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American Morning

Golden Gate Under Alert

Aired August 12, 2002 - 09:02   ET

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

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: "Up Front" this morning, California officials put the Golden Gate Bridge under a super-heightened state of alert over the weekend. The alert came in response to an unidentified terrorist threat.
Joining us now with more, Rusty Dornin in San Francisco as the sun almost comes up there -- good morning, Rusty.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Paula, it is not quite up yet, and a little bit of the famous San Francisco fog is covering the top of the bridge. The commute is getting underway. As you said, there's a super-heightened alert that came over the weekend for specifically on Sunday. Now there have been cautions before, of course, since the September 11, but when something like this happens, there is an alert system that goes into place.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The governor's office was informed, and we've been coordinating with the governor's office as well as the FBI and the CHP, and it was determined that we should just continue at the super-heightened alert level, and that everyone was confident that that was the right decision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DORNIN: Now, what that means is they just -- they don't tell us what the details are of the alert, but they do say they've got the Coast Guard patrolling in areas, there are air patrols. California Highway Patrol is in place, and the National Guard used to be stationed at either end of the bridge. They're no longer here, but there are all sorts of entities -- local entities that are called into place to help beef up security here at the bridge.

Now, they're saying it is an unidentified source. However, one of the board of directors did call the local newspaper, the "Contra Costa Times" and said that they were told that there is a possibility of some kind of plane crashing into the bridge. So, you can't see a lot of what's going on in terms of the heightened security, you see a few more police cars, that sort of thing. So it is not something that is really highly visible while you are driving across the bridge, but they that it is definitely in place -- Paula.

ZAHN: So what is the general reaction to this warning by folks who live there?

DORNIN: I think that people with taking it in stride. You know, Paula, there was a few months ago, there was one where -- when the first issue -- alert like this was issued, people were given the option of maybe not even coming into work. It was on a Friday. There were a few thousand people who didn't come in, but the commute was basically pretty much the same. And people were feeling, hey, I have got to go to work. I can't live my life around the possibility of something happening like this, and I think folks are kind of feeling like that today.

ZAHN: All right, Rusty. Appreciate the update. Take care. Let us know when the sun finally comes up. We always wake her up so early out there.

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