, California
Cost: FREE
Summary: It was overcast, foggy, windy, and cold. And I loved it.
Work took me back to the west coast again for a week in the San Francisco Bay area. When I spend a week there, I usually try to get a very early morning flight on Friday back to New York. But this trip I ended up booked on a 4:00 pm flight Friday. I was very grumpy about that. Until I came up with a plan: use the extra time in SanFran on Friday to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge.
This plan made me less grumpy.
The weather, however, didn't exactly cooperate. It was overcast. It was foggy. And I was there early (6:45 am) before any of the fog and clouds were burned off. But you know what? That's okay. It made everything very moody but I still loved the walk and I loved the pictures.
A couple impressions of Golden Gate -- it's loud. You're walking right next to the road deck where cars and trucks are whizzing by at 45 to 50 miles an hour. Also, it's windy and cold. Take a jacket. It's might be a bit scary for those who don't deal well with heights, but not too bad. The railing along the majority of the bridge is not super high but you certainly couldn't accidentally fall off or anything, and the bridge does move a bit (shakes and rumbles) as bigger vehicles go by. But, as someone who does have issue with heights, I was able to make the walk without any problems.
But it is worth the effort. The bridge itself is spectacularly beautiful, of course and an engineering marvel. The walk is really pretty easy -- 3.5 miles round trip to go all away across and back. And it's just wonderful to get outside and do something different!
And best yet -- I was able to get standby on the 11:20 am flight. So I got to walk across the bridge AND get back to NYC at a not completely unreasonable time. Win-win!
Okay, some mysterious and moody pictures...
Here's what the bridge looked like as I was setting out to walk across it. Yes. Fog.
In addition to the cars, it seemed like many cyclists use the bridge to commute as well. Loved this grouping disappearing into the fog.
This kind of gives you an idea of the scale of the bridge...those towers really are huge!
Speaking of the towers, I loved how the cables just went up and disappeared into the fog...
And around the towers the trail juts out a bit, allowing for a view of the outer portion of the bridge as it stretched off into the distance. Very cool.
In the end, I really enjoyed my early morning walk. I really didn't mind the fog. But, I'm also looking forward to walking it again when it's clear. And yes, I am most certainly planning on walking it again. :)
Thank you for the insight. Beautiful pics.
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