Proving just how easy it is to jump a fence, enter the restricted area, and climb the main cables all the way to the top of the Golden Gate Bridge's towers, two teens recently filmed themselves doing just that, complete with some death-defying/stupid antics along the way. And given that the video begins at daylight, it looks like they did this just after sundown, so how did no one see them?
Their names according to the video are Peter Teatime and Tommy Rector, and as we await their arrests (since their faces are fully identifiable), we can see their vertigo-inducing video the fisheye lens effect helps making the rounds from the New York Post to the UK Daily Mail. The latter notes in all caps that one of the teens hangs by his "FINGERTIPS" and does "somersaults" as they make their climb.
The Daily Mail got a quote from Teatime, who they say is an 18-year-old from Allentown, Pennsylvania (his Instagram says he's from Wisconsin), who said, "It was a tough climb and incredibly tiring, those cables get very steep." But still, he adds, "for any explorer the Golden Gate Bridge is an absolute must-do, as it's the tallest bridge in the US and such an iconic structure."
Right, but there are a lot of reasons why this is illegal, terrorism being just one of them.
Teatime also sounds pretty proud in an interview with SF affiliate KPIX/CBS 5, saying, "We did it about a month ago, at the beginning of April. There was not a lot of thinking — There’s the bridge, let’s do it." And, in case any terrorist get any ideas, he warns, "I don’t want to say too much about how we got passed security... I will say security is really tough. It’s really tight. They have motion detectors, cameras. I have a lot of experience with stuff like this so I was able to get around and get on the cables."
Teatime is an avid parkour enthusiast and YouTuberist whom you can see below flipping around in a video from several months ago.
And here he is in a photo from last year, perched on what appears to be the beam of a high-rise construction site in Chicago.
SFist has noted before how tourists frequently ignore the No Trespassing signs around the base of the bridge near Fort Point, and just last summer two young men were arrested for doing the same climb up one of the bridge's main cables, which can be reached from one of the bike paths along the deck of the bridge. But where was their video?
After Windsor High School student Luhe “Otter” Vilagomez decided to jump off the bridge for kicks in 2011, and remarkably survived, the California Highway Patrol recommended trespassing charges, but it's unclear if he was ever charged or fined.
Trespassing on any not-publicly-accessible part of any bridge in the state of California comes with a possible fine of $10,000 and up to a year in county jail, following a law that was passed back in 1997.
Previously: Windsor High School Student Jumps Off Golden Gate Bridge, Survives