The Montana Standard from Butte, Montana • 6

9- 6 the Montana Standard. Butte, Monday! May 25, tv7 mum gULBUS o(ofo) BK. Golden Gate symbol of homecoming to millions 9 stm'. 1 tfXl 4 17 SAN FRANCISCO (AP) A quarter of a million people strolled across the Golden Gate Bridge on Sunday to mark the 50th anniversary of the graceful span that has symbolized America's western shore for millions of immigrants and homecoming soldiej-s. "The suspension bridge was closed' to cars for several hours in the morning, and pedestrians took over the roadway, while as many as several hundred thousand more were turned away because of the crowd.

It was the first event in a daylong celebration that included a parade by hundreds of ships, an air show, Concerts, fireworks and the illumination of the bridge's 65-story art deco towers. "This is our symbol," said Marion Patterson of Menlo Park south of the city, who was 4 years old when the span opened. "It's a symbol of peace. It's a bridge built between people." Bay area residents George and Ethel Stubbs met in San Francisco the year the bridge opened and strolled across the span's walkway on their first date. "It was a beautiful, moonlit night," remembered Mrs.

Stubbs, who will celebrate her 50th wedding anniversary in Although the forecast was for dense fog and clouds, the clouds parted at daybreak and sunshine illuminated the- walkers while the overcast continued all around. As if on cue, the cloud cover returned as pedestrians cleared the bridge. Those who walked across included some of the 110,000 people who took part in a similar bridge walk the day the span was opened, as well as some of the workers who helped build the bridge across the' Golden Gate, where the Pacific Ocean meets San Franciscp Bay. California Highway Patrol officers estimated the crowd at at least 250,000, jamming the 1.7-mile bridge from end to end. Some were in wheelchairs, on bicycles and skate- "Everybody was on deck, cheering as we went under the bridge," Bronkema said of his return from the fighting in World War II, "It meant we were home.

We were home and the war was The bridge also has gained a darker reputation from the people who have committed suicide by jumping from it. The California Highway Patrol has recorded 831 confirmed suicides, although witnesses have reported seeing an additional 368 people leap. Work during construction of the span was dangerous, but it provided employment, and pride, during the Depression. "Sometimes I go out and look at it and choke up," said Ed Souza, one of the workers. "I don't think I'll ever get tired of it.

It was the greatest job I ever had." Ten workers died in a scaffolding accident. They were honored by their coworkers during a ceremony last week and again Sunday when military planes flew a "missing man" formation during the bridge walk. Sunday's celebration followed months of planning and debate over whether to close the bridge and who should participate in festivities. Rock promoter Bill Graham once planned a free concert, but canceled during the fray. Bridge district directors considered building an $11 million museum, but failed to get the necessary donations.

Sunday was only the second planned closure of the bridge since it opened. The first was in 1960 when French President Charles de Gaulle visited; his car was charged a 25-cent toll, but he had the bridge to himself. The toll is now $2 on Fridays and Saturdays, $1 the rest of the week. The bridge also was closed during a storm during the early 1980s when wind gusted to over 100 mph. Engineers say the deck of the bridge can sway as much as 27.7 feet during a 100 mph wind.

AS THOUSANDS of people jam the deck of the Golden Gate Bridge, one person takes a less crowded, but more precarious route along the span, 220 feet above San Francisco Bay. (AP Laserphoto) it c3l AN ESTIMATED 350,000 people jam the span of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, during an early morning bridge walk which kicked' off the 50th anniversary celebration of the bridge. (AP Laserphoto) Over 800 took the plunge from bridge versary bridge walk," he- said. "I've heard estimates of up to a million. I think there's 600,000 or 700,000." The opening ceremony was wiped out when crowds began moving onto the bridge 45 minutes early.

At the end, officials blocked access to the span in a bid to reopen the bridge to motorists, but pedestrians were jammed shoulder to shoulder. A parade of cars that marked the resumption of vehicle traffic finally began nearly two hours late-. The bridge has long symbolized the arrival in America for millions of Asian immigrants and for soldiers returning by ship from wars in the Pacific. boards, and families pushed infants in strollers. Many waved little American flags in the chilly breeze and people were in costumes, including a giant banana and two people sharing a bridge hat.

Celebration officials said thousands of people who had trekked as far as five miles to the bridge never made it onto the span because authorities blocked access when the crowd became too dense. "We just didn't believe we would have this kind of response to this event," said Jim Bronkema, chairman of the celebration. "It just shows how much the people really like the bridge, and wanted to be a part of the 50th anni Men who built The Bridge' remember scares SAN FRANCISCO (AP) While the Golden Gate Bridge was being chief engineer Joseph Strauss confidently predicted his magnificent structure would be "practically suicide-prodf." Because of telephones and controls, "anyone acting suspiciously would immediately be surrounded," he boasted. "Suicide from the bridge is neither possible nor probable," Three months after the bridge was opened, Harold B. Wobber proved Strauss wrong and became the first name on the long, grim list of those who've taken their lives by jumping from the span.

