Free Republic

Video posted

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- Protesters are causing major traffic issues across the Bay Area, including in Oakland and on the Golden Gate Bridge, as part of a worldwide economic blockade in solidarity with Palestine. The first protest Monday morning happened on northbound I-880 in Oakland at 5th Ave., where Protesters brought barrels filled with concrete onto the highway and chained themselves to the barrels. Law enforcement had to cut through the barrels before they could arrest the protesters. Only one lane has been opened. Southbound I-880 has also closed as hundreds of protesters made their way onto the highway with...

Dean Karnazes said the coyote pounced and knocked him off his feet just as he reached Mile 37 in the Marin Headlands. Karnazes, 59, recorded an Instagram video at 3 a.m. Saturday moments after the attack. “I’m at a 150 mile trail run and I got attacked by a coyote. That was a first. It knocked me over,” Karnazes says in the video with blood still on his face. “Thankfully I’m running with poles and I whacked it and it ran away...” Karnazes was running alone with a headlamp to see through the darkness. Ultra marathon athletes run day and...

The $715 billion infrastructure bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this month includes a $6,550,000 earmark aimed at stopping people from committing suicide by jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge, which is in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s congressional district. […] “The Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District is in the process of constructing a Suicide Deterrent Net System (SDNS) to deter suicides at the Bridge by placing a physical barrier between a person and the water below,” it says. “The SDNS consists of marine grade stainless steel netting attached to structural steel net supports placed 20 feet...

A massive ship carrying a new, giant crane to the Port of Oakland made narrow passages under the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge this morning and is heading for the Ben E. Nutter Terminal. The Zhen Hua 26 from China is 764 feet long, just a tad shorter than San Francisco's iconic Transamerica Pyramid. The crane stands more than 300 feet tall on the ship, and the crew made preparations to allow the crane to fit under the bridges on its final leg from China.

The combination of politics and protests boiled over Sunday, with supporters of President Donald Trump holding a demonstration and clashing with counter-protesters on the Golden Gate Bridge Sunday afternoon. Officers from the California Highway Patrol and the Golden Gate Bridge Patrol tried to keep the two groups separated, and some arrests were made. The march across the Golden Gate Bridge was billed by conservative organizer Brandan Straka as an effort to "save San Francisco." He’s behind a campaign called Walk Away, an effort to invite Democrats to leave their party and join the Republican party. Straka said his group was...

Bay Area residents were serenaded by the Golden Gate Bridge as wind gusts passed through the region Friday — a new phenomenon that has a relatively simple explanation. A number of individuals shared videos of the eerie humming sound coming from the bridge, with many reporting they could hear the noise from miles away. After enough people inquired about the noise, the Golden Gate Bridge Sargent reported the sound is caused by wind hitting new sidewalk railing slats. The Golden Gate Bridge now makes music. You can hear this whistle all over the city pic.twitter.com/W1V9Dw4sXb — Raemond (@RaemondBW) June 6,...

In the latest step toward the rebirth of San Francisco’s Presidio from an aging former Army base to a bright light of America’s national park system, crews are set to break ground Thursday on a project to build a new 14-acre public park on top of two freeway tunnels near the Golden Gate Bridge. When finished in 2021, the unusual project, called Tunnel Tops, will link Crissy Field, on San Francisco’s waterfront, to the Presidio’s Main Post, parade grounds and visitor’s center. That connection was severed more than 80 years ago when the road to and from the Golden Gate...

San Francisco officials will on Thursday mark the start of the construction of the suicide-prevention net under the Golden Gate Bridge. Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senator Dianne Feinstein are expected to be at the ribbon-cutting ceremony from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Officials say the net will be positioned 20 feet down from the sidewalk and extend out another 20 feet. Made of seven football fields worth of stainless steel, the structure will curve up slightly at its ends and be suspended 200 feet above the Pacific Ocean on both sides of the bride. In 2016, 39 people...

Kimberley Chambers burst into tears as soon as she laid a hand on her crew's boat. The physical contact signaled the end of a record-breaking 30-mile swim from the Farallon Islands to the Golden Gate Bridge. Chambers, a New Zealander who calls San Francisco home, made history Saturday as the first woman to complete the swim. Chambers, 38, spent 17 hours and 12 minutes in a stretch of water notorious for its great white shark population -- but didn't encounter any. "I guess they don't like Kiwis," she quipped, adding that she "slipped off the boat" instead of jumping into...

