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The Brooklyn Bridge, begun in 1869 and completed in 1883, was the first great suspension bridge in the United States that had cables formed from parallel steel wires that were spun in place. This fundamental method is still used today. Designed by John Roebling and completed by his son, Washington Roebling, the Brooklyn Bridge links the boroughs of Brooklyn and Manhattan across the East River in New York City. The bridge carries six lanes of traffic on a span of 486 m (1,595 ft).
The foundations were built in timber caissons sunk to depths of 13.5 m (44 ft) on the Brooklyn piers and 24 m (78 ft) on the Manhattan piers. Compressed air pressurized the caissons. At that time little was known of the risks of working at such depths, and more than a hundred workers suffered serious cases of the bends. The bridge stands today as an enduring tribute to its daring engineers. New York City honored the bridge witha gala centennial celebration in 1983.
The Brooklyn Bridge is in pristine condition, but itwill nolonger be needed, and the port authority cannot afford to maintain it; and thus issued an Invitation for Bid (IFB) for the disassembly of the bridge. This is scheduled to begin in September, and it will be taken apart in large modules which can be placed on barges and shipped to a place where theycan be further dismantled and sold for scrap metal. This process will be expensive, and the port authority was open to other solutions. They would even give the bridge away. Fort Baker Miss America Pageant Director Joyce Brown explaining how there will be two pageants: The Spring pageant will be for women over 50 years of age and the Summer pageant will be for women about 18 years old.
Joyce Brown, of San Anselmo, hearing this offer through RockyRandall,formed the Fort Baker-Brooklyn Bridge Development Corporation, and saved the bridge for Marin County. The plan in moving the bridge also included a full arts and entertainment center at Fort Baker, where the Miss America Pageant, under the leadership of Brown, will be held. Working under her direction will be Romano Della Santina, who has judged many beauty pageants and is a childhood friend of Sophia Loren. He will direct the judging of all pageants.
Craig Sherfenberg, of Sherfenberg, Paskov & Associates, will direct all Artsand Entertainment for the corporation. He is considering moving the Marin Symphony to the new 1,000 seat indoor theatre.
It was not that difficult to move the proposal on the Fort Baker and Brooklyn Bridge development forward. As it turns out, all of the city, county and state government officials loved the plan on the bridge and Fort Baker development. Brown and others first met with Caltrans and the Golden Gate Bridge Districtto explore the possibility of moving the Brooklyn Bridge to Sausalito, where it would connect to the Golden Gate Bridge and span Richardson Bay to join the Tiburon and Belvedere peninsulas. It just so happens that the length of the Brooklyn Bridge is the same distance from Fort Baker, below the Golden Gate Bridge, to Tiburon.
The Fort Baker-Brooklyn Bridge Development Corporation’s proposal provided for completion of the arts and entertainment center, convention center and Times Square replica within 4 years.The proposal was so well received, go-ahead came straight-away from the Governor's office and it obtained overwhelming acceptance from the State Legislature.
Below is a map of Richardson Bay courtesy of seatrekkayak.com. Visit their websiteto get more information on Richardson Bay.
Art Guariniello was the Proposal Manager. Healsoserves as theDirector of Concessions, and he will sublet contracts under his separate corporation with regard to all of the concessions involving the Brooklyn Bridge / Fort Baker Development Corporation. Linda Nielsen, Director of Wine Tasting and Concessions, will work with Art in assuring that all of the concessions are compatible with Marin tastes. Draw a line from Fort Baker, at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge, to Tiburon. The Tiburon off ramp will be at the "n" in the word, Terminal.
There are many facilities needed to support the development, including, a twin tower hotel. Peter Arrigoni, of the Marin Builder's Association, pointed outto the Board of
Directors that he will be happy to process all invitations for bid from the corporation through his office. "Contractors should contact me early," he said.
First on the agenda is to move the bridge. Disassembly and reassembly of the Brooklyn Bridge is under DirectorLynn Bagley who is an architect and familiar with moving bridges. It was suggested at the meeting that Peace Corps volunteers be used to disassemble the bridge and reassemble it in its new location in Sausalito.
