Ghost of the Golden Gate Bridge

Hey Mystery Solvers!

Have you ever been to San Francisco, California? One time Mimi, Papa, Grant and I took a trip to visit the foggy city in northern California. I love San Francisco! There is so much to do and see… ride the cable cars up and down the hilly streets, see the famous row of colorful homes called the Painted Ladies, eat authentic Asian cuisine in Chinatown, visit the creepy old prison on Alcatraz Island, see the city from the tallest building at Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill, and, my favorite, ride over the Golden Gate Bridge!

I was amazed to learn that the Golden Gate Bridge is not actually gold. It’s a rust color called international orange. So why is it called the Golden Gate Bridge? Yeah, I wondered that too. The waterway opening where the mouth of the San Francisco Bay meets the Pacific Ocean is called the Golden Gate Strait, so the bridge that crosses it is the Golden Gate Bridge! Back in the day it was called the bridge that could not be built because no bridge had ever been construction to cross a distance of water as long as the Golden Gate Strait – three miles long by one mile wide! But, four years later, the bridge was complete and open for traffic! It opened on May 27, 1937. So the 80th anniversary of the bridge is coming up at the end of this month! 80 years old! It doesn’t look 80 years old. There’s actually a team of people that paint the bridge 365 days a year, every year. The paint protects the bridge from salt in the air and keeps it from getting rusted! Being one of those bridge painters would be a scary job!

Mimi booked us a beautiful apartment to stay in during our visit that had a view of the San Francisco Bay from the window – especially the Golden Gate Bridge! I had trouble going to sleep that first night. Finally, I got out of bed to look out the window and I saw the weirdest thing – it looked like a person climbing up the side of the Golden Gate Bridge carrying something over his shoulder. Then there was a bright flash of light and he disappeared into the fog around the bridge! Did I really see that?! Well, the next morning the headline of the newspaper read “The Ghost of the Golden Gate Bridge Returns!”… so had I seen the ghost the night before? Just then, outside our apartment door, I found a green origami frog with a Japanese message written on it. Translated it read “return to the news”. Was this a clue? You’ll have to read the book find out, but I’ll share the first three chapters with you here. After you finish reading the book you should check out our Fact or Fiction Golden Gate Mystery game!

Have you visited San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge? We’d love to see you pictures. Send them in and we’ll share them on our site!

Happy reading!

Christina

Source: http://goldengatebridge.org/