For Thousands of Walkers, Cyclists Crammed onto Golden Gate Bridge, Monday No Holiday

With the western sidewalk of the Golden Gate Bridge shut down for seismic retrofitting, bicyclists, walkers and anyone else wishing to walk from Marin County to San Francisco must use the eastern sidewalk. On Independence Day on Monday, this translated into a crush of people, with bikes jostling for space with baby carriages, perambulators and anything else, according to the San Francisco Examiner.

"This is horrible," Russian Hill resident Heidi Spreng told the newspaper. "I didn't feel safe out there."

The western sidewalk of the Golden Gate Bridge is normally reserved just for cyclists, who then have free, unimpeded ability to bike across. But with the western sidewalk closed until October, there are bound to be repeats of Monday's chaotic scene. Bridge officials plan to put paint striping on the sidewalk to point pedestrians and bicyclists where to go, according to the newspaper, but that didn't satisfy some of the crowded and crushed pedestrians on Monday.

"It seems like no one is in charge here," Spreng told the newspaper.