Pelosi Remarks at Ribbon Cutting for 75th Anniversary of Golden Gate Bridge

Washington, D.C. - Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi delivered remarks at a ribbon cutting ceremony celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge.  Below are the Leader's remarks:

"I love that song, especially the second verse that Martin sang: ‘oh beautiful for patriot dreams that sees beyond the years.'  That's exactly what the people who envisioned this bridge did.  They saw beyond the years in many ways - certainly as a physical structure, but all that it stands for.  ‘Thine alabaster city gleams undimmed by human tears.'  That's San Francisco, isn't it?  It reminds me of San Francisco every time I hear it sung, never more beautifully than Martin Scott.  Usually you hear him, he's a member of the Park Service, but we hear him down at Glide Memorial on Sunday mornings.  Martin, thank you so much for lifting us all up with your beautiful voice and that beautiful song.  Thank you.  I'm rather overwhelmed.  I didn't know this is what I was coming out to this morning.

"I want to thank Janet Reilly for her incredible leadership of the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District.  Didn't she manage to acknowledge and show appreciation for so many people so graciously?  And it just seemed like the appropriate thing to do.  Thank you for your leadership and for expressing what we all want to do, as to thank everyone who was a part of all this.  Governor Brown, wow, but in the spirit of his remarks, and Cynthia was carried over the bridge by her father, she was a little child, a little baby at the time, but in the spirit of that, as we commemorate the 75th anniversary, it's pretty exciting for us, in the theme of ‘from sea to shining sea,' and you heard the National Park Service, National Conservancy, National Golden Gate Recreation Area, I'd like to acknowledge the role of President Obama in passing the Recovery Act, which provided some of the funds for us to do the Presidio Parkway.

"The beat goes on in terms of enhancing what the bridge means to us and what it does for us.  And in that spirit I also want to acknowledge someone that when Frank Dean, the Superintendent, was speaking he referenced that this Golden Gate Recreation Area is celebrating its 40th anniversary, none of that would've been possible without the leadership in Congress of Congressman Phillip Burton, my predecessor there, and Dr. Wayburn, Dr.  Edgar Wayburn and Amy Meyer, who were inspired by that, but anyway, the fact is that it takes a lot of people with their thinking, their ideas, their determination, to get the job done.

"Today, I'm honored to join our great Mayor in taking this next step.  Yes, it's about innovation Mr. Mayor, but it's about who we are as San Franciscans in this greater San Francisco Bay Area.  They told us to wear orange and Larry Baer, thanks to you winning the World Series, we have a lot of orange that we celebrated [with] before and we continue to root on our Giants, but thank you for the role you're playing today and Nancy Helman-Bechtle, nothing great happens in the community without your family's involvement.  Thank you for your leadership as Chair of the Presidio Trust, and so many other things, and your role in all of this.  You probably think I'm going to repeat the names that Janet did, but she did it so well.  So, to all of you who were acknowledged, honors granted with special mention of Mark Buell because he's a bridge for all of us and all of these entities that we have discussed.  Thank you, Mark Buell for your leadership.  I want to acknowledge Gus Villalta who's here, who worked on the bridge and acknowledge the steel workers, and the iron workers, and the workers who helped build this bridge as well.  We must celebrate them.

But can you imagine?  Gus is here and he actually worked on the bridge - our very, very special guest.  So, today, we come together on the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge to cut the ribbon, a number of gifts to the bridge, additions designed to showcase this landmark, tell its story and share its history.  Others have already said what they are.  We will go on with our ribbon cuttings momentarily but we want to also celebrate what this bridge has given us, what it has meant to our city, state, and nation from sea to shining sea because this bridge, we are possessive of it in this area, but it is a national treasure and it is recognized throughout the world as such.

Before there was a Golden Gate Bridge, there was a golden gate, a golden gateway to America.  It was a place where our troops came home from battle and when they came through the golden gate they knew that they were home, safely home.  It is a symbol of hope to immigrants who have come to our shore and when they came through that golden gate decades and decades and decades ago, and continue to do so, they knew that they could have access to the American dream and it is a gateway to the American dream.  And those immigrants and those troops are all a blessing to America and we just can only imagine what was in their hearts and minds as they saw that gateway,

Seventy-five years ago, people of courage and innovation decided that there would be a bridge.  The Mayor very aptly describes that it is a symbol of innovation then and now.  Built in the midst of the Depression, as has been referenced, this bridge is a reminder, no matter what the daunting challenge, no matter how daunting and overwhelming an obstacle, America always invests in big and bold endeavors.  The history of the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge is a history overcoming doubts, defying odds, and achieving what many thought was impossible.  Even in an era, as the Governor referenced, of economic turmoil in the middle of a depression, this bridge took just four-and-a-half years to build.

Indeed, these symbols of courage and innovation have always defined this city, this region, this state, and our country, and they do today.  Just think of the courage that it took for the Bay Area people to risk their homes, their farms, and their businesses - their very livelihoods - as collateral for the bonds needed to build the bridge.  Just think of that sense of community, just think of the courage required of Joseph Strauss and his colleagues when they envisioned, engineered, and constructed the bridge when peers kept repeating, and these were the words they said, these were their critics, quote: ‘they will never build this bridge.  No one can build this bridge, bridge the golden gate because of insurmountable difficulties.'  That was what was said about it at the time.  Seventy-five years ago, at the completion of the international orange marvel, Strauss would proudly write, and these are his words: ‘at last, the mighty task is done.'

Seventy-five years later, we recall the words of that same poem he wrote: ‘launched amidst a thousand hopes and fears, damned a thousand hostile sneers, yet ne'er its course has strayed,' and here we are today, 75 years later.  It's a point of personal privilege for many of us here to remember the 50th anniversary.  Remember that?  What a crowd.  We all remember the unexpected crowds that showed up to walk across the bridge.  A little different, Cynthia, from the inauguration, it flattened the bridge, you remember that, and the 25 years since, I have had the privilege in Congress to work with so many of you here, and certainly Janet is relentless and persistent in her advocacy for this bridge.  Appropriately in this bridge, international orange, that's how she comes into Congress to remind us what our challenges and responsibilities are because this is a bridge that we always want to strengthen and the approaches to it as well.

So, Janet Reilly, thank you for your great leadership, once again, because it takes all of that to preserve the bridge and working together, again, almost everyone here - I think we may have almost done that already - to ensure that the bridge will remain a symbol of strength for San Francisco and an iconic image of our city for future generations.  Today, our gifts to the bridge reflect our joy in celebrating the Golden Gate Bridge.  As Joseph Strauss wrote, and I will say again what he wrote: ‘resplendent the western sun' and that it is indeed this morning, for San Francisco and the Bay Area.  This bridge is a faithful companion for Californians, of course, it is a source of great pride and a symbol of who we are, the golden gateway, and for Americans it is a national treasure.

"Together, we observe the 75th anniversary.  Doesn't it seem like yesterday when it was just the 50th anniversary?  So, I'll see you at the hundredth, but in the meantime we pledge to keep honoring the history of this bridge for decades to come.  And now, following the lead of the Governor and the Mayor, I am proud to present, it is my privilege to present, a framed copy of the official statement in the Congressional Record honoring the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge, so that my colleagues can see and take pride in this bridge which we honor from sea to shining sea.

"Thank you all very much."