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American Morning

Homeland Security: Guard at Golden Gate Bridge Increased; America's Youth Sees Changed World

Aired October 22, 2001 - 09:49   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: With continuing threats of more terrorist attacks, authorities across the country are taking steps to beef up security at a wide variety of landmarks.

CNN's Rusty Dornin is standing by at one such American symbol, San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, with what's being done there.

Any trace of the sun coming up there yet -- Rusty.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's just beginning to get a little light in San Francisco. And unlike most days for the past two weeks, there are clear skies -- you can get a good view of the bridge -- like clockwork, the fog has been rolling in in a late night and early morning. But today, it's going to be a gorgeous day here in the city.

We'd normally be showing you some shots of the bridge from the vista points from either end of the bridge, but those are closed down during the nighttime hours, and they open at 7:00 Pacific time. On the afternoon of September 11, immediately following the attacks, bridge officials closed down all pedestrian and bicycle traffic which crosses the bridge. That remained shut down until September 30. Now, of course, there is still tight security. There are state highway patrol officers parked on either side of the bridge, monitoring traffic. Also there are motor scooters, bicycles, and foot patrols that crisscross the bridge all day long, watching what's going on there.

Unlike many major arteries into U.S. cites on bridges, there is very little truck traffic crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. They use some of the other bridges -- the Bay Bridge and access the city from other directions. But bridge officials are not as worried about what is crossing over the top of the bridge, such as a possible car bomb or truck bomb, as they are about what is passing underneath the bridge. Also right after September 11, the Coast Guard instituted the Sea Marshal Program, and now armed Coast Guard escorts go 12 miles out to sea and board cargo and tanker ships that are coming in through the Golden Gate. And they monitor to make sure that the harbor pilot is safe and able to guide the ship in.

This bridge was built in 1930s, and built to withstand a battering by a ship that was built at that time. The ships today are much larger, and it could be devastating if one of these were used as a weapon to crash into the bridge.

There are also, on the anchors to the bridge, park rangers. It's also anchored in federal land, the Presidio on one side, and national recreation area on the other. They have fenced off many areas. They will not tell us a lot of the security measures they are taking, other than to say that they are keeping up with technology and they are talking this very seriously.

The bridge is not something that is so economically significant, but it is prominent, one of the most famous and well-loved U.S. landmarks -- Paula

ZAHN: You've just laid out beautifully the kind of extra security in place. What's the general level of concern from people who live there?

DORNIN: I cross the bridge every day, and it does go through my mind. It certainly went through my mind those first couple days of "what if?" Apparently, the visitorship is down crossing the bridge, but visitorship is down in San Francisco all around, and the bridge officials don't feel it's because people are afraid to walk on the bridge.

There is concern, but I don't think people are frightened that something is going to happen to the bridge.

ZAHN: Rusty, thanks so much for that update. It looks like you have a glorious day there. Like you said, it's rather unusual not to have fog this time of morning. Appreciate your report.

Back on the other side of the country, CNN's Garrick Utley has been talking with people both young and old in New York City not far from ground zero. This morning, the perspective of three generations of the new realities of life in America.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARRICK UTLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is place to relax, Washington Square, a rare oasis of calm not far from the site of the World Trade Center. And for the students of New York University, which surrounds the square, it is a place to think about the end of their young old world.

SEAN COOK, NYU GRADUATE STUDENT: It looked easy at the time. I think -- the economy -- it seemed people like people were getting pumped out into high-paying jobs and prosperity. And I think that we live in an insular society here in the United States, and for better or for worse, that's gone now.

UTLEY: What replaced it is not only the vivid memory and the spontaneous memorial that arose in Washington Square on September 11, but an anxiety that a young generation had never known.

Annie Railton is a sophomore from Virginia. She had to evacuate her dormitory after the attacks. ANNIE RAILTON, NYU STUDENT: For me, I haven't gone back to normalcy yet, because that's where I still live. And after the bombs started being dropped, they brought the National Guard back out in front of my building, so it is a reality, and it's very much a part of the future. And we're all really scared about it.

UTLEY: Sean Cook, a graduate student from California, has discovered a new personal contact with his grandmother.

COOK: I hadn't been in communication with her for great long while, and I've actually received some e-mails and a card recently from her and talked a little bit about remembering where she was when Pearl Harbor happened -- something you don't do very often, to think of your grandma when she was your age. And just thinking about her at that moment finding out, feeling some of the same feelings that I am feeling. is strange. I think there's a whole new lack of loyalty and permissiveness about our generation that I think detached us, so it is interesting suddenly to have that place of connection, I guess.

UTLEY: Still, there is a limit to how much the personal experiences of the old can help the young.

MARVIN MAGALANER, RETIRED PROFESSOR: I think each generation has to do it on its own. It's going to be long war, says the president. And I think that this is very unfortunate for those young college students.

RAILTON: It's going to change the way we come out of college for those that are here right now, because instead of coming out with a really fresh outlook and seeing possibilities, we have a very negative view of what the future's going to be, and that sort of makes it hard.

UTLEY: The pictures, the candles, the memorial in Washington Square to September 11 are gone now. What remains are the individual lives of a generation facing its test of character, of resilience -- just as earlier generations did.

Garrick Utley, CNN, New York.

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