Inside the tunnel through Yerba Buena Island. Photo by Jacob Davies via Wikimedia Commons.
By John Lumea from The Emperor Norton Trust
Starting with the opening of the state-owned San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge in 1936 — and in every generation since — Californians tuned in to Emperor Norton (1818–1880) have pushed state authorities to name the Bay Bridge — or some part of it — after the Emperor.
The "foot in the door" always has been Emperor Norton's three Proclamations setting out the vision for a bay-spanning bridge linking Oakland and San Francisco via Goat Island — now known as Yerba Buena Island. This vision points to what we know today as the Bay Bridge. The Emperor issued these Proclamations in 1872 — when the most that local officials dared to hope for was a "connecting flight" in the form of a bridge from Oakland to the island, followed by a ferry to San Francisco.
But the real beating heart of the bridge-naming dream has been the recognition that Emperor Norton was a unique herald of the core values of fairness, tolerance, self-determination, and the common good that came to be associated with his adopted city and region — a champion of the public interest who was more far-sighted and forward-thinking than most of his 1860s and ‘70s contemporaries.
The Emperor was an adversary of corruption and fraud of all kinds — political, corporate, personal. A persistent voice for fair treatment, greater legal protections, and equality for immigrants and other marginalized groups — including Chinese, African Americans, Native Americans, and women. A Jewish religious humanist and pluralist who insisted on the separation of church and state and stood against sectarianism. An advocate for fair labor and fair taxes.
One of the few known photos of the Emperor himself.
He carved out his public advocacy not as an insider with money and power — but as a beggarly if picaresque outsider and undersider who slept in a tiny room in a Commercial Street SRO and probably lived with significant mental health challenges.
In August 2013, I launched a Change.Org petition urging the state legislature to finally place Emperor Norton's name on his bridge. Out of this petition grew a nonprofit project, now known as The Emperor Norton Trust, that has become the leading public resource on the Emperor.
Over the last 12-plus years — in addition to our research and education work — the Trust has kept alive the bridge-naming dream by advancing politically feasible options for making this happen.
In August 2025, we struck on a more targeted solution than has been proposed in the past...
Name the Bay Bridge tunnel through Yerba Buena Island the EMPEROR NORTON TUNNEL.
As a naming candidate, the tunnel has three signal advantages:
It has never been officially named.
It lies entirely with the City and County of San Francisco.
A tunnel naming would not encroach on the Willie L. Brown, Jr., Bridge — the legislature's 2013 naming of the Bay Bridge's western / SF section after former Assembly Speaker and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown (see: politically feasible).
Last month, our Emperor Norton Tunnel naming proposal received board-driven endorsements from four institutions:
San Francisco Historical Society
Imperial Council of San Francisco
Chinese Historical Society of America
California Lodge No. 1 of Free & Accepted Masons
As evidenced by the nearly 7,000 signatures to our petition — ¾ of those from current California residents — grassroots support for placing Emperor Norton's name on the Bay Bridge has been abiding and strong.
Postcard photograph showing view to the west from inside Yerba Buena Tunnel (top deck), c.1936–40. Source: Erica Fischer
But, this broad-based institutional support is new — and points to a new opportunity that must not be squandered.
The 90th anniversary of the Bay Bridge this coming November 12 is a wonderful symbolic opportunity for the legislature to name the tunnel after the Emperor and thus to provide San Francisco and the Bay Area with a powerful new historical and cultural tool for telling the story of this legendary city and region.
It is up to San Francisco's elected representatives in Sacramento — Senator Scott Wiener and Assemblymembers Matt Haney and Catherine Stefani — to provide legislative leadership for this Emperor Norton Tunnel naming by introducing a resolution in the Senate or Assembly and working together to shepherd the resolution through to successful passage by both houses.
But, time is short. The current legislative session ends on August 31 — so an Emperor Norton Tunnel resolution needs to be introduced ASAP.
Intrigued?
Read the full proposal — and share via EmperorNortonTunnel.org.
Sign the petition — and share via change.org/EmperorNortonTunnel.
Most important...
Contact Scott Wiener, Matt Haney, and Catherine Stefani today! Let these San Francisco state reps know that you want them to make the Emperor Norton Tunnel happen! The Emperor Norton Trust's Action Guide will give you a head start.
Are you an organization or a bold-faced name that would like to endorse this proposal? Please drop me a line at [email protected]
With political courage and a little imagination, the Emperor Norton Tunnel absolutely can happen in 2026.
Let's make it so!
