The Boomer Magazine: Scroller.. San Francisco..Highway demolition

"The Boomer Magazine" now delivers Monday, Wednesday and Friday editions. We offer a variety of topics including: photography assignments, retirement stories, travel, books, movies, music, butterfly gardening, and other "Boomer" related subjects.

Mondays are work related, Wednesday's are lighter subjects and by Friday, it's time for some fun stuff.

Doyle Drive takes traffic up onto the Golden Gate Bridge.
Alcatraz to the left and Presidio on right.

What we have tried to do with "The Boomer Magazine" is give readers some ideas about fun things to do or think about at work or in retirement.

The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco with a part of Doyle Drive in foreground.

There are 77 million Baby Boomers. The first "boomers" became eligible for retirement Jan. 1, 2012. They will be reaching retirement age at the rate of 10,000 people per day for the next twenty years. The magazine was established to entertain and inspire the "boomers" to an enjoyable semi or retirement lifestyle.

Under the Golden Gate Bridge, The Fortress at the Presidio.
The Doyle Drive demolition project.
Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, Ca.

Many of those folks are deciding for one reason or another to continue working at least part time. I am one of those. So every once in a while, if I have a half way interesting job, I will post a picture story from the experience.

Grinding on an attachement during Doyle Drive demolition,
Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco.

To make things a little more interesting I thought I would make some of those articles half work and half travel. It's another way for me to share travel ideas.

The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, California

This story is about a job I did for the folks at Atlas Copco. They are international manufacturers of all kinds of heavy and not so heavy equipment. They will use the pictures for a variety of marketing and public relations purposes.

The San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts. The job started just behind the building.
The Doyle Drive demolition project, San Francisco, California.

I think of each shoot as a "job story". I am there to tell the story of how my client's services or equipment benefits the customer.

Crews worked 24 hours a day for two days to open road up by Monday morning.
Doyle Drive demolition project, Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco.

I enjoy travel and I enjoy my work. It's why I call my job a retirement career. I wouldn't want to be doing anything else.

More Caterpillar equipment on one job than I have ever seen before.
Doyle Drive demolition project, Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco.

This particular job was huge. This job was supposedly the biggest highway demolition project ever undertaken in such a short period of time. I think they were allowed to close it, crush it, haul it away and open a new road all in 72 hours. They made the deadline. It was an amazing thing to watch !

Imagine a mile and a half of this then add two hundred yards of highway from Friday night to Monday morning.
They did it. Amazing ! Doyle Drive demolition project, Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, Ca.

The mile and a half expressway leading up to the Golden Gate Bridge was called Doyle Drive. It was considered out dated and needed to be torn down and replaced.

Alcatraz within sight of Doyle Drive. City of San Francisco in the foreground.
Doyle Drive demolition project, Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, Ca.

It was big news. "Newzies" in helicopters and hairspray were everywhere. The sidewalk crowds filled parking lots and parks all along the demolition route.

We didn't bother the Sea Lions. They were too busy fishing to notice.

When notified about this job I naturally wondered about San Francisco and it's reputation. I wondered what kind of situations I would have to deal with. I never spent much time in San Francisco even when I ran a small hotel in nearby Sunnyvale. The only time I remember going across to the city was on a Thanksgiving deal with some Atlanta friends. My memories were of bad traffic, no parking and very expensive small apartments. Not the best of memories or impressions.

On this trip, I was surprised how much I liked the city. On it's way to the Golden Gate Bridge, Doyle Drive ran between the bay and the Presidio. The area is beautiful, with great restaurants, fantastic architecture ie fancy houses, and famous sights to see in every direction.

Ultra rich democrat Senator Diane Feinstein lives in a huge house right across the street from the Presidio. It could be the toniest address in the city. (Huge freakin house, it was bigger than my hotel) I couldn't believe I found an affordable tiny little Travelodge in the same neighborhood.

My concerns melted away. This section of the city was beautiful. Obviously not affordable but absolutely beautiful. This was one of my all time favorite jobs ever. It was a great job in a fantastic location.