The Brooklyn Bridge span will have an off ramp at Fort Baker, a second off ramp at Tiburon and a third off rampat Paradise Drive.
From there an overhead causeway will shoot across the marshlands and pass over highway 101 at Sir Francis Drake Blvd., where the last off ramp will be at Bon Aire Center. Sir David Haydon (recently knighted by Queen Elizabeth) will oversee the span across the marshlands. He has three degrees in the Environmental Sciences.
Those who are in charge of the Brooklyn Bridge Span project refer to it simply as "the shortcut." And what a shortcut it will be, relieving the traffic congestion on101, which every afternoon, around 2:30 p.m., begins to clog up at Strawberry hill in Mill Valley If there is a problem on the Oakland Bridge or a wreck on 101, everything simply comes to a stop, and the commute north to San Rafael can become a hellish 2 hours. The hiking and biking trail on the Brooklyn Bridge
When the clog occurs, and it gets worse during the holidays, when shoppers are returning from San Francisco, the traffic takes the Sausalito Bridgeway by-pass. Bridgeway is a two lane street which connects to 101 in the north end of the city, at the Richardson bridge, and cuts through Sausalito to the north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge. Sausalito is a small tourist town, and when the congestion begins it could take over an hour to drive from downtown Sausalito to the Richardson Bridge (normally a 5-10 minute drive). The congestion drives tourists away, and tourism is the main source of revenue for Sausalito, apart from the parking meters. This explains Sausalito’s great interest in the shortcut offered by the Brooklyn Bridge.
Said Sausalito Mayor Amy Belsor, " It took us 5 minutes to pass a resolution to invite this development and we became even more excited when they submitted their plans for Fort Baker." At the Board of Director's meeting she reaffirmed her position, saying, "This is exactly what we have been waiting for." The meeting was held March 26 and was hosted by the Spinnaker restaurant in Sausalito. During the meeting several officers were elected. After the Chairwoman and Chief Financial Officer were confirmed, the directors voted for Robert Beadle who would be chief operations officer. He addressed the directors as to what he would do to assure that all operations of the company were with “the greatest integrity, timely and operable.”
Environmentalists in Marin County, when they heard about the plan, also quickly responded. Sausalito Mayor Amy Belsor addressing the Board of Directors. On her right is former Mayor J. R. Roberts, Marin Scope editor Damien English, Kirstin Calegari, and Miki Lane. To her left is Sausalito City Manager Dana Whitson. Calegari is with Old Republic Title Company, and this company will handle all escrow and title matters involving the Fort Baker-Brooklyn Bridge Development Corporation and its subsidiaries.
Said Lynn Bagley of the Golden GateFarmer's Market, "I'm on several committees and serve on the Board of Directors of several
associations, including the Sierra Club, and everyone was excitedabout the project, particularly the fact that the Brooklyn Bridge has a hiking and biking trailalready built into it. The bridge will add another trail to connect the Marin Headlands trails to the many trails on the Tiburon peninsula."
Booths for vendors serving the hikers and bikers will be on the Brooklyn Bridge. Bagley promised to supply the Times Square replica at Fort Baker with only organic produce. Again, her selections will always be in consultation with Linda Nielsen.
The hiking and biking trail will continue in the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge causeway to the Bon Aire Center. Judy and Jack Martin of Martin Bros. Supply will be supplying all of the landscaping, for the Fort Baker development, and this includes landscaping on the causeway heading over the marshlands to Sir Francis Drake Boulevard.
The Fort Baker arts and enterntainment center will include a wonderful indoor / outdoor theater complex. The outdoor theater will resemble the Sydney center, as it will have projections from the roof to enhance the quality of the sound blasted to the outdoor audience. The projections will protect the audience from the weather, and they will have heaters which may be turned on during cold, foggy conditions. The seats will be set into the ridge above Fort Baker as a replica of the Roman theater in the ruins of Epheseus, Turkey.
