Anniversary of Golden Gate Bridge Opening

Wednesday was the 78th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge opening to the public. On the first day, over 200,000 pedestrians walked over the bridge, and 18,000 of them were lined up waiting for it to open at 6 AM.

Here are a few pictures of the bridge, but you can go here (http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Golden-Gate-Bridge-celebrates-78th-anniversary-of-6286949.php#photo-2957822) to see more.

And here are 2 poems written by Joseph P. Strauss, the Chief Engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge, upon the completion of the building of the bridge in 1937.

The Mighty Task is Done

At last the mighty task is done;

Resplendent in the western sun

The Bridge looms mountain high;

Its titan piers grip ocean floor,

Its great steel arms link shore with shore,

Its towers pierce the sky.

On its broad decks in rightful pride,

The world in swift parade shall ride,

Throughout all time to be;

Beneath, fleet ships from every port,

Vast landlocked bay, historic fort,

And dwarfing all--the sea.

To north, the Redwood Empire's gates;

'To south, a happy playground waits,

in Rapturous appeal;

Here nature, free since time began,

Yields to the restless moods of man,

Accepts his bonds of steel.

Launched midst a thousand hopes and fears,

Damned by a thousand hostile sneers,

Yet ne'er its course was stayed,

But ask of those who met the foe

Who stood alone when faith was low,

Ask them the price they paid.

Ask of the steel, each strut and wire,

Ask of the searching, purging fire,

That marked their natal hour;

Ask of the mind, the hand, the heart,

Ask of each single, stalwart part,

What gave it force and power.

An Honored cause and nobly fought

And that which they so bravely wrought,

Now glorifies their deed,

No selfish urge shall stain its life,

Nor envy, greed, intrigue, nor strife,

Nor false, ignoble creed.

High overhead its lights shall gleam,

Far, far below life's restless stream,

Unceasingly shall flow;

For this was spun its lithe fine form,

To fear not war, nor time, nor storm,

For Fate had meant it so.

The Golden Gate Bridge

I am the thing that men denied,

The right to be, the urge to live;

And I am that which men defied,

Yet I ask naught for what I give.

My arms are flung across the deep,

Into the clouds my towers soar,

And where the waters never sleep,

I guard the California shore.

Above the fogs of scorn and doubt,

Triumphant gleams my web of steel;

Still shall I ride the wild storms out,

And still the thrill of conquest feel.

The passing world may never know

The epic of my grim travail;

It matters not, nor friend or foe –

My place to serve and none to fail.

My being cradled in despair,

Now grown so wondrous fair and strong,

And glorified beyond compare,

Rebukes the error and the wrong.

Vast shafts of steel, wave-battered pier,

And all the splendor meant to be;

Wind-swept and free, these, year on year,

Shall chant my hymm of Victory!

Big Sur/ Limekiln State Park

After we watched that movie trailer in section for "Big Sur", I was curious and decided to watch it. It's also super conveniently on Netflix. Anyways, I thought it was a pretty good movie overall, and would recommend it to people, but warn that is it pretty repetitive. The movie is basically Kerouac acting super depressed, and him and his friends going back and forth from S.F to Big Sur and partying. The scenery of the movie was beautiful, so I did not mind that part being repetitive, as it was awesome to see all those places that I have recently traveled to. All that being said, what I really want to share is my own experience camping at Big Sur in April, and compare it to Kerouac's experience there as represented in the film. I went camping in Limekiln State Park, which is farther south of Big Sur, but still a part of Big Sur. I was super excited to go, and had been planning the trip for months, but when I got there, I was hit with this wave of depression that not even being out in a place as beautiful as that could remedy. I felt super trapped, and dead inside even though life was teeming all around me. It was strange, and I am not sure what caused it, probably more graduation anxiety, but watching the movie Big Sur resonated with me a lot because I felt like I understood Jack's experience of feeling trapped and dead inside. In the movie, he felt very confined to Ferlinghetti's cabin, and when he went outside, all he could see was death. It was also interesting to me that he felt happier in the city, where he was surrounded by buildings and people instead of trees. The juxtaposition between the city and the forest in the move was really interesting to me as well. I have always felt like nature was a place to go to heal, and feel at peace, and sift through your mind. But my experience mirrored Jack's in that after a day I wanted to go back home, even though I knew I was being ridiculous for wanting to leave such a beautiful place. The one thing that was different about my experience in Limekiln in comparison to Jack's is that I felt like I wanted to be alone there. I felt like that would have been more healing and exhilarating if I was alone, but I was surrounded with friends who felt like strangers to me. In the movie, Jack could neither be there alone, or with friends, either way he felt trapped. Anyways, that was my spiel, but I also wanted to share some pictures from my trip.

Despite how terrible I was feeling, I was in one of the most beautiful placed on earth, and I definitely appreciated that.

If we drill we spill

The Santa Barbra oil spill has altered the pristine SB coastlines that are host to wildlife, some of California's most beautiful beaches, and tourist attractions, due to the 101,000 gallon oil spill conducted by Plains All American Oil Pipeline near Refugio State Beach. 
Now the Coastlines are hosting workers in hazmat suits. LA is feeling the repercussions as well; while the spill is said to have spread over 9 miles, Manhattan Beach in Los Angeles was closed due to oil globs arriving upon the shore.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/oily-substance-california-beach-prompts-officials-close-coastline/story?id=31360913

This is not the first time the wildlife of Santa Barbra has been met with an abundant supply of crude oil.

In 1969 a devastating oil spill covered 800 square miles of ocean and 35 miles of coastline in Santa Barbra. Millions of gallons of crude oil killed thousands of seabirds, seals, and dolphins and an innumerable amount of fish and sea life. According to this article, the sound of the waves were muted by the oil, and the smell of petroleum was pervasive.



This 1969 Santa Barbra oil spill impacted many, giving rise to grassroots environmental movements and legislation that focused on limiting Big Oil.

"• A broad environmental grassroots movement was founded leading to the first, Earth Day in November of 1969. (http://earthday.envirolink.org/history.html) • Get Oil Out (GOO) collected 100,000 signatures for a petition to ban offshore drilling • The Environmental Defense Center was founded (http://www.rain.org/~edc/) and the first Environmental Studies program was started at UC Santa Barbara (http://www.es.ucsb.edu/general_info/about.htm). • The California Coastal Commission was created from a statewide initiative. (http://www.coastal.ca.gov). This commission today has powerful control over human activities that impact California’s coastal areas. • The State Land Commission banned offshore drilling for 16 years, until the Reagan Administration took office. • President Nixon signed the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (http://es.epa.gov/oeca/ofa/nepa.html). Leading the way to the July 1970 establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency. • California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) became law (http://ceres.ca.gov/ceqa). • Federal and state regulations governing oil drilling were strengthened. • A CIA owned U-2 Spy Plane took the first ever air photo reconnaissance images of Santa Barbara for peaceful purposes other than mapping of denied territory (Marx, 1984). • Federal Government founded the Civil Applications Committee, aimed at coordinating intelligence and military systems for national emergencies."

http://www.geog.ucsb.edu/~kclarke/Papers/SBOilSpill1969.pdf

However, sense 1969, we (humans and mother nature) continue to experience even larger oil spills than either of the messes in Santa Barbra.

Here is a list of the largest oil spills world wide, with the Gulf oil spill ranking second, leaking 206 million gallons of crude oil.


http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/the-13-largest-oil-spills-in-history

Now we face a new challenge: to keep Shell from drilling and spilling in the Arctic.

https://shellno.org/