Got to go watch the Blue Angels air show here in San Fran yesturday. Outside of the show being, well... the same ol' show, I got to watch it from a pretty darned cool place this time. And while there I came up with a few pic's that might interest the electrcal geeks in us all. Like the lighting circuit below.




A friend of mine is an Engineer for the Golden Gate Bridge, and got us to the top.....



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I guess the guy who drilled that weatherhead out 30 years ago thought that no one would ever check his work out, much less the entire world! Ah, the internet....

Who woulda thunk it!

Now THATS a cool place to watch an air show from The wires look like possibly TW wrapped in friction tape for a LOOOONG ways!

Here's some more info on Golden Gate bridge lighting if anyone's interested

Golden Gate Bridge Lighting Facts

Very Cool Mark.

Great photos. I can feel the soles of my feeet itching just looking at them.

How on earth can you go up there? I had enough trouble trying to absail 220ft down Wallaces Monument......

I had my digital camera die, well I messed it up. (Word to wise, don't dust off your digital, condensation can get into the lens and fog it up) so I took most of my photos on a 'real' film camera, all of these where taken on my phone. I'm still pouring through them.... But some of these are the ones I said to Myself and out loud, "Wow the guys on ECN will love these!"

Here's some more:















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This is great, I would be psyched to get up there.

Great photos.

Bob

All those zip ties on the conduit are an install by some Berkley siezmic monitoring team and are temporary. And reguardless of the violation, I think they were better off there considering the tripping hazard...

Yeah Bob, I had perma-grin for most of the day, and it was a very nice day for the location. Sunny warm, with little wind, normally it is like a hurricane up there. And it took a few minutes to get over the hieght thing, and loosen the white knuckle effect.

I would have had the white knuckle thing going on for a bit as well.

The thing I thought of was imagine running the conduits up there. Looks like dropping things like screws, back clips, chunks of cut pipe is not an option with the size of the openings in that deck.

Also the long trip back to the truck for the one item forgotten.

SUPER Photo's

Many thanks for sharing those with us.

Kind regards

Raymond

white knuckes my behind.

you would have had to take my knocking knees down with the help of a fire department.

Geeze that is high up.

edit to add: how do you get up there? do you have to climb a ladder?

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Does that thing not sway a lot in the wind and if so how does the metal condit handle the movement? (assuming it is metal)

Hate to have been the apprentice on that job. Could you imagine the things the tradesmen would get you to do?

Kenny

The elevator trip is about 5-minutes, and the thing is so tight that one man and his tools are about it. 3 men standing face to face uncomfortably close, nose to nose is how I got there. I did notice that all of the electrical work was designed to be minimal material, and long life span. RMC and purposely put in accessable areas, not much of it was too close to the edge. You really cant tell from the angle of the pic's but where the conduit would have been easier to instll on some of the angle iron, (Like the 1st pic of the second post) they purposely took it to the other side and attacted it to the saddle casting instead. Much harder to attach to, but when you are actually there you realize that phycologicaly they were leaning toward what they felt more solid to work on. As both of those conduits go back out to the outside away closer to the edge, but to install it where it would have been a simpler install, they would have had to lean out.... And really I do not blame them! Evident in pic 5 of the second post... Instead they are at knee hieght, so they crouched hugging the more phycologicaly solid area, and stayed low, where if they stood they would have had to deal with that equilibrium effect of the horizon line continuing below thier feet. I imagine most of this work being done on the typical foggy day - high wind day, where up there it would feel like standing on a cloud. I was there on a sunny still afternoon and found it hard to handle a larrieted camera without consentrating on how my hands were coming off of hand-holds and my sense of balance. I was up there for several hours, and that was really hard to take your mind off.

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I think I would like that less than the height.

That kind of work is not for me.Would'nt mind going up there but working up there forget it.

Working the electrical side of it is nothing.... The painters are true dare devils! They paint that thing constantly, and have to get to places that I would NEVER go! And if I did, I would be in full pucker diamond production mode.

mmmm. I see Sausalito resturants down there. Now I'm getting hungry.

Awesome pictures, thanks for posting them!

We went out to San Francisco on vacation a few years ago. We saw the tip-top of the bridge from Mt.Tam & saw the bottom of it from a boat. The rest was fog.

Dave

PS My son appreciated the diamond comment.

Yes, they don't make flat gray post-cards with San Francisco written on them for no reason at all. Weather like that is not rare, but it does seem to be at times.

Very cool, thanks for sharing those pics. I'm generally not scared of heights but looking at those makes me wonder

What a great mix of ingredients for an exciting day.....
electrical, historic engineering feat, great view, great weather, synchronized fighter jets, with a hint of personal danger and touch of elitism.

Mix that up any way you want, give me a call, and count me in.

I’m impressed with the quality for a camera phone. What kind is it and how many MP?

Elitism? Hardly call it that. Bridge employees get an opprotunity a year to bring someone up. And knowing someone consists of that someone being and Office Clerk, Welding Inspector, Toll Worker, or in my case Engineer. Each of which brought 1-2 people. Not a single movie star or politico up there. In fact we met the bridge Director on our way off the bridge, she's never been up there. Not as if more could fit, or could they open it to the general public. Not ADA accessible in the slightest, ladders, hatches, etc. Kind of like the employee priviledge of bringing someone to work to tour a beer factory - but with a view. Or someone taking you to tour the military base they get stationed on. Like the picture I have of my Mom and Sis standing next to an F-18 - I just had access to the runway when they came to visit. I didn't fly them, I just just changed bulbs on the taxiway they were on.

And considering it is the most photographed bridge in the world, I doubt there are many of that shepard hook bend.

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Awesome shots, Mark! Some interesting conduit bends up there. I know if I ever got the chance to go up there I know that's what I'd be looking at too. I've been over the bridge once when I was stationed at Alameda for a week or two in January of 1991. Cool to see it from that angle!

These are only ones I have on the phone... I also have the whole air show on FILM, (remember that stuff?) it's sitting in a color lab I wired several years ago that does good work. It will be thursday before I find out if I caught the pre-sonic boom vapor flare on BA#6. It's the only shot I care about coming out really. If so it will look simular to this.... http://www.sky-flash.com/boom.htm