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From : travelandtransitions
Added: Mar 12, 2008
A big storm was forecast for today, February 22, 2008, our second day in San Francisco. But we were lucky -- both during our local culinary tour of North Beach and our explorations of the Coit Tower and Pier 39 the weather held up. Now in the late afternoon our biggest adventure was yet to come: a bike ride across the Golden Gate Bridge. Now in the Fisherman's Wharf area, we headed to Bay City Bikes, where we took out two comfortable touring bikes in order to explore the northern waterfront. After 4 pm we started riding westwards into the sunshine, past Fort Mason, the Marina District and the wide outdoor expanses of Crissy Field. Just past the Warming Hut pier, we had to turn left and climb up a steep hill on Lincoln Boulevard to reach the Fort Point Lookout and the southern terminus of the Golden Gate Bridge. The bridge, painted in the famous International Orange colour, was starting to take on golden hues in the late afternoon sun. I had a chance to film the entire northwards trip, crossing the world's most famous bridge. Cycling across this beautiful, world-renowned miracle of engineering was an almost spiritual experience. I can truly only describe it as a once-in-a-lifetime experience. When it was completed in 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge had the longest suspension bridge span in the world, and even today it is still the second longest suspension bridge main span in the United States. With its two cantilever design, the bridge spans the 6,700 ft (2042 long) treacherous opening of San Francisco Bay and represents one of the Modern Wonders of the World. Many people said at the time that a bridge could not be built, given the ferocious ocean currents and the almost constant 60 mph winds. The sun was starting to set as we started to cycle back from the Marine Headlands, and the westwards view over the Marin County coastline and the Pacific Ocean was simply breathtaking. We raced back to Bay City Bikes to return our two-wheeled vehicles just around 6 pm when the store was closing. For dinner we headed to another San Francisco institution: McCormick and Kuletos -- a seafood restaurant located in the former Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory. Mia Harriman, the General Manager, sat down with us and gave us a great overview of this restaurant and the San Francisco lifestyle.
Category : Travel

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