Golden Gate Bridge - San Francisco
The Golden Gate Bridge is an iconic, sometimes cliched, image in the repertoire of San Francisco photos. It's difficult to imagine the Golden Gate, the entrance to our Bay, without the International Orange span that's come to characterize the ocean side of the city.
Of course the many peoples who populated the area for centuries before the Spanish arrived -- the Ohlone, the Coast Miwok -- could argue that the Golden Gate was as spectacular in its pristine state as it is now with the bridge that beckons entry.
Which is to say that it's tough to critique the stunning setting where the bridge makes its home. And we can be grateful that the bridge's credited designer, Joseph B Strauss, had the wherewithal to erect a structure that didn't mar the natural beauty of its San Francisco Bay anchor points . . . even if his initial design with hybrid cantilever was ultimately refined with the help of architects Irving and Gertrude Morrow.
