S.F. ‘emperor’ who conceived cross-bay span was Jewish eccentric

Here's a question for local history buffs. Was the famous 19th century Jewish eccentric Emperor Norton a San Francisco visionary, a shrewd operator or simply a nut job?

Answer: a nut job.

But that hasn't stopped the city from celebrating Norton's colorful contributions to local lore. Now, San Francisco's Board of Supervisors has voted to rename the Bay Bridge after Norton, leaving some in the region wondering if the supes have lost their minds.

Last week's 8-2 vote means the proposal now moves across the bridge to the Oakland City Council for a vote.

So far, cross-Bay rivalry rules, with some Oaklanders disinclined to rename their bridge for a San Franciscan. Oakland City Council member Nancy J. Nadel, herself Jewish, said the proposal is "doomed to fail," adding, "I'm not familiar with Emperor Norton, but I'm a strong advocate for democracy, so the term 'emperor,' no matter how tongue in cheek, concerns me."

But who was this Emperor Norton? Though he was a regular at the city's venerable Congregation Emanu-El, he was far from a typical congregant. Joshua Abraham Norton was born in London in 1818, immigrating to San Francisco in 1849 to make his fortune. That he did. Then he lost it all speculating on the price of rice.

That's not all he lost. His sanity seemed to suffer as well. Lacking the Prozac and Enya CDs people would use today to chill out, Norton did the next best thing. On Sept. 17, 1859, he declared himself "Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico" (he later dropped this second title because, as he wrote, it was "impossible to protect such an unsettled nation").

For the next 20 years, Norton was a local fixture, festooned in tall hat, plumage and epaulettes, carrying a long sword and issuing a string of imperial decrees.

Among those decrees: one to dissolve the United States, another to abolish the Democrat and Republican parties and yet another ordering the arrest of the Board of Supervisors for ignoring his decrees.

Emperor Norton attended services at Emanu-El, and could be found there most Saturday mornings sitting in the front pew. Yet local historian and Lehrhaus Judaica co-founder Fred Rosenbaum reports that Norton's fellow Jews found the emperor such an embarrassment, they actually denied him a Jewish burial.

Despite his connection to Emanu-El, Norton appeared to have mixed feelings about his Jewish heritage. Once asked about it, Norton is said to have replied, "How can I be a Jew, seeing that I am so nearly related to the Bourbons?"

Norton issued his own imperial bonds, each allowing bearers to collect face value plus 7 percent interest at maturity (ironically, the bonds are now worth a small fortune). 

Rather than lock the man up, in classic San Francisco fashion the city showered respect upon Norton. He dined gratis at fine restaurants and was immortalized on the local stage (David Belasco portrayed Norton in one 1873 production). And after he dropped dead at the corner of California and Grant, more than 30,000 people showed up for his 1880 funeral.

In 1872 the good emperor did come up with one really good idea: to build a suspension bridge across the bay, linking the city with Oakland. He even imagined the bridge should run from Oakland Point through Goat Island (now Treasure Island) and on to San Francisco, pretty much the route the Bay Bridge follows today. It only took another 64 years to build.

And it is that historical connection between Norton and the Bay Bridge that led the Board of Supervisors to vote to change the name. But like the quixotic Norton's own decrees, the effort to rename the Bay Bridge appears to be draining to the bay.

Adds Oakland's Nadel, "Since it is a bridge that bridges our cities, I would rather have had an invitation from our colleagues in San Francisco to come up with some potential names, rather than come up with one [name] more associated with one city over another."