It’s a funny feeling; until today, I’ve never seen the Golden Gate Bridge in person, but the landmark has been so widely seen in films that going under the bridge would have felt too familiar.
That said, this world’s largest single-span bridge and one time longest and tallest suspension structure was still awesome. I first got a look at the bridge when we were at The Exploratorium, but I managed to find a spare hour on Tues afternoon to use the City Pass coupon for the Blue & Gold Bay Adventure Cruise.
The Adventure Cruise is a short 1 hour cruise that takes passengers under the bridge and around Alcatraz Island.
The Golden Gate Bridge sure looked imposing. The about 2 km suspension bridge is built to withstand winds of more than 160 kilometres per hour, and can sway as great as 9 metres at mid-span.
Here’s a thought: I was almost disappointed that the bridge didn’t explode, or a Godzilla emerge from the water and smash the bridge, or for a couple of F16s to fly underneath on their way to drop a bomb on Alcatraz Island – just like in the movies!
The distance between the bridge and the Island was actually quite short. In The Rock movie, it seemed a lot longer based on the scene time time where the fighter jets flew to the island.
There were some water sports going on in about the bay area too; wind surfers, other cruises, a couple of luxurious yachts doing similar tours of the bay.
The short 45 minute cruise itself was smooth most of the way. But interestingly, as we passed under the bridge, waves suddenly became strong, and a couple of passengers lost their footing.
I was struggling to balance myself too, and that I was carrying my D300 on one hand and the Panasonic HD digicam on the other (I was taking footage for Ling) made it all the more difficult. A lot of the video is gonna be wobbly LOL.
Lighting wasn’t that great too, as the cruise I was on was in 4 pm late afternoon – the second last ride for the day. I had the circular polarizer on for a couple of shots, but the effect wasn’t especially evident for some shots as the sun was all wrong for those photos.
The Alcatraz Island was a little underwhelming, though I’m certain if I was on the Island adventure package itself which takes visitors into Alcatraz itself, it would had been more impressive. The island itself was discovered by Spanish explorers in 1775 and originally named Isla de Los Alcatraces, or Island of the Pelicans. The Army established a fortress on it in 1854, then converted it into a military prison during the Civil War. It was turned into a maximum security prison in 1934 and housed infamous criminals, Al Capone being one of the most famous inmates, before being closed in 1963 and turned into a tourist attraction.
But as impressive as The Golden Gate Bridge was, it was nothing compared to the last 5 minutes of the cruise when I had one of the most exhilarating experiences ever in my life! Took a lot of pictures, and I’ll blog about it soon.:)
Rest of the pictures here.:)
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