Why “Emperor Norton Bridge” Crusaders Have to Let It Go
After Nearly 90 Years, It’s Time to Focus on Civic Naming Opportunities That San Francisco Can Get Done On Its Own
IT MAY BE that the first time the term “Norton Bridge” appeared in print was when Herb Caen in 1947 wrote that any “second Bay Bridge” — something under consideration at the time — should bear the Emperor’s name.
But, the nomination of Emperor Norton as the better namesake for the first Bay Bridge — the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge — appears to have begun at least a decade earlier.
In April 1956, television presenter John Nesbitt had just launched his new dramatic anthology program Telephone Time. Nesbitt, then living in Carmel, Calif., and working in Los Angeles, had gotten his start in San Francisco in 1933. So, it was natural that he promoted his new project by doing an interview with the San Francisco Examiner.
By way of teasing the show’s Emperor Norton episode — “Emperor Norton’s Bridge,” episode 8, was set to air in late May — the columnist wrote: “During his years here, John practically made a down payment on his Big Sur ranch just telling radio stories about Emperor Norton, and by insisting the Bay Bridge be called The Emperor’s Bridge in his memory.”
Nesbitt’s response: “Norton was the first to suggest the bridge and the old boy doped it out pretty damn well. I’ve always campaigned to have it re-named The Emperor’s Bridge. I’ll never give up.”
The 1940 census has John Nesbitt and his wife living in Beverly Hills — and, it appears that they arrived in Los Angeles a year or two before that. So, the “years here” when the Examiner columnist has Nesbitt starting his bridge-naming advocacy were c.1933–38 — which coincides perfectly with the opening of the Bay Bridge in November 1936.
Point: The “Emperor Norton Bridge” idea has been around since the beginning.
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NINETY YEARS is an awfully long time to be calling for something as arguably esoteric as Emperor Norton’s name on a bridge — while continuing to get no satisfaction.
But, I get it. I wrote the August 2013 petition that galvanized the “Emperor Norton Bridge” effort of the last decade. During this period, I’ve held the banner and helped to lead the “Emperor Norton Bridge” parade while producing more original research about the Emperor’s life and legacy than probably anybody ever.
In October 2022, though, I and The Emperor Norton Trust laid aside our original “Emperor’s bridge campaign” and started highlighting a new civic naming opportunity:
In connection with the 125th anniversary of the San Francisco Ferry Building in 2023…
Name the Ferry Building clock tower the “Emperor Norton Tower.”
One reason I moved in this direction: It became clear to me that the “Emperor Norton Bridge” effort had started to eat its own tail.
What do I mean by that? A good place to start is with couple of the email responses that I’ve received in recent months to our “Emperor Norton Tower” proposal.
Both of these responses are from local cultural leaders who are household names within the San Francisco history community.
The first:
I thought the bridge, tied to a far-sighted Norton proclamation, made sense; but the Ferry Building tower seems a stretch.
The second:
I’m not sure about this. There’s certainly no link to Emperor Norton bridge, and the Ferry Building has its own powerful heritage to be proud of!
It’s hard to say for sure what’s going on with these responses. And, I am not ascribing any particular intent to my respondents or, indeed, to anyone who initially responds to the “Emperor Norton Tower” proposal in a similarly circumspect fashion. But, the responses do seem to be “of a piece” with a certain situation that I’ve observed over the last ten years.
Here’s how the situation appears to me:
Politicians and cultural leaders often pay tribute to Emperor Norton by aligning themselves with the dream of the “Emperor Norton Bridge.” But, doing so comes at little or no risk to them, since they believe — probably with good reason — that the actual, official reality of getting the state legislature to name the state-owned Bay Bridge after Emperor Norton is dead in the water.
Moreover: Keeping the Norton-commemorative conversation focused on the Bay Bridge can become
(a) a perverse way of suggesting that the bridge — the one that won’t be named after Emperor Norton — is the only public landmark that should be officially named after the Emperor, and even
(b) an excuse for casting doubt on the appropriateness of placing Emperor Norton’s name any other proposed public landmark.
It’s not difficult to see how this lamentable situation has been created, in part — if unwittingly — by well-meaning Emperor Norton advocates who have insisted — for decades — that nothing less, or other, than the “Emperor Norton Bridge” will do.
Put another way: The decades-long exclusive focus on the “Emperor Norton Bridge” has short-circuited the necessary robust conversation that seeks to answer:
(a) What is a civic commemorative naming for?
(b) What should an Emperor Norton naming, in particular, seek to do?
Which messages might the naming help deliver?
What kinds of conversations might it help to foster?
What are the audiences for these messages and conversations?
What is the most fruitful location for reaching these audiences?
What kind of visibility is important? What kinds of urban settings would best promote meaningful engagement with the naming?
(c) Might other landmarks and spaces better serve these purposes than the Bay Bridge?
Other, more resonant naming options might more easily reveal themselves if Nortonians took their collective foot off the “bridge or bust” acelerator.
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IN VOLLEYING my respondents’ objections, I sought to open up a conversation about why a bridge-only focus for name-honoring Emperor Norton is too limited.
