click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney
This image taken August 2013.
Okay, okay, I'll spare you ALL the details--unless you twist-my-arm and REALLY want to hear once again that it took 60,000 gallons of International Orange to paint the Golden Gate Bridge. Or, when built in 1937, at a cost of 35M, it became the world's longest single-span suspension bridge. Currently, the Golden Gate, with its 4200' single span is only the world's 12th longest.
click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney
This image taken January 2012.
But you know, you might find this a bit more interesting: I was looking through my book on San Francisco written in 1957 by Barnaby Conrad, where he discusses the uncertain etymology of the name "California".
Some scholars believe that "California" is derived from the two Latin words; calida fornax, meaning hot furnace; or the same in the Spanish language, caliente fornalla. Others think the name owes it origin to words spoken by the Indians and heard by Spanish explorers, which sounded like "California".
3 comments:
I always thought the name came from some mythical queen's name who was the ruler of the land which was thought to be an island. Queen Califa or something like that.
Well John, I guess your theory is just about as good as anybody else's...
I thought it was named after the Hindu goddess of destruction: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali ;)
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