Kevin Hines was battling mental illness when he tried to commit suicide, but believed the sea creature kept him afloat and saved his lifeA man who was suffering from mental illness and depression has revealed how a sea lion saved his life after he tried to kill himself. Kevin Hines jumped off San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge in 2000, but against all the odds he managed to survive. Hines told how his depression had led him to see life through a "bit of tunnel vision," leading him to think he had to die. SNIP He told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation:...

The waters just west of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge hide a graveyard of sunken ships. By some estimates, there are 300 wrecks in the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area alone. But only a fraction of them have been seen by scientists. Marine archaeologists and researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have set out to document those lost vessels. Over the course of a five-day survey that just ended yesterday (Sept. 15), the team discovered the sites of at least four wrecks: the 1910 SS Selja shipwreck, the...

Call it "Bambi" on the bridge. Reports of a pair of deer hanging out on the Golden Gate Bridge Friday evening sent social media abuzz in the Bay Area. California Highway Patrol officers were called to the bridge, but the deer were already gone by the time they got there. Twitter users reported that traffic stopped moving momentarily, but was soon flowing normally again. "It was Deer on the Golden Gate Bridge! Hope they are safe! Kind of awesome!" tweeted out Twitter user Rydalia with a picture, which has since gone viral. This video shot by NBC Bay Area viewer...

San Francisco's iconic Golden Gate Bridge moved a big step closer to getting an oft-debated suicide barrier after bridge officials on Friday approved a $76 million funding package for a net system that would prevent people from jumping to their deaths. The bridge district's board of directors voted unanimously in favor of the funding for a steel suicide net. The funding sources are $20 million in bridge toll revenue, $49 million in federal money and $7 million from the state. ... funding for the project remained a major obstacle. A significant hurdle was overcome two years ago when President Barack...

"San Francisco, open your Golden Gate. You'll let nobody wait outside your door." Those are the lyrics of the city's signature song, but now somebody should call "rewrite." On Tuesday, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency voted to bar nonresidents' cars from the crooked part of Lombard Street on Saturday and Sunday afternoons between June 21 and July 13. Last year, the agency banned tour buses from driving by the iconic Painted Ladies on Alamo Square. Thanks to well-heeled city residents who can afford to live in these world-famous properties, San Francisco is hoisting a Golden Drawbridge. Kelly Edwards,...

(Reuters) - San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge marked a milestone in 2013 as 46 people leaped to their deaths in what appears to be the deadliest year for suicides at the California landmark, a watchdog group said on Tuesday.

More than twice a month, on average, those who've lost all hope come to San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, climb over the railing and, tragically, plunge 220 feet into the Pacific Ocean to end their pain. That number would be higher, if not for California Highway Patrol Sgt. Kevin Briggs, nicknamed the "Guardian of the Golden Gate." Since 1994, through sheer compassion and expert listening skills, Sgt. Briggs has helped convince more than 200 people on the precipice of death not to take their lives (so far, he's only lost one). "People who come to jump don't necessarily want to...

Something doesn't look quite right A Redditor with a good eye caught this still from NBC's Sunday night pregame show Football Night in America, where if you look closely, the Golden Gate Bridge has an extra tower. Also in this redesign of the bridge, the suspension cables just drift into space from the three towers (No need for those! They're just decoration!). We're not sure who is photo shopping like mad over at NBC, but one would hope that the person in charge would know the Golden Gate only has two towers. And if they didn't know, maybe they could...

By John Crewdson, Tribune senior correspondent. Reporting and research assistance was provided by Drew Crosby in Madrid MADRID -- The most sweeping criminal indictment to arise thus far from the Sept. 11 attacks reflects a quiet but dramatic change in understanding by investigators here and across Europe of the terrorist organization known as Al Qaeda, and the international Islamic radical-terrorist network of which, they now agree, it is merely a part. As laid out in the indictment, the defendants' alleged activities--from arranging travel and providing introductions to procuring false documents and, especially, moving money--provide the first detailed look at one...

San Francisco’s present-day citizens got a recent visit from the “future” — a DeLorean hovercraft wowed onlookers by spinning out near the Golden Gate Bridge on Saturday.