The golden gate Bridge has pedestrian walks on both sides. Due to some maintenance, only the east side was open today. Both pedestrians and bicycles share the narrow walk. It looked to be only about 6 feet wide with some light posts narrowing it even further. It was imperative to know what was coming up behind you if you were to pass someone. Bicycles heading downhill could get going quite fast if they did not adhere to the speed limit.
At about the point where the bridge is over water, there is a crisis helpline telephone. I doubt it is of much use. Traffic on the bridge is deafening. For suicides, the bridge ranks second in the world among bridges as the locale of most suicides. I understand the impact when hitting water from 245 feet causes enough trauma in most jumpers, to cause instant death.
The bridge is about a mile long so you can easily do the roundtrip in about an hour. Obviously, there can be high winds. However, just breezy today. It was an enjoyable walk but I was glad to get off. It was, as the sign stated, "Entering High Noise Area".
Following Rt 101 will take you over the bridge but oddly, Rt 101 stops on one side and starts up again on the other side. That is just a technical matter though, changing jurisdiction over the bridge between entities.
Notice the barriers in the roadway. Previously, plastic cones were used to separate opposing traffic. This enabled more lanes to be open in either direction depending on commuter and event traffic. Head on collisions resulted in a high number of fatalities. Now the plastic barriers you see can be moved by a moving vehicle which automatically re-positions the barriers as it straddles them.
Before the bridge was completed in 1937, the largest ferry operation in the world shuttled vehicles and people between Marin County and San Francisco. The spot was called the Golden Gate then too.
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