Blast! Beyond flare and fanfare — to be hyperbolic about the celebrations of the 75th Anniversary or what is traditionally called the Diamond Anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge. Anniversaries can be simple remembrances year after year, but not when you string along 75 years down to the very first day of the very first year the idea was made flesh, rather concretized. Construction took four years and five months and was completed in 1937. From then on, San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge—an engineering marvel—became an iconic landmark of the U.S. of A. and an endearing pride in the heart of Californians.

The weekend festivities kicked off Friday, May 25, with the ribbon-cutting ceremony by government officials, unveiling new visitor facilities around the area such as the Bridge Pavilion Welcome Center. Orange was the color of the day in the clothing, hats, scarves, shoes, earrings, sunglasses, face make-up of many in the crowd, reflecting the burnt orange of the Golden Gate Bridge. Hundreds trudged the 1.7-mile-long bridge, all in jovial spirit that included my daughter Rose and her husband Tim.

I didn't want to witness the celebrations through convenient and comfortable gadgetry. Away with the TV and computer. Vicarious experience via electronics, no matter how large-scale and panoramic viewing you get, is never the same as active participation. Mingling in the push-and-pull and flow with the rest of the celebrators is added fun. It's all a matter of attitude. Thus, I and daughter Raileen and her husband Nixon formed a threesome from the ferry-ride in Oakland to San Francisco. A cruise via the ferry was a great way to avoid the thick traffic of hundreds of cars all on their way to the event. The bay was calm, the waves very, very slight, but the wind was, oh, so very, very cold. We were wrapped up in coats and caps and ponchos to combat that.

In addition to the stores and restaurants that permanently line up the waterfront, tents and stalls sprouted days before the Memorial Day weekend. Enterprising guys understand too well the consummate consumerism of Americans. Of course, I'm speaking generally because there are those who do practice the three R's. Reduce, Re-use, Recycle if you're still in limbo, meaning you are far from being an environmental activist which we all should be. (I strongly advocated for this in a previous column, to be repeated again and again for the second time once more—yes, squeeze in the three R's whenever there is a chance—for the sake of Mother Earth.)

Dinnertime was at Tarantino's, a serendipitous pick because the maitre d'hotel seated us threesome immediately behind the expansive glass window that provided a full view of the fireworks extravaganza, the climax of the Golden Gate 75th anniversary celebrations.

When I started this column, I thought of this title: Long live, Golden Gate! Goodbye, Taytay Batiano. A lifetime of 75 years and counting for one iconic bridge. And what of the bridge in my home Barangay San Antonio in Oton, Iloilo? The historic Taytay Batiano that had crossed the tail of the Iloilo River in ages past was consigned to oblivion by poor vision, utter absence of a sense of history, and intrusion of ugly politics. Beside it was a concrete stairway where our forefathers anchored their boats and sold their fresh produce to the townspeople. Years of memories wiped out, unbridgeable, with Taytay Batiano crushed and transformed into a mound of stones. In its stead, a hunchback of a bridge, prone to accident, drivers have to exercise extra caution so as not to add to the accidental deaths caused mainly by its faulty design.

Mention of deaths brings me to the downside of Golden Gate. It is said to be the choice of suicides of many a desperate spirit where a jump into the awesome water means end-it-all. Macabre statistics must have been intentionally ignored so as not to mar the festive air that tens of thousands came for.

Long live, Golden Gate! Onward to the 100th anniversary. To Taytay Batiano, a sad adieu. You will not fade in our mind, even if it's only a glimmer of a thought. Replacing you is a lesson for the young generation to value an object of history through restoration, and that's good enough for us at this stage of our lives.*( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )