SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco is launching the 75th anniversary celebration of the iconic Golden Gate Bridge with a string of parties, guided tours and festivals to be held along the waterfront.
Authorities, however, won't be throwing open the orange span for a mass public walk.
Officials tried that in 1987 for the 50th anniversary.
They closed down the bridge to traffic and hoped to replicate the opening-day festivities of 1937 when sprinters, roller skaters and tap dancers made their way across what was then the world's longest suspension bridge.
When an estimated 250,000 people walked across the 1.7-mile bridge from either end, there was a standoff in the middle that forced the span's majestic arch to flatten.
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