Golden Gate Bridge Bolt roller coaster that never was

I love old stuff like this. Oh what could've been.......

https://www.sfchronicle.com/oursf/article/Promise-of-Golden-Gate-roller-coaster-scams

Idea of roller coasters on bridges thrilled SF leaders in 1930s

 

There were warning signs that Joseph Bazzeghin’s 1938 plan to run roller coasters on San Francisco’s two largest bridges might be a scam.

 

He promised that the Golden Gate Bridge Bolt roller coaster would travel up and down the suspension cables, reaching speeds of 220 miles per hour. (In 2016, there isn’t a roller coaster in Northern California that can break 65 mph.) Even as he made his Golden Gate International Exposition proposal in person to city leaders and the media, Bazzeghin asked newspapers not to print his name.

I'm probably a bad enthusiast but the Golden Gate Bridge in it's current form is a work of art and I'm glad this isn't a thing.

Still, I've never heard of this before and it's a ridiculously entertaining story.

I appreciate you posting this as it’s understandably mostly fallen through the cracks of history. I find it really interesting to hear about amusement rides from that time period. I can just picture the excitement over the first skyride.

There’s a bridge in Portland that I always thought would be perfect for a roller coaster.

I'm probably a bad enthusiast but the Golden Gate Bridge in it's current form is a work of art and I'm glad this isn't a thing.

 

Still, I've never heard of this before and it's a ridiculously entertaining story.

Leave the Golden Gate Bridge alone. However, at least they did their due diligence and considered doing something to the Bay Bridge.

Just visited the Golden Gate for the first time last week, and being the buildings/architecture geek I am, I am glad this was never a thing. The Golden Gate is an absolute work of art and sometimes it's OK to not have a roller coaster on everything! lol

With that being said, I am a *little* bummed that monstrous Arrow coaster never happened on the Stratosphere! Oh how cool that would have been.

They had me at “blueprints show the car going underwater” with regards to the Bay Bridge Coaster

Oh yes I remember this thing.

TBH I am very very glad such a thing was never attempted. The Golden Gate Bridge is too historic, hell all of SF is beautiful esp that area...I was in such aww driving up to it, over it, and off it into all the scenery around the bay. A coaster ruining all that? Uh no.

Hey All. Giuseppe "Joseph" Bazzeghin was my great-uncle. I love that this story keeps popping up, but it seems that over time the story has grown and changed and facts have been skewed. Pep, as he was known to us, was not an architect; he was a mild mannered roofer by trade and "inventor" in his spare time. He was a simple, quirky man, who today would most definitely be diagnosed as "being on the spectrum". His brother, Carlos, worked on the construction of the bridge and would write to Pep telling him about it. Eventually Pep became obsessed with it and that's how the whole roller coaster idea came about. It was not a "scam" or a "scheme" dreamed up by a "con-artist" or a "grifter" as that article implies. Believe me, Uncle Pep couldn't scheme his way out of a paper bag!

Anyway, I just thought you'd like to know a little more about this story. Ride on!

Oh yes I remember this thing.

Is...is the age listed on your profile not accurate?

Just kidding, didn't realize this story had made the rounds so much.

I remember hearing about this on TV about a decade ago.