Bay Bridge Blasphemy: Am I The Only One Who Thinks That Tower is Too Small?

I'm about to commit bridge blasphemy. Mmmhmmm. Yes I am.

Drove over the thing for the first time last week. Maybe it was all the hype — what little old bridge could live up to that, after all? But after expecting angels to sing hallelujah, practically, I have to say it was completely underwhelming.

Sure, the linen white wash is super lovely against the Bay, but I think this bridge is going to suffer from some Napoleon complex. That new span, which looked so spectacular in the 30 million photos I saw of it beforehand, did not quite hold up in real life.

It just seems kind of tiny. What the heck? Doesn't the road from Oakland to San Francisco deserve a span tower that makes everyone go ooooooh!?? Like the Golden Gate! I've lived here forever it seems, and I still go crazy when I see the GG.

Maybe my hopes got raised too high while driving across the old bridge. From that angle the new white tower slowly rose up from nothing and with it so did my expectations.

Who knows? I'm no architect. But my companion on that first journey echoed my sentiments.

"I don't get the stick things," she said, pointing to the light poles rimming the road. "They look like they didn't finish it."

"Me neither," I said dully. "They're missing something, those little matchstick things. Let's sneak out here at night and decorate them, loop-to-loop with something."

While I do think the new tower is perfectly pretty, maybe I just can't forget old things in general. 

Like my first drive ever across the Bay Bridge, in 1988 5 p.m. traffic and fog in my Subaru, fresh from Nebraska. I had NEVER been in a metering light situation. Let's just say that did not go well.

Or, a few years later, swinging back the other direction on the back of some guy's motorcycle. Can't even remember his name, but nothing felt better than that, crossing the Bay still freezing under 10 layers of clothes on our way to a party in Berkeley.

Somehow so far this new bridge just doesn't seem grand enough for all that. 

Maybe it's time to try the ferry.