A young deer runs past traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge as a patrol car, right, follows; it safely makes the other side as traffic comes to a halt.

Wednesday 19 May 2004

by Peter Fimrite

It's a first!  Animal dashes from Marin side through San Francisco toll plaza...

A deer joined the morning commute into San Francisco, bounding onto the Golden Gate Bridge and loping across the entire span as bridge officials and motorists watched in amazement.  It was the first time anybody can remember that a deer or any other animal has made it from one side of the famous bridge to the other in one piece.  It took the deer less than 10 minutes to commute from Marin County to San Francisco, where the animal zipped through the FasTrak lane at the toll plaza, took the 19th Avenue exit and then disappeared into the Presidio.

"When I first saw the deer, I thought, 'Maybe it's a dog' - then I said, 'Oh my gosh, that really is a deer,'" said Amorette Ko, the executive assistant to the general manager for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, which has offices at the toll plaza.  Ko grabbed her camera and snapped three pictures as the deer ran by.  "That deer was really galloping," she said. "It's so amazing. We've had lawn mowers go across the bridge, but never a deer."

It all started at 8:50am when the deer, believed to be an adolescent, was spotted on the side of the highway, trapped between a fence and the moving cars.  Bridge spokeswoman Mary Currie said the animal apparently had come from the Marin Headlands, jumped over a concrete railing and gotten confused trying to figure out how to get home.  "Before we could get to it and help turn it around, it got out into the lanes," Currie said.  Traffic in the 4 southbound lanes and 2 northbound lanes was quickly brought to a halt by the California Highway Patrol.  The frightened deer, followed by a lane diversion truck and a patrol car, galloped across the span in the southbound lanes.  "Once it got to the toll plaza area, we tried to divert it into the maintenance area near the administration building, but at that point it got spooked, ran to its left across all the lanes and passed through lane 11, a FasTrak lane," Currie said.  Since the animal was not wearing a transponder, Currie said, "It came through as a toll violation."  However, she noted, "We will be waiving that violation."

The animal took the 19th Avenue exit, where it managed to find its way into the woods.  Traffic was stopped for 20 minutes, and the carpool hours were extended from 9am to 9:30am to accommodate the increased congestion, Currie said.  "This is very, very, very rare.  There have been deer that have made it as far as the north anchorage before being successfully diverted, but to my knowledge, this is the first time a deer has made it all the way across."  Currie said dogs and cats had occasionally jumped out of cars on the bridge, and "most" of them survived.  "Everyone here is really thrilled that the motorists were so cooperative, and we were able to finally get the deer diverted off the roadway," she said.  Rangers for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area are keeping an eye on the area where the young deer ran into the woods to make sure it does not try another crossing, perhaps in an effort to get back to its family in the suburbs.  Michael Feinstein, the GGNRA spokesman, said the animal would be lonely because there hasn't been a deer population in the Presidio for years.  Roadways also zigzag through the area, so cars will also pose a danger.

Feinstein said rangers will try to capture the deer if they can get close enough and return it to its Marin County home, but he wasn't holding out a lot of hope.

E-mail Peter Fimrite (a Chronicle staff writer) at pfimrite@sfchronicle.com