You can leave your heart in San Francisco, just as long as you leave the Ponte 25 de Abril bridge in Lisbon, Portugal. The bridge, which opened on 6 de August 1966, is often mistaken, by suicidally inclined but not very attentive jumpers, for San Francisco’s Golden Gate. More savvy suicides recognize the Ponte 25 de Abril bridge as being nearly identical to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, which it is, as they were both built by the same American company. Perhaps because it is only the 21st longest suspension bridge in the world, suicides in fact almost never jump from it, although they claim they are going to every time there is talk of raising the tolls. The name refers a revolution about which no one cares but the Portuguese, and in particular the Portuguese who have to use the bridge to get to work.
Bob Payne photo.