Since the bridge opened 50 years ago, the California Highway Patrol has logged 831 confirmed suicides, more than any other bridge in the United States. Witnesses have said they saw an additional 368 people jump from the bridge, but their bodies were never found, their deaths never confirmed. Only 17 people have survived tfte 220-foot drop into the chilly water. One was Kenneth Baldwin who blacked out before he hit the water at 75 mph on Aug. 12, 1985.

"From the instant I saw my hand leave the railing, I knew I wanted to live. I was terrified out of my skull," said Baldwin, who remembers waking up swimming. "I was screaming, 'Oh God, save me! Oh God, I want to He suffered a bruised lung and some broken ribs, and he lives today with his Wife and 5-year-old daughter in Tracy, Calif. Those who have died have included children as young as 5, fathers and sons, heartbroken lovers and supposedly successful businessmen. There have been so many that local newspapers rarely give them moreihan brief mention.

Only about one-third of the victims leave notes. Some are brief, "others cryptic. One of the oddest was left by John Thomas Doyle, who died at the age of 49 in November 1954. His note read: "Absolutely no reason except I have a toothache." David Cleveland jumped from the bridge in 1971 with $36 in his mouth. Nobody knows why.

Almost all the victims have jumped from the side of the bridge with a panoramic view of San Francisco. The other side faces the open Pacific Ocean. Many people have driven across the less-glamorous San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge just so they could jump from he Golden Gate The Oakland, bridge, which is also 50 years old, has had 112 suicides. "For people depressed and impulsive, the Golden Gate Bridge is like having a loaded gun around the house," said Richard Seiden, a clinical psychologist from Oakland who has studied bridge suicides. "It's an available execution site, and it's an invitation to disaster." SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Building the Golden Gate Bridge was perilous work, hundreds of feet above the ocean, buffeted by high wind and endangered by rough seas, but the men who survived it took away something of the bridge's glamour.

"I commuted across it for years after we finished it," said Charles U. Kring, an engineer who lives in Los Gatos. "My kids called it 'Daddy's It was a big part of our lives." Probably no one appreciates the pomp and ceremony of the bridge's 50th birthday more than the men who risked their lives to erect "the bridge that couldn't be built." In fact, it almost wasn't built. Voters in six counties bickered for a decade over whether to finance construction of a bridge across the Golden Gate, the mile-wide link between San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. Once a $35 million bond issue finally was approved, iLtook more than four years to build the two 65-story towers, construct the anchorages on either shore and spin the 80,000 miles of wire used in the cables to suspend the bridge deck.

Completion came despite such setbacks as two trestles to the south pier being washed away and the loss of a work platform to a storm. up the north tower in an elevator with a supervisor when the metal screen-sided elevator jolted onto its side. "We were sitting there like two squirrels in a cage on the sidewall screens until they got it fixed," he said. There was no shortage of workers for the bridge, despite the dangers. It was the Depression and jobs were scarce.

Schirmer, a retired engineer who lives in Oak' land, recalled how he was swamped by applicants when he set up a hiring hall at the Sausali-to City Council chambers. "They turned the hall over to us, and the news got out we were hiring; there was a near-riot," he said. "We got carpenters, bridgemen, and some people capable of running a barge." For many of those men, building the bridge carried no sense of destiny, no sense of wonder. "It was just a job," said Mac Silvert, who was chief engineer for Pacific Bridge Co. at the time.

Silvert, 77, of San Francisco, said he never thought about the bridge becoming one of the most recognized landmarks in the world. "You don't think that far ahead," he said. "For most of us, you just thought about what job you'd go to next." Joseph Strauss, chief engineer on the on safety, mandating such innovations as safety lines and hardhats. He also credited a huge safety net hung under the bridge for the speed of his operation. Nineteen workmen were saved by the net, joining the exclusive "Halfway to Hell Club." Kring, now 76, recalled being required to test the safety net.

"I jumped into it," he said. "You had to Jump about three to four floors, and, when you nit it, you went down another 10 to 15 feet. It was a very substantial net." Only one life had been lost during the construction before Feb. 17, 1937, when scaffolding used to strip forms from the completed concrete deck derailed and fell into the net, taking a dozen workers with it. Ten were killed.

