Golden Gate

The Golden Gate Bridge links the urbanity of San Francisco with the wild

headlands of Marin County, as if to suggest the paradox of California

and America itself-the place that Fitzgerald saw as the last spot

commensurate with the human capacity for wonder. The bridge, completed

in 1937, also announced to the world America's engineering prowess and

full assumption of its destined continental dominance. The Golden Gate

is a counterpart to the Statue of Liberty, pronouncing American

achievement in an unmistakable American fashion. The nation's very

history is expressed in the bridge's art deco style and stark

verticality.

Kevin Starr's Golden Gate is a brilliant and

passionate telling of the history of the bridge, and the rich and

peculiar history of the California experience. The Golden Gate is a

grand public work, a symbol and a very real bridge, a magnet for both

postcard photographs and suicides. In this compact but comprehensive

narrative, Starr unfolds the hidden-in-plain-sight meaning of the Golden

Gate, putting it in its place among classic works of art.