Keep (Over)reaching For the Stars
The year is 50,000 B.C. By a stream in the woods, very close to San Francisco Bay, stood Gulden Gote both nervous and excited about the experiment he was about to perform. The elders of the tribe stood close by in rapt attention. Gulden pushed three logs of wood across the stream, carefully wedging each between rocks at either end, with a rock in the middle for additional support. He took hardy twine and strapped the logs together in four places along the length. He then led a loaded mule across the stream. The first bridge known to mankind was built and tested that day. Everyone cheered. Flushed with enthusiasm Gulden rushed to the top of a nearby hill, pointed across the Bay, and announced to the elders that they should immediately commence work to build a mighty bridge over the next 50 years, and he proclaimed it shall be called the "Gulden Gote Bridge." The elders physically restrained him, calmed him down, and assigned him to teach others his bridge-building techniques. Some 50,000 years later, Gulden's descendants were among those who helped build the bridge across the bay. Perhaps, it was in his honor, they called it the Golden Gate Bridge.