A large Golden Gate Bridge replica stretches across a tiny riverbed in Fallbrook

A local Fallbrook couple has recreated the Golden Gate Bridge.

A much smaller version, Chris Smith welded and created a Golden Gate Bridge replica for his father-in-law.

"My father-in-law, he was born in San Francisco and raised there, and so he was from the old school San Francisco, and he just loved San Francisco and he always talks fondly about it," Smith said.

His in-laws circumnavigated the globe for 11 1/2 years.

"They went 56,000 miles on a sailboat," Chris Smith's wife, Marni Smith, said.

"They also sailed under that bridge many times with their sailboat," Chris Smith said of the Golden Gate Bridge.

When they passed under that bridge for the last time, they were saying goodbye to San Francisco, Smith added.

After they came back from their journey, Marni Smith said they had come to Fallbrook because she was there, but that they missed the Bay Area.

The Smith's thought they could make something for her parents to represent where they were from.

"I have all the tools to do that kind of stuff, so I can take a picture and make it, whatever it is; that's what I do for a living," Chris Smith said. He has his own metal shop called Smith Metalworks and has been welding for the past 13 years.

When they decided to make the bridge, he had the idea in mind to put it over the little riverbed in his in-law's yard.

"I just started rolling some metal to arch over the little stream that they had put in their yard," Chris Smith said. "I started looking at pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge and I saw that each post, the two posts that suspend the bridge are telescopic in looks."

He then started making the pieces.

"I had most of the material from my shop from scrap and other jobs and stuff," he said. "I was welding up pieces, and I had my father-in-law cutting pieces so he could help me along 'cause this was more of a fun project."

Painting the bridge was interesting, according to Marni Smith.

"The color of the actual Golden Gate Bridge is called international orange, but when you look at it, it has a little bit more of a red hue," she said.

"The original bridge is basically a rust-oxide paint, and they paint that bridge every year," Chris Smith said. "They start at one end and they finish it the next year, and they start back at the other end."

They tried to find something close to the original color.

"I think this color actually works out really well," Marni Smith said. "At first we thought it might be a little red, but I think it actually, I think it really kind of depicts the actual color pretty well."

Since showing the picture of it to others, they've had requests to make other items.

"It was something special we could do for them," Chris Smith said. "We had a good time, and I made some really good memories with my father-in-law doing this, which are priceless to me."

Lexington Howe can be reached by email at [email protected].