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Mark Jones misidentifies Golden Gate Bridge while broadcasting NBA Celebrity All-Star Game in San Francisco

Wade-Peeryby:Wade Peery•02/14/25
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© Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

It’s never easy being in sports broadcasting nowadays. One mistake and the internet will immediately catch you. That was the case on Friday evening, when Mark Jones of ESPN was broadcasting the NBA Celebrity All-Star Game in San Francisco. As they were going to break, Jones discussed a graphic ESPN showed of the Golden Gate Bridge, one of the most famous bridges in the world.

But Jones referred to it as the Bay Area Bridge, aka the Willie Brown Bridge, named after the city’s first African-American mayor.

Here’s the clip below.

To be fair to Jones, there is a portion of a Bay Area Bridge named after Willie L. Brown, Jr. but that’s a completely different bridge, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

The Golden Gate Bridge first opened to the public on May 27, 1937. A suicide prevention net was recently added to the structure, taking six years and costing $224 million. According to the History Channel, there were 80,000 miles of wires used in building the bridge. That’s enough to circle the Earth at the equator three times.

It remains one of the most photographed and visited bridges in the world. And with beautiful pictures like this one from Dave Gordon, it’s easy to see why.

When it was built, the Golden Gate spanned 4,200 feet and earned its title as the longest suspension bridge in the world. It held the record until 1964, which was over 25 years. In 1964, it was finally passed by the Verrazzano Bridge in New York City. Now, the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge in Japan holds the coveted crown.

Work began on the Golden Gate Bridge in January of 1933 and ended in 1937, concluding the massive project in only four years. When it was built in the 1930s, safety measures weren’t as stringent as they are now.

Certain steps were taken to ensure the safety of the workers, but not all of the accidents could be prevented. A safety net was put under the bridge to catch the workers who fell. It successfully caught 19 men, but 11 unfortunately lost their lives.

According to Globehunters, the travel agency found the destination has been tagged in over 2 million pictures on Instagram, making it the ninth most popular US destination on the app. And that study was done several years ago (2018).

On Saturday night, NBA All-Star Weekend in San Francisco will showcase a skills challenge, three-point contest, and a dunk contest. The All-Star Championship Game will be held at 10:00 PM EST in the Chase Center. If you want to see a full breakdown of this weekend’s events, check it out here.