The other city by the bay — San Francisco

Although locals might think of Tampa as the “City by the Bay,” that nickname really belongs to the city of San Francisco (at least according to the lyrics of “I Left my Heart in San Francisco.”) The iconic landmark of San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge, turned 80 years old yesterday. The Manatee County Public Library has books, DVDs, and more about the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco.

Construction began on the bridge on Jan. 5, 1933 and ended April 19, 1937. It officially opened on May 27, 1937. Labor historian Harvey Schwartz has compiled the oral histories of nine workers who helped build the celebrated bridge during the Great Depression in his book, “Building the Golden Gate Bridge: a Workers’ Oral History.” Accompanied by stunning photographs, this is the powerful story of survivors who vividly recall the hardships, hazards and victories that were experienced by the construction workers, 11 of whom lost their lives.

In the heart-wrenching documentary, “The Bridge” (2005), director Eric Steel and his crew spent an entire year running cameras for almost every daylight minute on the Golden Gate Bridge. They documented nearly two dozen suicides, many unsuccessful attempts, and captured nearly 100 hours of interviews with families and friends of the departed, as well as with would-be suicides. It is available on both DVD and streaming video on the library’s “Hoopla” database.

You can also find fiction and nonfiction about San Francisco on the library’s online catalog (manatee.polarislibrary.com).

Set in San Francisco in both 1876 and the present, Meredith Jaeger’s debut novel, “The Dressmaker’s Dowry,” is the story of two 19th century immigrant seamstresses and the mystery of their disappearance and possible murder. Readers will find this suspenseful intriguing mystery that is also a story about love and resilience, hard to put down.

In Brian Freeman’s inventive psychological thriller, “The Night Bird,” a series of bizarre deaths rock the city eventually leading homicide detective Frost Eaton to make a connection to controversial psychiatrist Francesca Stein. Interestingly enough, all the victims were her patients. Soon someone calling himself “the Night Bird” taunts the pair with cryptic messages pertaining to the deaths in this gripping page-turner.

“Red Right Hand,” the sequel to “The Killing Kind” by Chris F. Holm, is also a thriller set in San Francisco. When viral video of an explosive terrorist attack on the Golden Gate Bridge reveals that a Federal witness long thought dead is still alive, the organization he’d agreed to testify against will stop at nothing to find and kill him. Determined to locate and protect the witness, FBI Special Agent Charlie Thompson asks Michael Hendricks, a former hit man (and the protagonist of the first book) for help.

Many movies have San Francisco as their backdrop including, “Vertigo” (1958), “Bullitt” (1968), “Dirty Harry” (1971), “What’s Up, Doc?” (1972), “Time after Time” (1979), “The Presidio” (1999), “Star Trek IV: the Voyage Home” (1986), and “Blue Jasmine” (2013). They are all available on DVD at the library.

This story was originally published May 26, 2017 at 3:07 PM with the headline "The other city by the bay — San Francisco."