September 3, 2001

10:53 PM

Tired of fighting that suicidal urge to jump the fences into the roiling waters of the Golden Gate whenever you drive across The Bridge?

Well, now you have a choice! Amidst practically no fanfare, the Golden Gate Tunnel has opened, featuring the best in subaquatic transportainment™, and all the donuts you can eat! Remember, folks, Those who know, go below.

Gosh, I haven't been to SF for almost a decade. Things sure have changed. ;)
posted by brownpau (13 comments total)

(In retrospect, I'm almost certain this is a double-post, even if the search turns up nothing. Please, tell this wide-eyed semi-newbie that he hasn't posted a double-post.)
posted by brownpau at 10:59 PM on September 3, 2001

I live in SF, but I don't get the joke.

Is this suppose to be a mockery of our transportation systems? Our bridges? Our tourist traps? It's not that funny, in any case.

(There ain't no tunnel that goes under the Bay to Marin, BTW.)
posted by Down10 at 11:30 PM on September 3, 2001

It's not that funny, in any case.

To each his own. I thought it was pretty funny and the FAQ was well done. I don't think its poking fun at SF as much as having fun by making a web page for a fictional tunnel.
posted by skallas at 12:09 AM on September 4, 2001

As I was struck by the realization that this site was pure fiction, a feeling of loss overcame me -- I had wanted to dine at the fabulous subterranean Golden Gate Donut Court. (o__^)
posted by otherchaz at 12:23 AM on September 4, 2001

There ain't no tunnel that goes under the Bay to Marin, BTW.

Then why's there a web site, huh? Answer that one, Mr. Smarty Pants!
posted by brantstrand at 12:56 AM on September 4, 2001

I don't think it's meant to be a direct satire of anything, really. My guess is that it's either (1) a giant in-joke gag for SFers, or (2) an attention-getting gimmick to show off the webmaster's skills. It works either way.
posted by brownpau at 1:55 AM on September 4, 2001

Here in Dublin, they've actually just started building the Dublin Port Tunnel. Maybe they could learn from the Golden Gate Tunnel site in how to make a really great website?

;-)
posted by tomcosgrave at 2:07 AM on September 4, 2001

And here in Massachusetts there's a copycat campaign for the cape cod tunnel. The joke here being that the locals could get around the typical 4 hour backups on the summer weekends.
posted by jmackin at 6:28 AM on September 4, 2001

The sheer breadth and quality of this site makes it the best hoax I've seen in a while.
posted by waxpancake at 6:53 AM on September 4, 2001

Yes, the level to which they pushed the joke is great, with little bits like:

4. Is the Tunnel safe during an earthquake?

Due to budget constraints, the Tunnel has been built to withstand only small earthquakes. An earthquake greater than 4.5 will likely cause the Tunnel to collapse, and everyone inside the Tunnel at that time will die. There is no predicting when such an event may occur.

I just bought some stickers. They're really well designed and look completely plausible.

(For those out of the SF Bay Area, the in-joke is mostly that that everyone's looking for a commuting edge, 'their trick' that gets them to work 5 minutes faster than the other guy. The GGT is a hoax-y way of saying 'I know the secret. Didn't you?' I love it.)
posted by kfury at 7:26 AM on September 4, 2001

Re: The Cape Cod Tunnel:

You've been able to get Cape Cod Canal Tunnel permit stickers for several years now. They were really funny the first 7,000 times you saw them.
posted by agaffin at 11:48 AM on September 4, 2001

For the first few minutes I thought this was a real tunnel. Why not? And the extremely quirky tone on the Web site is something that many corporate Web sites are taking nowadays. It's also becoming common in certain places to get rid of toll booths and to have electronic tags instead.

However, I couldn't work out why you'd need a donut court with 9 different donut vendors. I know Americans love their donuts (and I love American donuts myself rather than our British jam doughnut crap) but.. that's where it lost its believeability, and I was just on my way to these comments to find out if it was a joke ;-)

Nice job though. A good satire of over-enthusiastic public projects I'd say. (In fact, how the heck could I even think that toxic waste bit was even slightly believable.. me = dumbass)
posted by wackybrit at 1:25 PM on September 4, 2001

you mean it's not real?!?

/me sobs.

oh well, i'll get a sticker when i move out there anyways.
posted by jcterminal at 6:49 PM on September 4, 2001