The Palace and the Bridge

The California Palace of the Legion of Honor is a replica of the Palais de la Légion d’Honneur in Paris and was completed on Armistice Day, 1924. It stands in the middle of a golf course on San Francisco’s Lands End, overlooking the Golden Gate. The Palace is dedicated to the 3600 Californians who lost their lives in France during World War I and it is presently one of San Francisco’s finest Fine Arts Museums.

The Golden Gate Bridge opened for automobiles on May 28, 1936. But it opened for pedestrians the day before. My folks were among the thousands of San Franciscans who walked across the bridge that day. We heard that story many times over the years and when one of them started to tell the story again we would say “Yes, Mom” or “Yes, Dad, we heard that one before.”

I wish I could hear it again.

The palace these days is simply called the Legion of Honor and the Golden Gate Bridge is simply called The Bridge.

The Golden Gate Bridge from the front entrance columns of the Palace of the Legion of Honor.

I took this picture in December 1977 and digitized the Ektachrome slide earlier this year. Then I brought the file into Lightroom today and straightened the columns, cropped the picture to the rule of thirds, and — voila! — the picture looks brand new!