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To justify expanding the power of the federal government and increasing the burden of debt on federal taxpayers, President Barack Obama has repeatedly lied about a peerless icon of America's pioneering spirit -- the Golden Gate Bridge. "During the Great Depression, America built the Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate Bridge," Obama said in his January State of the Union Address. "After World War II, we connected our states with a system of highways. Democratic and Republican administrations invested in great projects that benefited everybody, from the workers who built them to the businesses that still use them today." Obama...

An incredible eight bolts struck the Bay Bridge in San Francisco last night which was captured in this incredible shot by photographer Phil McGrew, who took the photo through the rain-soaked window of his apartment.

A California high school student visiting the Golden Gate Bridge on a field trip climbed over a railing, jumped — possibly on a dare by fellow classmates — and somehow survived the 220-foot plunge into San Francisco Bay that kills dozens of people each year.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A California high school student visiting the Golden Gate Bridge on a Thursday morning field trip climbed over a railing, jumped - possibly on a dare by fellow classmates - and somehow survived the 220-foot plunge into San Francisco Bay that kills dozens of people each year. Most jumpers die a grisly death, with massive internal injuries, broken bones and skull fractures. Some die from internal bleeding, while others drown. But the 17-year-old lived, suffering just a broken tailbone and torn lung. He was rescued by a surfer who paddled over and took him ashore, California...

The authorities that run San Francisco's iconic Golden Gate Bridge announced that next year, they will remove the crossing's human toll takers and replace them with electronic sensors. The switch has been sold as a triumph for efficiency and traffic flow but is potential budget disaster for tourists who now risk stumbling into fines or having to pay more money for e-pass equipment. Cities and states across the world have been moving to sensor-based tolling systems, from TxTag in Texas to E-ZPass in 14 states, without regard to the burden it places on tourists who either don't understand the system,...

Golden Gate Bridge officials vote for suicide net SAN FRANCISCO — Golden Gate Bridge officials have voted to hang a stainless steel net below the iconic span to stop suicides. The Golden Gate Transportation District's board of directors voted 14-1...

Tolls go up on the Golden Gate Bridge Tuesday with bridge directors hoping to chip away at a huge projected deficit: KCBS reporter Tim Ryan explains the toll will bring an additional $18 million a year in revenue. The bridge district is facing a $91 million dollar, five year deficit and every time you roll across the span you'll help just a little bit:. "The Fastrak toll will go from four-dollars to five dollars and the cash toll will go from five dollars to six dollars," said Marcy Curry, a spokesperson for the district. She recommends people get a Fastrak....

SAN FRANCISCO – Olivia Crowther left her London flat last month to become a statistic in San Francisco.The 23-year-old college graduate surfed suicide Web sites, bought a plane ticket for California and, at 9:24 a.m. on June 25, leapt to her death off the Golden Gate Bridge, at light pole No. 105.Her body was retrieved from the water nine minutes later – one of the latest among at least 1,300 suicides at the majestic span since it opened in 1937. The debate over what to do about the deaths goes back nearly as far, though the pace is quickening this...

At least 34 people leapt to their deaths from the Golden Gate Bridge in 2006, a sharp increase from the average of 19 people who commit suicide from the majestic span each year, authorities said Wednesday. Another 70 people tried to jump last year but were stopped by police or bridge officials, an increase of 20 from the annual average, said Mary Currie, spokeswoman for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District. Marin County Coroner Ken Holmes released the number of 2006 bridge deaths on Wednesday, a little more than a week after a 16-year-old Mill Valley boy jumped...

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Before Assem Hammoud and his associates decided to try to bomb New York's PATH trains, they had considered several other targets: the Brooklyn Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge and the forests of California, where they would set a huge fire, Lebanese security officials told Newsday.

