Golden Gate Bridge

SAN FRANCISCO — A California high school student visiting the Golden Gate Bridge on a field trip Thursday 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, and a statement from his school said he suffered no severe injuries beyond bruising and tenderness.

The Golden Gate Bridge was heralded as an engineering marvel when it opened in 1937. It was the world's longest suspension span and had been built across a strait that critics said was too treacherous to be bridged. But as the iconic span approaches its 75th anniversary over Memorial Day weekend, the generations of engineers who have overseen it all these years say keeping it up and open has been something of a marvel unto itself. Crews had to install a bracing system after high winds lashed and twisted the span in the 1950s, raising fears it would collapse.

SAN FRANCISCO - Jack Balestreri was 17 when he got a job helping build the Golden Gate Bridge. He had hoped to make it to the span's 75th anniversary next month. But Mr. Balestreri - believed to be the last surviving bridge worker - died of natural causes at his San Francisco home on April 21, his daughter, Gayle, told the Associated Press on Friday. He was 95. Starting in 1933, Mr. Balestreri did concrete work on the south tower of the bridge and the San Francisco anchorage for three years, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

SAN FRANCISCO - Jack Balestreri was 17 when he got a job helping build the Golden Gate Bridge. He had hoped to make it to the span's 75th anniversary next month. But Mr. Balestreri - believed to be the last surviving bridge worker - died of natural causes at his San Francisco home on April 21, his daughter, Gayle, told the Associated Press on Friday. He was 95. Starting in 1933, Mr. Balestreri did concrete work on the south tower of the bridge and the San Francisco anchorage for three years, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The Golden Gate Bridge was heralded as an engineering marvel when it opened in 1937. It was the world's longest suspension span and had been built across a strait that critics said was too treacherous to be bridged. But as the iconic span approaches its 75th anniversary over Memorial Day weekend, the generations of engineers who have overseen it all these years say keeping it up and open has been something of a marvel unto itself. Crews had to install a bracing system after high winds lashed and twisted the span in the 1950s, raising fears it would collapse.

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S blueprint for fiscal 2013 has a lot of losers, and they are not the rich Americans who might see their taxes increased. Almost every department will suffer dramatic budget cuts in order to reduce the $1.3 trillion deficit. Priorities are more limited and once-favored programs have been killed. Despite all the bad news for federal programs, the budget also reflects a commitment, in numbers, to rebuild our neglected infrastructure, including lots of crumbling bridges.

Once in a while a smart artist has an idea for a project that, when explained, sounds pretty boring. But in the viewing, it's actually quite intoxicating. Jenni Olson's "The Joy of Life" doesn't seem like much. The director just sits her movie camera in front of various San Francisco locales and lets it roll. Someone reads Olson's writings on lesbian relationships and on Frank Capra. She tosses in audio of Lawrence Ferlinghetti reciting his poem "The Changing Light" and some information about suicides at the Golden Gate Bridge, then says, "That's a wrap.

► Today is Friday, May 27, the 147th day of 2011. There are 218 days left in the year. ► Today’s birthdays: Dolores Hope (widow of Bob Hope) is 102. Novelist Herman Wouk is 96. Actor Christopher Lee is 89. Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is 88. Author John Barth is 81. Actress Lee Meriwether is 76. Musician Ramsey Lewis is 76. Actor Louis Gossett Jr. is 75. R&B singer Raymond Sanders (The Persuasions) is 72. Country singer Don Williams is 72. Actor Bruce Weitz is 68. Singer Cilla Black is 68. Former Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.)

Mortimer Mouse? The original name for Walt Disney’s famous cartoon mouse certainly didn’t roll off a child’s tongue in the same way that Mickey did, and Lillian Disney knew it (she persuaded her husband to change it). It’s one of the quirky historical details presented at the new Walt Disney Family Museum, which aims to tell the backstory of the imaginative pioneer of American animation. Situated in a renovated historic barracks in San Francisco’s Presidio - with glorious views of the Golden Gate Bridge - the $110 million museum has 10 permanent galleries that trace the arc...

