Today is Sunday, May 27, the 148th day of 2012. That means there are 218 days left in the year.

On May 27, 1937, the newly completed Golden Gate Bridge connecting San Francisco and Marin County, Calif., was opened to pedestrian traffic (vehicular traffic began crossing the bridge the next day).

Construction of the bridge took four years, four months and 22 days. It started on Jan. 5, 1933, and the bridge opened to the public on May 27, 1937.

Tens of thousands of people are expected to flock to San Francisco’s waterfront today to mark the Golden Gate Bridge’s 75th anniversary.  A large portion of the beach area to the south of the span is devoted to the Golden Gate Festival today. It will include parades of vintage cars, displays of boats, music, history and finally will culminate with a monumental fireworks display Sunday night.

Did you know?

• The bridge is not named for its color, but for the Golden Gate Strait, which is the entrance by water to San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. The bridge was painted orange partly for aesthetic reasons and partly to increase visibility in the fog.
• When it opened, the Golden Gate Bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world, a status it retained until the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge opened in New York in 1964. Two billion-plus vehicles have made the trip between San Francisco and Marin County since 1937. The bridge has been closed only three times due to weather, but it is often partly shrouded in fog, and its fog horns can sound for hours a day during the area’s foggy summer season.
• The bridge was unscathed by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, which was centered 60 miles away, but it is being retrofitted to protect it from future quakes.
• The Golden Gate Bridge has been in many movies. It served as a picturesque backdrop for Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak’s tensely romantic first meeting in “Vertigo” in 1958 and was nearly decimated by a falling Romulan drill-of-death in 2009’s “Star Trek.” It also made the cover of “Rolling Stone” magazine for a 1976 story about San Francisco-based rockers.

As many of you know, I live about 12 miles from The Golden Gate Bridge.  The entire bay area is excited about this anniversary and the community is supporting these exciting events.

I love the Bay Area…I am not sure that Clay Aiken likes it that much.  He has only performed in the area four times and that includes his tour stop with American Idol.

Clay’s last stop in San Francisco was for the Tried & True Tour.  The Warfield Theater was a wonderful place to see Clay.  Before the concert, we had a dinner that included almost 60 Clay fans! I will always remember the walk to the theater.  I walked with the beautiful Martigyrl.  What a brave and positive lady.  May she rest in peace!

The following are a few of the wonderful performances from the San Francisco Tried & True Concert.  You can watch these instead of that silly Celebrity Apprentice Show we have been watching on Sunday nights!!  ENJOY!!