The 1,000 seat indoor theater will also have a classic design. It will have three tiers of Opera Booths following the graceful curves of the theater. The indoor theater will be the home of the Miss America Beauty Pageant and possibly the home of the Marin Symphony.
The convention center will be the greatest revenue source for Sausalito, according to City Manager Whitson. She asked the corporation to name the center the "Sally Center" (for those who don't know the origin of "Sally;" it was named after the famous Mayor of Sausalito, Sally Sanford, who was at one time a madam of a whorehouse in San Francisco). The city manager also pointed out that the "Sally" transportation system could be expanded to involve a loop to Mill Valley, then to Tiburon, and back across the Brooklyn Bridge to the Fort Baker complex, then to Sausalito. "This will servethe convention center needs better," she argued. The convention center will be bigger than the Moscone Center, and the Sausalito city fathers are looking forward to drawing a lot of convention business away from San Francisco.
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Lynn Bagley explaining how only fresh organics will be allowed in the Times Square replica at Fort Baker. To her right is Chairwoman Peg Copple, Sausalito City Manager Dana Whitson, and Sausalito Mayor Amy Belser. To her left is Doris Bagley, Tom Luther and Bob Freeman. |
Warhanek is confident he will attract gift shows and home furnishings shows.
This was one of the more important aspects of the convention center which Sausalito City Manager Dana Whitson pursued with enthusiasm.
Additional hotel facilities, beyond those at Fort Baker, will be needed in Southern Marin to accommodate conventions. One of the first conventions signing up after the Whirpool Dealers is the National Totally Bridal Association, and this association has two conventions each year, in the fall and early January. Both visits are believed to involve 300,000 conventioneers. Many of the conventioneers have signed up, in fact, because of the Times Square replica.
As in New York people will be able to watch network broadcasts from big screens on the buildings and, of course, the Times Square array of neon signs will be visible from across the bay and are expected to be more spectacular than Picadilly Circus in London, England.
The Board of Directors elected Peg Copple asChairwoman of the Board, and all agreed that they will enjoy large revenues from the neon billboards.
There was a slightcontroversy over the allocation of the bridge tolls on the Brooklyn Bridge. Chairwoman Copple argued that tolss should be applied not only with regard to entering the bridge but also leaving it. They also discussed the options of tolls to exit the Times Square replica.
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City Manager Dana Whitson explaining the various ways Sausalito will increase revenues. To her right is Mayor Belser and former mayor J. R. Roberts. To her left is Chairwoman Peg Copple, Lynn Bagley, Doris Bagley and Tom Luther their wine connesuer. The subject at hand is the parking controversy started by Bob Freeman who suggested that high-rise parking facilities be raised in the Fort Baker complex, "so they could be seen from the city," he argued. Program Director Mel Copeland argued that parking lots could be burrowed into the mountain, and another countered that there was unlimited burrowing opportunities in the headlands for parking facilities. Former Mayor Roberts thought that the high-rise parking was absurd.
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Jody Wilson, Office Manager for George Cagwin, explaining his proficiency in accurate accounting procedures. After her testimonial the Board of Directors unanimously elected George as the Chief Financial Officer of the Corporation. To her right is Jeanette Sims, Laurie Monroe and Master of Ceremonies Leon Galleto. To her left is CFO George Cagwin, Harbor Master Lou Broderick, Sausalito Police Chief Joe Kriens, Brian Snyder of the Marin IJ, Susan Morris and Chief Operations Officer Robert Beadle,
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| The Board of Directors of the Fort Baker-Brooklyn Bridge Development Corporation, Sausalito city officials, and guests. Left to right front: Tom Luther; Chief Financial Officer George Cagwin; Miss America Pageant Director, Joyce Brown; Susan Morris, Sausalito Parks and Recreation Dep.; Miki Lane;Bridge Architect Lynn Bagley; J. R. Roberts; Chairwoman Peg Copple; Adam Politzer; Sausalito Parks and Recreation Dept.; second row, Mel Copeland, Program Director; Bob Freeman, owner of the Buena Vista Cafe and Waterstreet Grille; Twin Cities Captain of Police Andre Horn; Director of Judges Romano Della Santina; Director of Arts and Entertainment, Craig Sherfenberg; Sally Calif; Chief Operating Officer Robert Beadle; Harbor Master Lou Broderick; Doris Bagley; Mayor Amy Belser; Kirsten Calegari; Laurie Monroe; Sausalito Chief of Police Joe Kriens;V. P. of Public Relations for the corporation, Leon Galleto; third row: Jeanette Sims; Sausalito City Manager Dana Whitson and Marin Scope editor Damien English. | |||||||||
A kick-back on the tolls to the Golden Gate Transit District was agreed upon, and they passed a resolution that the city of Sausalito will receive half of the bridge and toll revenues.
