Free Republic

MADRID, Spain (AP) - 0302DV-Grand-Central A sketch of New York's Grand Central Terminal was found a year ago in the home of a suspect in the Madrid train bombings, Spanish and U.S. officials said Wednesday. The sketch and data were on a computer disk seized about two weeks after the March 11 train bombings in Madrid that killed 191 people last year, the newspaper El Mundo said. In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the FBI had informed the Police Department about the existence of the data on the computer and the city responded by tightening security at transit centers....

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Golden Gate Bridge is open again to pedestrians and bikers after a hours-long closure earlier today. Highway Patrol and San Francisco police officers closed the bridge after a small group of peace protesters tried to march across the span. CodePink, an anti-war group, planned to walk across the bridge around noon today. The group, with members gathered at both ends of the bridge, was stopped by officers. After about three hours, officials arrested CodePink leader Medea Benjamin and a handful of other protesters for trespassing.

A documentary that records almost two dozen leaps from the landmark bridge has generated praise and scorn for its maker. For an entire year the cameras rolled, capturing death amid the eerie fog and shifting tides. One by one, filmmaker Eric Steel documented the final moments of nearly two dozen despondent men and women, and the agonizing, four-second fall after they leaped off the Golden Gate Bridge, drawn by the span's tragic beauty. His intent, he says, was to illuminate "the darkest corner of the human mind." If he watched enough people take their own lives, he thought, he could...

The pond on Denny Heasley's property doesn't get nearly as fogged in as San Francisco Bay - not that the span he's building needs to be nestled in fog to bear a striking resemblance to the famed Golden Gate Bridge. The 100-foot-long 17-foot-high replica is painted bright orange - "exactly the same color" as the Golden Gate, Heasley said proudly. A retired excavator, Heasley is getting used to greeting inquisitive passers-by. He estimates that 10 to 12 people drop by on weekends and ask about it. "A lot of people stop and want to know if they can walk on...

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 4, 2005 – The 25-foot-long vessel bounced over the whitecaps on San Francisco Bay, propelled by 450 horsepower of thrust as it approached the majestic span that's become this city's internationally known symbol. There, below the Golden Gate Bridge, Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Jason Gale and Seaman Marcel Gradvohl began inspecting the bridge's piers, abutments, fenders and pilings for signs of tampering or intrusion, and ensuring that no people or watercraft had violated the 25-yard security zone around the structures. Gale and Gradvohl, both assigned to Coast Guard Station Golden Gate, are on the front...

San Francisco -- A spokeswoman for the Golden Gate Bridge reports that there was a shooting at the Golden Gate Bridge toll plaza tonight. Mary Currie said that a toll collector was shot and that her understanding is that the injury is not fatal. Suspect information or the exact time of the shooting is not available. The California Highway Patrol reports that all lanes on the bridge are open.

ROOM OF GRIEF: Family, friends beseech bridge board in a funereal procession - Patrick Fitzgerald pulled his trademark beret off his head before he walked through the door of the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District boardroom Thursday morning. He wore a tie. In his bony, teenaged arm, he cradled a binder of signed petitions calling for a suicide barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge. He had come to deliver the petitions to the district board in honor of his best friend, a fellow senior at the French American International School who killed himself Feb. 1 by jumping off...

Part one in a four-part series "The nice thing about big bridges," says Kary Witt, "is that they're big. You don't blow up a big bridge with a little bomb." Backed up against the Pacific Ocean, weighing in at more than 80,000 tons of steel and nearly 900,000 tons overall, the Golden Gate Bridge looms behind the head of every San Francisco news reporter on the terrorism beat. Along with the Los Angeles International Airport, and Disneyland in Anaheim, it's a poster child for terror targets in California. In 2002, Spanish officials found videos among the possessions of suspected terrorists...

MIDI - SAN FRANCISCO If you are going to San Francisco...make sure you have some Bush stickers on your car If you are going to San Francisco...with some luck, you might drive them too far For those who go to San Francisco...you need to know they are mourning Kerry's loss If he's in concert in San Francisco...they won't smile to hear The Boss Golden Gate is calling...can you see them falling Oh yes...they're suicidal It's insane they're going...we should all like knowing...that they are All suicidal...they're suicidal Those of you who go to San Francisco...make sure you have some...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A man protesting the looming U.S. war on Iraq fell to his death from San Francisco's famed Golden Gate Bridge on Wednesday as he was hanging a banner, officials said. "He appears to have been hanging a banner of some kind,"

<p>National Guardsmen patrolled below and federal officials watched the skies over the Golden Gate Bridge during Monday morning's commute, wrapping up a weekend of intensified monitoring due to the latest word of a potential terrorist threat.</p> <p>The bridge was placed on a "super-heightened" state of alert Friday through Sunday after information was shared through an interagency coalition Friday, said Mary Currie, spokeswoman for the Golden Gate Bridge Highway & Transportation District.</p>

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 June 12 A Partial Eclipse Over the Golden Gate Bridge Credit & Copyright: Gerard Barkats Explanation: Part of the Sun disappeared behind the Moon earlier this week. Previously, the waning Moon was best visible from all places on Earth during the early morning hours because it led the Sun. As the Moon orbited the Earth, however, the Sun caught up to it and passed it on the...