My first respondent, above, did go on to suggest the option of naming the block of Commercial Street where Emperor Norton lived — a block where few people actually walk — after the Emperor. To this respondent, I replied (in part):
For me, (1) Emperor Norton's connection as a user of the original Ferry Building and tower and — perhaps more important — (2) the poetic potential of that connection is enough.
The names of historical figures are attached to landmarks for all sorts of bad reasons.
The names of historical figures also are attached to landmarks for all sorts of good reasons — including good reasons that have nothing to do with any specific connection they might have to said landmark.
I wouldn't like to see us using a double- or -triple standard that says we can put the Emperor's name only on a location where he lived or on a structure for which we have a signed blueprint proving that he designed it [hyperbolic for effect].
To my second correspondent, above, I replied (in part):
I would say that the important link to the bridge is "spiritual."
Yes, it's historically convenient that Emperor Norton issued three Proclamations setting out the vision for the piece of infrastructure that we know as the Bay Bridge. But, there would be no reason to call for putting the Emperor's name on this bridge if he did not also embody the larger social and cultural values of Bridging — fairness, tolerance, self-determination, the common good.
It's these values — which ultimately are values of Welcome and Hospitality — that The Emperor Norton Trust is focused on in calling attention to this year's 125th anniversary of the Ferry Building as an opportunity to bring together two undeniably "San Francisco" symbols — the Ferry Building and Emperor Norton — in naming the clock tower after Emperor Norton.
Part of what always has made the bridge naming a heavy lift is the fact that — while the bridge has a foot on both sides of the Bay — Emperor Norton is seen as a San Francisco figure. Which raises the question: Is there an appropriate San Francisco-specific landmark — or part of such a landmark — that could take the Emperor's name?
There are all sorts of reasons why X person's name gets attached to Y landmark. Usually — as you know — these reasons have more to do with politics and money than with the landmark itself.
Emperor Norton did actually use the original September 1875 ferry building on the current site — and was among the first users of that original building and its January 1877 clock tower.
Too: Although people tend to think of the Market Street vista to the clock tower, there's poetry in the fact that the view of the tower is rather perfectly framed between the street walls of the two-block stretch of Commercial Street (between Montgomery and Grant) where Emperor Norton lived.
And: The "Emperor Norton Tower" would be a fabulous branding and marketing opportunity for the leaseholders; for the Port; and for San Francisco.
My respondents anchor their initial objections to our “Emperor Norton Tower” proposal in the proposition that an Emperor Norton naming proposal based on the Ferry Building clock tower seems — to them — to compare unfavorably to a proposal based on the Bay Bridge.
But, ultimately, bridge-based objections to a Ferry Building clock tower naming work only if one (a) defines Emperor Norton’s connection to the bridge in the narrowest and most specific — another word is literal — terms, then (b) suggests that the Emperor has no such literal connection to the Ferry Building.
Did Emperor Norton issue a Proclamation calling for a ferry building with a clock tower? Well, no — at least, not as far as we know.
But, this wrongly frames the issue as a question of architectural history.
The real opportunity here is to pull the lens back and see both the Ferry Building and Emperor Norton as symbols of San Francisco that are about something much larger than architecture.
In many ways, the clock tower imagery is a more potent symbol of Emperor Norton himself: a farsighted Cassandra figure who knew “what time it was” and often stood tall in saying what time it was — calling out corruption; insisting in the dignity and rights of marginalized people; and so much more — while others called him crazy, because they couldn’t — or couldn’t be bothered to — keep up.
The Ferry Building clock tower also has the advantage of being a San Francisco landmark outside the naming jurisdiction of the state legislature. Procedurally, an official “Emperor Norton Tower” naming would move through a series of approvals likely involving the Ferry Building’s private leaseholder (Hudson Pacific Properties), the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and the San Francisco Mayor’s Office, with final approval by the Port of San Francisco.
And: The Ferry Building clock tower doesn’t have an existing name. So, there are no expensively shod toes to worry about stepping on — including Willie Brown’s.
No doubt, there are Emperor Norton champions who see the generations-long “Emperor Norton Bridge” fight as an end in itself — an unwinnable fist-shaking Cause proving that the Emperor is destined to be eternally disrespected by Sacramento, Ghirardelli and all other powers that be, and a Crusade that is well-aligned with the Emperor precisely because it is so quixotic.
Should we continue to call the Bay Bridge the Emperor Norton Bridge, even if the name has no official recognition? Of course! Forever! (Believe it or not, even “Bay Bridge” is not an official name. The names of nearly all California state-owned bridges are authorized by a legislative naming resolution — but, such a resolution was never created or passed for “San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge.”)
BUT…
The Emperor Norton Trust invites all who care for the Emperor and who have been focused for years on the Bay Bridge as the default official naming option to shift their sights a half-mile to the northwest of the bridge’s San Francisco landing — where stands an equally prominent landmark with equal — or even greater — commemorative potential.
Does it take a little more imagination to connect Emperor Norton to the Ferry Building clock tower than to the Bay Bridge? Yes — but not that much more.
Please read our brief proposal by clicking “Learn More” at EmperorNortonTower.org.
Thank you!
San Francisco Ferry Building clock tower in 2020. Photograph © Ryan Fitzsimons
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