National Guard to leave the Golden Gate Bridge

[Kadie]

National Guard to leave the Golden Gate Bridge

After more than two years of providing round-the-clock security on the Golden Gate Bridge, state National Guard troops are set to leave the landmark on Friday, bridge district officials report.

The National Guard began providing a 24-hour patrol service in November 2001, after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 heightened security concerns.

Wearing green camouflage and carrying rifles, bridge district spokeswoman Mary Currie said, the guardsmen have been "visible to the trained eye, but not necessarily to everybody.''

Watching over the more than 116,000 vehicles and hundreds of pedestrians and bicyclists that traverse the bridge each day was costing the guard about $5 million annually, Currie said.

Currie says the guard informed district officials in December that it had asked the governor to remove troops from the bridge.

more... http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/g/a/2004/04/27/bridge27.DTL

[jcldragon]

1. o just great..

Now that Bush has assisted the enrollment in Al-Queda beyond anything they could have hoped for, the Gropenator wants to leave my favorite bridge in the whole world unprotected...

grrrrrrrr!