Kring was on shore when the accident occurred, and recalled that he was speaking with the brother of one of the men who died when the scaffolding gave way. "There was this terrific noise," he said-. "At first, if sounded like machine guns. It was the net tearing loose." There also were close calls. Howard Schirmer, now 86, remembers riding 'Hands Across America' pledges not what expected L.A.

teachers vote to strike LOS ANGELES (AP) Teachers in the nation's second-largest city will hold a strike authorization vote despite a fact-finding report that the district cannot afford to pay the 14 percent raise the teachers demanded. The report, issued Saturday by a three-member panel including a neutral chairman and chief negotiators for the Los Angeles Unified School District and the United Teachers of Los Angeles, supported the district's position that it cannot afford the raise demanded by teachers. The panel backed the district's offer of an 8 percent raise, and also proposed an alternative two-year settlement providing a 10 percent raise this year and next if state financing is available. But union president Wayne Johnson said neither proposal was acceptable to the union and a strike authorization vote would be held Tuesday. The union has threatened to strike June 1 if salary demands are not met.

pledges, resulting in a net of only $15 million for the hungry and homeless after all costs were paid. Organizers have found themselves on the defensive because the cost of mounting the event was around $14 million to $16 million. Even though the cost was known in advance, its size in relation to lower-than-anticipated donations hurt credibility. "It was a net good," said Robert Hayes of the National Coalition for the Homeless in New York. "But they spent too much to raise too little and promoted a national extravaganza empty of content." Organizers said there were benefits beyond the balance sheet, though: spotlighting the problem of hunger and homelessness in United States, and raising the spirit of voluntarism LOS ANGELES (AP) One year ago.

Hands Across America was billed as the unassailable charity event of the 1980s, a proposed human chain across the United States to raise at least $50 million for the hungry and homeless. The plan called for scores of celebrities to join 6 million people in a 4.125-mile line on Sunday, May 25, 1986. Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck joined hands with participants in Disneyland. Kenny Rogers stood in the blistering heat of the Southwest desert, and President Reagan gingerly participated in front of the White House. It was party time at the Queen Mary in Long Beach and Battery Park in Manhattan.

But there were lots of gaps between those end points, and a lot of people simply didn't send in their Fans space out over 'Star Wars' convention LOS ANGELES (AP) Ten years after George Lucas introduced the world to a galaxy far, far away, fans celebrated the opening of "Star Wars" with tributes to its creator and purchases of memorabilia at a weekend convention. Among the 13,000 spectators expected during the three-day convention were adults and children dressed as the films' heroes Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo. One T-shirt declared "Mother was an Ewok" and a woman walked the convention floor with a large Chewbacca doll on her back, treasuring the giant "wookie" that befriended Solo and Skywalker. "I loved 'Star Wars' ever since I was 4 years old." said Julie Valletta, wearing a Princess Leia costume while attending the first of the convention's three days of salutes. "I like space and the flying (in -the films).

I want to be a pilot. I want to go into space because of 'Star Wars'" said Julie, who has seen "Star Wars," "The Empire' Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi" a total of 96 times. The films are three of the all-time biggest box-office successes. They have earned $4 billion in theater tickets, cassette sales, and screenings on free and pay television. Another $2.6 billion came from sales of games, toys, books, clothing, candy bars, bedsheets.

wallpaper, posters and other kinds of merchandise. More of that merchandise was on sale Saturday. Dozens of vendors were selling everything from comic books to light sabers to porcelain "Star Wars" bookends. A long line of fans waited to see actual models, props and artifacts used in the three films. Stars Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) and Anthony Daniels (C-3PO) were scheduled to appear as well as Lucas himself.

The 43 year-old creator of the space trilogy was to make his first appearance at a "Star Wars" convention, flying from England where he is producing the Ron Howard film "Willow." "We're here to pay tribute to the films and to the man that has touched our lives," said Howard Hoffman, vice president of licensing for the Star Wars products. "We have a lot of new things coming," he informed the thrilled crowd. "George has gotten back into filming the way we've all wanted him to," he said. "I appreciate the people like yourselves, but sometimes I can't stand it," confessed Mayhew. The 7-foot-2 actor said he enjoyed playing beneath the woolly Chewbacca costume because it has allowed him to lead a normal life away from overzealous fans.

But would be participate in another "Star Wars" film? "I would interested in playing any character (in another Star Wars movie. George Lucas' people are nice to work for, and I really appreciate them," be said. Panel probes drug cover-up 0 Kahn. associate director of the lab, called off the investigation because of fears of bad publicity about the top-secret laboratory. The investigation was begun in January 1986 by security officials who suspected cocaine use and sales at the lab.

"The investigation went on nine months and just when our guy got his 'Q' clearance to get into the top secret areas where the scientists and researchers are, they stopped the investigation," the newspaper reported one senior security official as saying. "There's an indication that both people who have high-level security clearance and work in the real sensitive areas are involved in drugs as well as people in lesser positions," the unnamed congressional investigator told the LIVERMORE. Calif. (AP) A congressional panel is checking claims that an investigation of drug use at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was halted when investigators started examining workers in nuclear weapons areas, a newspaper reported Sunday. i A House oversight subcommittee is looking into whether a cover-up was involved in the decision to stop the investigation.

The San Francisco Examiner said. Lab officials deny charges of a cover-up. and say the investigation was stopped only because investigators had run out of leads and officials wanted to go ahead with the arrests of six people who possessed or dealt in drugs. The Examiner quoted sources close to the investigation and an investigator for the oversight subcommittee chaired by Rep. John Din-gel, as saying James S.

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