SAUSALITO, Calif. - I’m driving through fog, heading north across the Golden Gate Bridge, toward the Shangri-La lushness that is Marin County. The Golden Gate - the strait below me where San Francisco Bay meets the Pacific Ocean - was called that long before there was a bridge. In the fog there is barely a bridge. Traveling around the country, asking people about their favorite places, and about their most beautiful places, I heard again and again about the rolling ranchland and wild beaches of west Marin County.

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S blueprint for fiscal 2013 has a lot of losers, and they are not the rich Americans who might see their taxes increased. Almost every department will suffer dramatic budget cuts in order to reduce the $1.3 trillion deficit. Priorities are more limited and once-favored programs have been killed. Despite all the bad news for federal programs, the budget also reflects a commitment, in numbers, to rebuild our neglected infrastructure, including lots of crumbling bridges.

► Today is Friday, May 27, the 147th day of 2011. There are 218 days left in the year. ► Today’s birthdays: Dolores Hope (widow of Bob Hope) is 102. Novelist Herman Wouk is 96. Actor Christopher Lee is 89. Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is 88. Author John Barth is 81. Actress Lee Meriwether is 76. Musician Ramsey Lewis is 76. Actor Louis Gossett Jr. is 75. R&B singer Raymond Sanders (The Persuasions) is 72. Country singer Don Williams is 72. Actor Bruce Weitz is 68. Singer Cilla Black is 68. Former Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.)

SAN FRANCISCO — A California high school student visiting the Golden Gate Bridge on a field trip Thursday 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, and a statement from his school said he suffered no severe injuries beyond bruising and tenderness.

Mortimer Mouse? The original name for Walt Disney’s famous cartoon mouse certainly didn’t roll off a child’s tongue in the same way that Mickey did, and Lillian Disney knew it (she persuaded her husband to change it). It’s one of the quirky historical details presented at the new Walt Disney Family Museum, which aims to tell the backstory of the imaginative pioneer of American animation. Situated in a renovated historic barracks in San Francisco’s Presidio - with glorious views of the Golden Gate Bridge - the $110 million museum has 10 permanent galleries that...

SAUSALITO, Calif. - I’m driving through fog, heading north across the Golden Gate Bridge, toward the Shangri-La lushness that is Marin County. The Golden Gate - the strait below me where San Francisco Bay meets the Pacific Ocean - was called that long before there was a bridge. In the fog there is barely a bridge. Traveling around the country, asking people about their favorite places, and about their most beautiful places, I heard again and again about the rolling ranchland and wild beaches of west Marin County.

Once in a while a smart artist has an idea for a project that, when explained, sounds pretty boring. But in the viewing, it's actually quite intoxicating. Jenni Olson's "The Joy of Life" doesn't seem like much. The director just sits her movie camera in front of various San Francisco locales and lets it roll. Someone reads Olson's writings on lesbian relationships and on Frank Capra. She tosses in audio of Lawrence Ferlinghetti reciting his poem "The Changing Light" and some information about suicides at the Golden Gate Bridge, then says, "That's a...

A rediscovered San Francisco plant once thought to be extinct is being proposed for the federal government's list of endangered species. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service on Thursday will ask that the Franciscan manzanita — which was last seen in San Francisco in 1947 — be covered under the Endangered Species Act. In 2009 a botanist driving over the Golden Gate Bridge spotted the flowering shrub in an area of the city that had been cleared...

The final voyage of the USS Iowa is near. The last surviving World War II battleship without a home is docked at the Port of Richmond, where it is being prepared for its journey to the Port of Los Angeles for a new mission as a museum and memorial to Navy might. The San Francisco Chronicle ( http://bit.ly/vCFW0W) says it will be towed beneath to Golden Gate Bridge and into the Pacific for its last voyage to Los Angeles in February or March. The Pacific Battleship Center raised $8 million to rescue the 68-year-old ship from the Ghost Fleet in Suisun Bay. The 800-foot...