Could San Francisco's most beloved eccentric
finally be getting his due? There's an Internet petition at Change.org to name
the Bay Bridge after Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of
Mexico, who reigned from 1859 to 1880. a
"The response has been
overwhelming," says writer John Lumea, who created the petition. "But
what's been most moving are the comments people are leaving. He still touches
people's hearts, all these years later."
Joshua Norton was born in London,
England, and came to San Francisco in 1849 in the wake of the gold rush.
He quickly made $250,000 in the
real estate business and just as quickly lost every penny trying to corner the
market in Peruvian rice.
He also lost his mind. He vanished
from sight and reappeared a year later with a proclamation declaring himself
Norton I, Emperor of the United States. (He added the "Protector of Mexico"
bit later.)
Since he was Emperor, he saw no
need for a Congress, so his next proclamation dissolved the Senate and House of
Representatives.
Subsequent proclamations abolished
the Republican and Democratic parties, religious warfare, and the name
"Frisco."
Crazy? No doubt. But the people of
San Francisco decided to play along. He issued his own currency in denominations
ranging from 50 cents to ten dollars, which were honored as legal tender by the
city's banks and businesses.
Though penniless, he dined for free
every night in the city's finest restaurants. And a luxury box was reserved for
him in all the city's theaters on Opening Night.
Dressed in a fancy blue dress
uniform with gold epaulets, he spent his days inspecting the condition of the
city's sidewalks and cable cars.
In 1867 a policeman arrested him
and attempted to have him committed to a mental asylum, triggering an explosion
of outrage throughout the city. The Chief of Police ordered his release and
formally apologized to him, and thereafter every policeman in San Francisco
saluted smartly whenever His Imperial Highness passed by.
It started as a joke; but as the
years went by, Norton began acting more and more like the statesman he
pretended to be.
One day he faced down a mob that
was advancing on Chinatown, intent on riot and murder. He blocked their path
with his head bowed, reciting the Lord's Prayer over and over until they
shamefacedly dispersed.
And some of his ideas don't sound so crazy today. In 1872 he
issued an Imperial Proclamation ordering construction of a suspension bridge
between San Francisco and Oakland and a tunnel under the Bay – ideas that
finally came to pass almost a century later.
When he died in 1880 the whole city
went into mourning. Thirty thousand people lined the street for his funeral
procession, which stretched for more than two miles.
In 2004 the San Francisco Board of
Supervisors endorsed naming the bridge's western span after Norton. But the
Oakland City Council refused to go along, and the idea died.
Now a resolution to name the span
after Willie Brown is wending its way through the state legislature. But with
all due respect to Da Mayor, I think it should be named after the man who came
up with the idea of a bridge in the first place.
If you'd like to sign the petition,
go to http://chn.ge/1eu7qju/
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