EMPEROR NORTON BRIDGE :: Historical Efforts
Historical Efforts
From August 2013 to October 2022, as part of its larger mission to honor the life and advance the legacy of Emperor Norton, The Emperor Norton Trust (previously The Emperor’s Bridge Campaign) offered leadership and inspiration to the most recent drive to honor Emperor Norton for setting out the original vision for the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
The most recent — but not the first.
Detail from Phil Frank's comic strip, Farley, published in the San Francisco Chronicle on 13 September 2004. © Phil Frank
Ever since the Bay Bridge opened in November 1936, there has been — or so it seems — a steady “movement” of people who know their Bay Area history well enough to understand that the Bridge is the fulfillment of the vision that the Emperor proclaimed in 1872.
Over the decades, people on both sides of the Bay have made it their practice simply to call the Bridge “the Emperor Norton,” even though it has yet to be named for him.
Click on the years below for commemorative efforts that inspired and set the stage for The Emperor's Norton Trust's 9-plus-year bridge-naming project:
1939
1930s & 40s
1947 & 1960
1986
2004
To return to the Overview of our bridge-naming project, click here.