The Golden Gate Bridge seen from the beach at Crissy Field. Behind it are the Marin Headlands. Y'know, this reminds me of a story...

In 1989, The Bay Area had a really bad earthquake, chiefly remembered for the section of the Bay Bridge (different bridge, same Bay) collapsing. Well, the odd part about this was that the Bay Bridge actually has a higher strength rating than the Golden Gate, which held up just fine. Natch, the engineers wanted to know why. So they sent all the pertinent data to an Expert (note capitalization), and asked him to perform his arcane calculations and tell them why the Bay Bridge fell down and the Golden Gate stayed up. About a week later, they received their answer:

"You gentlemen are mistaken. The Golden Gate fell down, too."

"No no", the engineers assured him," it's still there. Really. We've driven over it, checked it for structural faults, everything." The Expert wasn't convinced. The data was re-transmitted. The calculations were re-checked. Considerable argument ensued. Finally, the Expert was flown out to San Francisco and he and the engineers drove out to the Golden Gate to prove that the bridge was, in fact, still there. The Expert stared rather myopically at the bridge, walked along its length, turned to the engineers, and said:

"You neglected to tell me about the ten thousand tonnes of bedrock your bridge is bolted to. That is why your bridge is still here, gentlemen." And he gestured at the Marin Headlands.

Color study. Acrylic on canvas, 8" x10".

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