There are milestones in life, small rituals to mark the passing of the years — opening day of the Giants season, first night at the opera, a special day at a favorite vacation spot, something to look forward to. Same time, next year.
As you might imagine, I have my own. I walk across the Golden Gate Bridge on the third week of August just as summer is fading away. It’s a good time — there are anniversaries and birthdays to celebrate, and there’s usually pleasant weather. All the best people were born in August. I’m sure you know some of them. Aug. 22 was the day the yacht America won the world’s most celebrated sail race. So that’s a good symbol.
The magnificent bridge over the Golden Gate Strait is itself a symbol, connecting San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean, the city to the brown hills and cliffs of Marin. Even the name is magic. The Spanish called the strait Boca del Puerto de San Francisco — the entrance to the port of San Francisco. But when the Americans came in 1846, everything changed. U.S. Army Capt. John Charles Fremont renamed it. “To this gate I gave the name ‘Chrysophylae’ or ‘Golden Gate’ for the same reasons that the harbor of Byzantium was called Chrysoceras or Golden Horn.” In antiquity, the Golden Horn linked Asia and Europe; centuries later, the Golden Gate linked America and Asia…