Toll collectors at San Francisco's landmark Golden Gate Bridge have been issued body armor to guard against armed bandits. "We did a review of safety procedures and added this tool to the toll box for collectors," bridge authority spokeswoman Mary Currie said Tuesday. "This is really the right thing to do." The "bullet resistant" protective vests have been bought for all 42 toll collectors at a total cost of 21,000 dollars, Currie said. Wearing vests is optional, but about half of the collectors have chosen to be protected while on duty. The vests are reportedly most popular with those working...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Toll collectors on the Golden Gate Bridge have been given bulletproof vests to wear while on duty. Bridge officials say the vests were issued to 42 employees last week in response to the shooting and robbery of a toll worker in April. Bridge district spokeswoman Mary Currie says about half of the toll takers are now wearing the $500 vests, mostly night shift workers. She says the vests "give the toll takers a psychological edge." An armed guard was posted at the toll plaza immediately after the shooting, while bridge officials discussed ways to protect workers. Officials...

San Francisco (AP) -- Golden Gate Bridge officials Thursday moved closer to building a barrier to prevent people from jumping off the famous suspension bridge, where about 1,300 people have killed themselves since the landmark opened in 1937. Officials voted to develop a plan and explore funding for the suicide barrier after hearing emotional testimony from friends and family of people who jumped off the iconic bridge connecting San Francisco and Marin County. The decision by a committee of the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District still must be approved by the district's board of directors when it meets...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Users of the Golden Gate Bridge could see yet another toll increase under a plan by the Golden Gate Bridge District to help the agency climb out of debt. The district already has cut its deficit -- which once was $454 million -- in part by raising cash tolls from $3 to $5 in 2002. Officials now say the toll hike wasn't enough, and have proposed raising it to $6 in July 2006. Bicyclists and pedestrians also might face tolls under the new plan. "We are looking at a combination of things, but we will probably...

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) today called upon the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to “take an important step for public safety” and close the Golden Gate Bridge, which has been a popular suicide platform for more than 65 years. “Several city supervisors want to ban handguns in San Francisco on the mere presumption that such a law would prevent crimes, accidents and suicides,” said SAF Founder Alan M. Gottlieb. “Well, it is an absolute certainty that closing the bridge would prevent suicides, and perhaps many accidents, as well. And just for the sake of argument, one...

Golden Gate Bridge officials are seething that a moviemaker who told them he was working on a "day in the life" project about the landmark was, in fact, capturing people on film as they jumped to their deaths. Eric Steel initially told officials he planned to spend a year filming the "powerful and spectacular interaction between the monument and nature" and that his work was to be the first in a series of documentaries about national monuments such as the St. Louis Arch and the Statue of Liberty. That's how he got the Golden Gate National Recreation Area's permission to...

World-famous bridge anticipates crippling deficit Chained between a pedestrian walkway and a garbage can is a sign of hard times at one of San Francisco's most enduring sights: A chest-high metal box with a slot for donations and a sign that reads, "Help Preserve the Golden Gate Bridge." What would the span's architect, Joseph Strauss, immortalized in a nearby statue, think? If he was like many visitors interviewed Saturday, he might not be aware, even from his perch a few feet away, that the solicitation was being made. "Didn't ever see it," said John Rochex, 37, a visitor from Seattle,...

SAN FRANCISCO - The San Francisco construction worker accused of making false threats to blow up the Golden Gate Bridge, the Ferry Building and an Amtrak station has surrendered to federal officials. Timothy S. Sullivan used his cell phone to call 911 four times on March 10, saying that bombs would explode in the specified locations. "My nail bomb at the Ferry Building will take care of the police," Sullivan allegedly told the operator. The Ferry Building was evacuated because of the threats. A complaint filed in federal court in San Francisco charges that ferries were delayed and rerouted, though...

A 44-year-old man died after plunging off the Golden Gate Bridge yesterday in what authorities said was a suicidal war protest. It was not the first time the man - identified as Paul Aladdin Alarab of Kensington - had staged a dramatic protest on the bridge. In 1988, while protesting treatment of the elderly and handicapped in America, he tried to lower himself into a 33-gallon garbage can hanging from a 60-foot rope, according to news reports. Alarab lost his grip, fell 220 feet and was sucked out to sea, but survived with broken ribs and two collapsed lungs. In...

<p>SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) - The mother of a 14-year-old Santa Rosa girl who killed herself by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge a year ago has filed a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court against the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District.</p>