SAN FRANCISCO'S GOLDEN GATE

SAN FRANCISCO’S GOLDEN GATE (No audio)

WALKING THE BRIDGE

You can walk, cycle or drive across one of the most famous bridge in the world. The Golden Gate Bridge on the north side of the city of San Francisco in California spans 2, 7 kilometres across the Golden gate Strait. It was the world’s longest suspension bridges when it was built in 1937. Today it is a famous landmark and a matter of huge pride to the people of the area.

PARTY TIME

The city of San Francisco had a one-week festival called the Golden Gate Bridge fiesta to celebrate the opening of the bridge in 1937. The festivities began on May 27^th when the bridge opened to foot traffic only. More than 200.000 people crossed the bridge that day, many of them competing to be the first person ever to run, roller skate, tap dance, ride a unicycle or walk on stilts across the bridge.

POETRY IN MOTION

Most of the festivities, including parades and fireworks, took place in a nearby park called Crissy Field. The designer of the bridge, Joseph Strauss, even turned up there on the first day to read a poem he’d written called ‘At last, the mighty task is done.” On the second day, the bridge opened to motorists and the US president at the time, Franklin D Roosevelt, sent a telegraph from the White House telling the world the bridge was open at last.

INTERVIEW

Source: Speak Up www.speakup.com.br

Language level: C1 Advanced

Speaker: Chuck Rolando

THE FOG FACTOR

The Golden Gate Bridge first opened for business in 1937. Today it is one of the world’s most recognizable symbols. And it has the advantage of being located in San Francisco, one of the world’s most beautiful cities. Yet the weather in San Francisco isn’t always great. It is alleged that Mark Twain once commented: “The coldest winter I ever saw was that summer I spent in San Francisco.” For this reason we asked Mary Currie, the Golden Gate Bridge’s public affairs director, for advice or when to visit:

Mary Currie

(Standard American Accent)

Well, the Golden Gate Bridge is situated in San Francisco: the greatest challenge the summertime fog. Usually, from about May through August, September, it can be very foggy. There’ll be days when you don’t even see the bridge! I’ve been here for 19 years now and there have been days on end where you can hardly see the bridge because of the heavy summer fog. I recommend that people try to visit in the spring or the fall because then they’re avoiding the summer fog and the winter rain, but not everybody can come and I think some people arrive in the summer and are disappointed, but the fog is a factor we have to deal with.

ON TWO WHEELS

More than 112.000 vehicles cross the bridge every day but other forms of transport are catching on:

Mary Currie

It’s interesting than in the last five years in particular bicycling has gotten very, very popular. In San Francisco, at Pier 39, there are bicycle rental shops. People rent bicycles, ride to the Golden Gate Bridge and go down to Sausalito, which is a nearby, small town that’s very highly visited as well, and then they take the ferry back to San Francisco. So bicycling is a very popular way to visit the Bridge.

But you can visit on foot:

Mary Currie

Well, you know, everybody has their own style of how they want to experience the Golden Gate Bridge, but one of the very unique things about the Bridge is that it does have sidewalks that are open, and you can walk out onto the Bridge and you can touch it, you can feel it moving in response to the traffic. It’s very noisy when you walk out onto the Bridge, in fact.

You can experience it from the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which surrounds the Golden Gate Bridge and has incredibly fabulous viewpoints on both the north and the south side of the Bridge.

EARTHQUAKE (no audio)

It was a big deal then and it’s an even bigger deal now. The bridge costs millions of dollars to maintain and improve. Engineers are currently implementing a $392 million retrofit program to prevent the bridge from collapsing in an earthquake. More than 100.000 people cross over the bridge every day and about 200 people work to keep it safe and secure .

DEATH WISH

Many of the workers on the bridge, including the security guards, ironworkers and painters, are trained to identify suicidal people and prevent them from taking their own lives.

Sadly an estimated 1.500 people have killed themselves by jumping off the bridge, making it the world’s top suicide location.

Officials have installed telephones on the bridge that allow people to call for help. They are planning to install nets under the bridge in the near future to prevent more suicides there.