One of the most iconic landmarks in the state of California, easily one of the most recognizable, is the Golden Gate Bridge.

It's a suspension bridge that spans the one mile wide straight that connects the San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean.

The bridge connects the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula to Marin County, and carries

both U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1 across the Strait.

Considered by many to be one of the modern wonders of the world, it is one of the most beautiful

and photographed bridges in the world.

When it opened in 1937, it was both the longest and the tallest

suspension bridge in the world. But today, it is neither the longest nor the tallest, but it is still the tallest bridge in the United States.

Today, I'm not going to talk to you about the most famous bridge in California.

I have a story about another bridge I wanted to share with you.

The Colorado Street Bridge, located in Pasadena, California, that spans the

Aurora Seco, which means dry stream in Spanish. It's a 24.9 mile or 40.1 kilometer seasonal river, canyon, watershed, and cultural area in Los Angeles County.

This area was explored by Gaspar de Portola

who gave the stream its name

as this canyon had the very least water of any ever seen before.

Portola was a soldier from Spain, an administrator in New Spain,

the colonial territory of the Spanish Empire in the new world north of the Ismith of Panama.

He was a commander of the Spanish colonization expedition on land and sea that had established

San Diego and Monterrey. He expanded new Spain's lost California's

province far to the north from its beginnings on the Baja California Peninsula.

Portola's expedition was one of the first to see the San Francisco Bay and it gave names to the geographic features along the way,

many of which are still in use to this day,

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