Tower Bridge crossing the Sacramento River in Sacramento, California (United States)

No Golden Gate, Tower Bridge in Sacramento Still Wants to Shine

In an unusual exercise in direct democracy, California’s typically stodgy transportation agency has asked residents to decide what color to paint one of the capital’s most visible public works--the sprawling Tower Bridge spanning the Sacramento River.

Caltrans is holding an election to let residents within a 35-mile radius select from among three paint schemes to replace the faded ochre hue that has adorned the 737-foot-long structure for a quarter of a century.

Los Angeles Time, Jan. 7, 2002

Golden Gate Bridge over the Oakland Bay in San Francisco, California (United States)

 

Lantern chases the dusk. Hot air balloon chases the dawn. But both touch the sky.

 Fathima Shamla

LONGEST SUSPENSION BRIDGE IN THE WORLD FROM 1937 TO 1964

Coronado Bay Bridge in San Diego, California (United States)

I can't sleep 'cause what if I dream
Of going back to San Diego?
We bought a one way ticket
So we could go see The Cure
And listen to our favorite songs in the parking lot
And think of every person I ever lost to San Diego

Excerpt from San Diego

song by Blink-182

Golden Gate Bridge over the Oakland Bay in San Francisco, California (United States)

"When you build a bridge, you build something for all time."

Joseph Strauss

TALLEST BRIDGE IN THE WORLD FROM 1937 TO 1993

Flier showing the Golden Gate Bridge over the Oakland Bay in San Francisco, California (United States)

 

"A great city with water barriers and no bridges is like a skyscraper with no elevators. Bridges are a monument to progress."

Joseph Strauss

Golden Gate over the Oakland Bay in San Francisco, California (United States)

"Of all cities in the United States I have seen, San Francisco is the most beautiful."

Nikita Kruschev

Painting of the Golden Gate Bridge crossing the Oakland Bay in San Francisco, California (United States)

 
It seemed like a matter of minutes when we began rolling in the foothills before Oakland and suddenly reached a height and saw stretched out of us the fabulous white city of San Francisco on her eleven mystic hills with the blue Pacific and its advancing wall of potato-patch fog beyond, and smoke and goldenness in the late afternoon of time.

Jack Kerouac about San Francisco

Bay Bridge over the Oakland Bay in San Francisco, California (United States)

I left my home in Georgia
Headed for the Frisco Bay
Cause I have nothing to live for
And look like nothing's gonna come my way

So, I'm just sitting on the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away, ooh
I'm sitting on the dock of the bay
Wasting time

The Dock of the Bay

Song by Otis Redding

Golden Gate Bridge over San Francisco Bay, California (United States)

If you're going to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you're going to San Francisco
You're gonna meet some gentle people there

For those who come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there
In the streets of San Francisco
Gentle people with flowers in their hair

All across the nation such a strange vibration
People in motion
There's a whole generation with a new explanation
People in motion people in motion

San Francisco

Scott McKenzie song

Bay Bridge over the Oakland Bay between San Francisco and Oakland, California (United States)

"But oh, San Francisco! It is and has everything~
you wouldn't think that such a place as San Francisco could exist. The wonderful sunlight there, the hills, the great bridges, the Pacific at your shoes. Beautiful Chinatown. Every race in the world. The sardine fleets sailing out. The little cable-cars whizzing down The City hills. The lobsters, clams,crabs. Oh,Cat, what food for you. And all the people are open and friendly."

Dylan Thomas

Sundial Bridge over the Sacramento River in Redding, California (United States)

''Though it is not the center of the world, it is a very beautiful environment for a bridge, with volcanic mountains and dense forests. It will be not only a passage but a place to sit and observe the water.''

Santiago Calatrava

designer of the bridge

Bridge crossing one of the canals in Venice Canals Walkaway, Los Angeles, California (United States)

You can look all over this great big world

You can look down every street

In every bookstore, on every dance floor

At every girl you meet

You can drive out to California

And chase down all of your dreams

I'm sure you'll find someone beautiful

But you'll never, you'll never find me

On Venice Beach
Song by Jen Foster

Coronado Bridge over Coronado Bay in San Diego, California (United States)

Lonely in San Diego, just don't let it get you down.

'Cause I've been there before but I know better now.

Just one last storm before the calm while we're still young.

Yeah we know yeah we understand what needs to be done.

Song San Diego

The Coronas

Drawing of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California (United States)

Fabricated steel of orange vermilion
Spanning the Golden gate Strait
A milieu backdropp of San Francisco
Of Marin headlands ornate

Cotton wool shrouds of cumbersome fog
Sweep forth from Pacific ocean
Erasing the vista of bridge deck expanse
Like magicians mysterious potion

Infamous towers soar mountain high
Like magnets alluring their prey
Where occasional mortals in suicide
Lose faith in a world gone astray

Steve Hancock

Coronado Bridge over Coronado Bay in San Diego, California (United States)

I never saw the east coast 'til I move to the west
I never saw the moonlight until it shone off your breast
I never saw your heart 'til someone tried to steal, tried to steal it away
I never saw your tears until they rolled down your face.

San Diego Serenade

Tom Waits

Oakland Bay Bridge over the San Francisco Bay, California (United States)

Strobe lights beam create dreams
walls move minds do too
on a warm San Franciscan night
old child young child feel alright
on a warm San Franciscan night
angels sing leather wings
jeans of blue Harley Davisons too
on a warm San Franciscan night
old angels young angels feel alright
on a warm San Franciscan night.

San Francisco Nights

The Animals

Tower Bridge over the Sacramento River in Sacramento, California (United States)

Sacramento! Sacramento,
Down the rough Nevada foaming,
Fain my heart would join thy water
In its glad, impestuous roaming,
For thy valley's fairest daughter
Watches oft to see thee coming!

Bayard Taylor

Bridge over the Mission Bay in San Diego, California (United States)

“The flashing and golden pageant of California,

The sudden and gorgeous drama, the sunny and ample lands,
The long and varied stretch from Puget Sound to Colorado south,
Lands bathed in sweeter, rarer, healthier air, valleys and mountain cliffs.”
“Fresh come to a new world indeed, yet long prepared,
I see the genius of the modern, child of the real and ideal,
Clearing the ground for broad humanity, the true America, heir of the past so grand,
To build a grander future.”

From the poem The song of the Redwood tree, 

Walt Whitman

Golden Gate Bridge over San Francisco Bay, California (United States)

The air is chill, and the day grows late,
And the clouds come in through the Golden Gate:
Phantom fleets they seem to me,
From a shoreless and unsounded sea;
Their shadowy spars and misty sails,
Unshattered, have weathered a thousand gales:
Slow wheeling, lo! in squadrons gray,
They part, and hasten along the bay;
Each to its anchorage finding way.
Where the hills of Saucelito swell,
Many in gloom may shelter well;

The Golden Gate

Edward Pollock

Coronado Bridge over Coronado Bay in San Diego, California (United States)

"The center span of the Coronado bridge was engineered to float in the event of collapse, allowing Naval ships to push the debris and clear the bay. There are "air pockets in the concrete" so it would break up into buoyant pieces if it collapsed and not block the navy ships in the bay"

Legend about Coronado Bridge