Photo Shoot at the Golden Gate

Roo was gone at work for the day and I was alone in a new city. Thankfully I wasn't in one of those "there's-nothing'to-do-in-this-stupid-city" cities. And I decided to venture onto the Golden Gate Bridge with my camera.

Besides flooding toilets and sleepwalkers, there are two things I am absolutely terrified of: earthquakes and heights. Thus, my foray onto this massive structure, which spans the earthquakiest place on earth, was unnerving at best. I parked my car at one end and started walking. As the ground below fell further and further away, gradually turning into ocean, I grew more and more panicked. The bridge seemed to roar as the passing cars sped by, adding gusts of wind to the already windy stretch. I grasped my camera and my hat to keep it from blowing into the bay and began forming an escape plan should the structure decide to fail that morning. I walked quickly and tried to distract myself by taking pictures. I marvelled at the crowds of seemingly unaffected tourists who meandered and chit-chatted all the way across this overwhelming red deco monster, which above all felt to me precarious.

According to Wikipedia, this is the most popular place in the world to commit suicide. Since whenever they started counting, at least 1200 people have jumped off here. And those are just the ones that were witnessed...I read all this before going that day, so I was thoroughly freaked out even before leaving my house. It is just disconcerting to be snapping pictures of the place where at least 1200 people have decided to die with no one for company besides my tweed GAP hat and about a billion German tourists.

I made it halfway out until I could not ignore how far away the ocean was below me, then turned eagerly back. At one point, I had to cross a little suspended walkway underneath the bridge to get back to my car. I made sure no one was looking, then sprinted as fast as I could toward the parking lot. I may have even stifled a little scream...

From there I drove to a slightly more stable view area above the bridge. Here I could appreciate its wonderful design without fear of dying. A foreign tourist asked me to take his picture then offered to take mine in return. So here I am posing with my favorite architectural monster.

The view was so impressive that I wanted to go back the next day. But this time I was sure to bring Roo and the dogs. And we all appreciated the bridge from a nice, safe distance.