Parking, another revenue source, at the Fort Baker complex was discussed, but Chairwoman Copple suggested that that issue be tabled for a follow-up meeting of the Board of Directors, to address the controversy introduced by Bob Freeman.
Freeman, owner of the Buena Vista Cafe in San Francisco, noted that he will establish Buena Vista # 2 at the Times Square replica. He also owns the Waterstreet Grille in Sausalito, and he announced that he will introduce a race for charity called "The Buena Vista to Buena Vista run." It will start at the Bon Aire on ramp to the “shortcut” and proceed across the Brooklyn Bridge to Sausalito, where runners will refresh at the Buena Vista at the Times Square replica. Then they will continue across the Golden Gate Bridge to the Buena Vista Cafe at the foot of Hyde street.
The Times Square replica will become a destination point in its own right. Retail stores will be abundant, as in New York’s Times Square. All leases will be on a first come, first serve basis. Call Jeff Sterley who is the director and Chairman of the Board-Times Square Replica Management Corporation.
Overseeing all of the catering operations, which will be extensive, is Steve Nicol who was not able to attend the Board of Directors meeting.
The Fort Baker complex will have a small marina, a dock for the ferry, and a houseboat community. The houseboats will typically be 3 bedroom 2 1/2 baths, selling for $150,000. Lou Broderick, who is a sailor herself, is the Harbor Master. She should be contacted with regard to reserving slips.
The tax revenues from the Fort Baker complex are expected to exceed in the first year of operation the entire cost of disassembling, shipping, and reassembling the Brooklyn Bridge across Richardson Bay.
The Board of Directors thanks General Manager Jeff Scharosch and his assistant, Nelson Julian, of the Spinnaker restaurant, who kindly hosted the Board of Director's meeting. The restaurant is on piers in Richardson Bay, and its view is towards the Belvedere and Tiburon Peninsula, where the Brooklyn Bridge will terminate. The board also thanks Sausalito Chief of Police Joe Kriens, and Captain Andre Horn of the Twin Cities police department, for providing excellent security for this highly sensitive meeting.
The business affiliations of the Board of Directors is as follows (not in any particular order): Lynn Bagley, Golden Gate Farmer's Market, Lou Broderick, Cagwin, Seymour & Hamilton Realtors, Robert Freeman, Buena Vista Cafe and Waterstreet Grille, Jeff Sterley, Pacific Union Real Estate, George Cagwin, Cagwin, Seymour & Hamilton Realtors, Robert Beadle, Coldwell Banker Real Estate, Peg Copple, Peg Copple& Associates, Steve Nicol, Red Robin Carterers, Judy and Jack Martin, Martin Bros. Supply, Fredrick Warhanek, Fingerhut Galleries, David Haydon, Il Davide Restaurant, Jeff Scharosch, Spinnaker restaurant, Joyce Brown, Elan Fitness Center, Kirstin Calegari, Old Republic Title Company, Romano Dela Santina, Marin Joes Restaurant, Art Guariniello, Cafe Trieste, Linda Nielsen, Coldwell Banker Real Estate. Copyright © Mel West. All rights reserved. April fools.
Launched: 3.09.03
Updated: 3.10.03; 3.27.03; 3.30.03; 3.18.07