Okay, I’m back, and I’ll actually have the column promised, sort of.
But first… My little soapbox moment last week keeps coming back to haunt me in ways I could never have imagined. Johnny Cash, John Ritter, and then this morning…
I’ve been to see my blood pressure specialist. Leaving her office, I turned on the radio to find out what traffic was like for the ride back to work. Former San Francisco Forty-Niner quarterback, Joe Montana is discussing a disease with one of this news stations on-air talents. And as he’s going on about it, it becomes obvious he’s talking about something he himself now has. “High Blood Pressure.”
Seems that he had no idea. And that’s why it’s known as the “Silent Killer.” Most people never demonstrate symptoms. But the final results can be just that. Final. So now, he’s working with his physician, taking multiple medications, eating better and trying to keep regular exercise in his week.
All too familiar. *sigh*
And then to hear than Jim Korkis won’t be sharing with us after his health problems. What can I say? When it rains, it pours.
And on the topic of rain, sincerest thoughts and hopes that you’re all staying high and dry. Thanks, Isabel!
Okay, all that out of the way…
When one thinks of San Francisco landmarks, one of the obvious choices is the Golden Gate Bridge. As long as there have been folks visiting the City, this area has been an interesting one. And with the military base closures of the Eighties and then the Nineties, one of the countries oldest military posts became one of the country’s most unique national parks.
But as with many of the bases closed, there exists an emphasis on reuse by the local communities. This one may be among the most interesting of those because it is in the middle of a major metropolis and offers opportunities for growth that do not exist in the surrounding community.
Among the companies looking to take advantage of this potential growth is the empire of George Lucas. Much as they have at the Skywalker Ranch property in the aptly (but previously) named Lucas Valley in Marin County, the goal is to create an environment in which they can combine all of the arms of the empire to work together and create the products for which they have become known.
So what is this property? It is known at the “Presidio.” As one of the West’s oldest military fortifications, it should be no surprise that the Merriam Webster Online Dictionary shows this word as being Spanish dating back to 1763 with the following entry, “a garrisoned place; especially: a military post or fortified settlement in areas currently or originally under Spanish control.” The Spanish came to the area in 1776 while expanding their influence over the territory with the creation of a series of Franciscan missions up and down the California coast line. Running from San Diego in the south to Sonoma in the north, these locations were established no further than a day’s ride on horseback from each other.
But even before the Spanish came here, there was a human presence. A walk along the shores here offers some spectacular views from either side of the bay. It’s not hard at all to understand why a first glimpse here could have such a dramatic effect on people. And that’s why, when given the chance, I love to bring new visitors to the area here.
The Golden Gate is usually accepted as being the area where the bay meets the Pacific Ocean. Native peoples of Ohlone or Costanoan common language families lived here for a long time. Archeologists have found evidence to support habitation of the area now know of San Francisco dating back to 740 AD, but suspect they have lived here for almost 10,000 years. From the National Park Service web pages, “Ohlone/Costanoan people were organized into over 50 small societal groups or tribes. Ethnohistory suggests that small villages were maintained along the marshlands and in other locations, including today’s Fort Mason, Crissy Field, and Sutro Baths area of San Francisco. Groups moved annually between temporary and permanent village sites in a seasonal round of hunting, fishing, and gathering. Periodic burning of the landscape was conducted to promote the growth of native grasses for seed gathering and to create forage for deer and elk. The world view and spirituality of the Ohlone/Costanoan people was expressed in a complexly woven tapestry of stories, myth, song, dance, and ritual.”
Sounds like a story conference to me…
Jeanette McDonald immortalized these words written by Gus Kahn to the melody by Bronislaw Kaper and Water Jurman:
“It only takes a tiny corner of
This great big world to make a place you love.
My home upon the hill,
I find I love you still.
I’ve been away, but now I’m back to tell you,San Francisco, open your Golden Gate.
You’ll let no stranger wait outside your door.
San Francisco, here is your wandering one,
Saying I’ll wander no more.Other places only make me love you best.
Tell me you’re the heart of all the Golden West.
San Francisco, welcome me home again.
I’m coming home to go roaming no more.”
When we came home from Germany in October of 2001, our Lufthansa flight from Munich flew in to San Francisco along the coast and offered us the view of the City from outside the Golden Gate. You can bet that I recalled those words.
Another person you might recall from those San Francisco columns, Billy Ralston, sailed through the Golden Gate for the first time in 1851 as captain of a ship (at the age of 25), and was forever entranced by the place. And perhaps, ironically, he met his fate in the waters of the Bay in sight of the Golden Gate. Considering both his impact upon the area and it’s impact on him, maybe there is something about the place that we just can’t explain?
It is, or was, the home of the Burger King with the million-dollar view. Intimate homes line manicured streets along the routes through the military reservation. Where once colonels and majors lived on good duty, escapees from the dot com boom may yet live in quiet repose. Where once coastal fortifications loomed with great guns and later missiles, today the gulls hold forth. (I will never see one in the same way after “Finding Nemo.”)
The Golden Gate Bridge has lure and lore all it’s own. Where once the crossing was made by boat, today it is made by car, bus and boat — not to mention sailboards! Man, can those folks really take off at a hellacious pace!
It’s also had moments in the cinema. Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” was a postcard for tourism that still pays off today! Other films of lesser note such as “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” and “Bicentennial Man” have scenes filmed around the bridge and Fort Point, located under the southern anchorage.
Check this link for a look at more of the history of the area. Who knows? Maybe someday soon George Lucas will hold court over his empire here…
And that will just be another chapter in the story.
Now for an alternate future for the area to finish up the area. Fans of the Star Trek series of movies and television shows will clearly recall the area as the future home of both the United Federation of Planets and Starfleet Command — complete with the Starfleet Academy across the bay at the Marin Headlands.
So there it is. Not quite what I had in mind, but done!
Next week? Well, I’ve got ideas, but we will see how they play out!
As always, remind yourself again about Roger’s Amazon Honor System Paybox, and drop a buck or two to keep things whizzing along. You may the day that much brighter when you do…