SAN FRANCISCO — Gavin Newsom does not do subtle.

So when Newsom, the California governor, pondered where to sign one of his final bills, he apparently figured his desk in Sacramento simply would not do.

The man who peppers his speeches with the word “audacious” wanted a backdrop so bold that it bordered on the absurd: the very top of the Golden Gate Bridge.

But getting there the regular way, in a cramped elevator, would be too normal. No, Newsom would climb it. (Sometimes, it seems, a political stunt requires actual stunt work.)

So over his gelled hair went the plastic, white helmet. And over his tan linen pants went the harness. Along with one security guard and three men who maintain the Golden Gate Bridge, he made his way up a huge red cable, clutching wires at each side. His feet gripped the cable and its rungs, and he paused at points to catch his breath.

If Newsom plans to leave his glamorous, liberal California persona behind for a presidential bid, he did not signal it during the Tuesday afternoon climb. He wore aviator sunglasses, black sneakers designed by Snoop Dogg and a stack of bracelets strung with beads that have become the preferred accessory for middle-aged Marin County men such as himself.

No one below, not the drivers in whizzing traffic, nor the tourists walking across the bridge, seemed to recognize the governor as he made his way up.

Once he reached the top of the tower on the San Francisco side of the strait, he shimmied off the cable and onto a platform where his staff members, including a camera operator, were waiting. Then, he let out a sigh.

“That was a legit workout,” he said.

Ostensibly, Newsom was there to sign the last bill he would send out the door, the final one of 8,000 in his eight years in office, he estimated. It authorizes a bond measure for the March 2028 ballot that would allocate $7.5 billion for scientific research. Newsom will be in office until early January, but he faced a Wednesday deadline to sign or veto legislation this year.

The bond bill had no obvious tie to the Golden Gate Bridge. But Newsom wanted to promote scientific research on his way out, and the bill allowed him one more chance to take a shot at President Donald Trump because he said it would replace billions of dollars that Republicans in Washington had cut.

“He’s doubling down on stupid, and we’re doubling down on the future,” Newsom said of the president.

Newsom’s office invited The New York Times to the Golden Gate Bridge on the condition that his ascent not be reported until after he announced the signing himself.

The governor signed additional bills Wednesday, but his office held back the bond bill before sending it to the secretary of state late Wednesday as his last signing, after which his team publicly revealed his bridge adventure.

It was the final bill for Newsom unless, of course, he runs for president in 2028 and wins. Asked whether he was running, he let out a big, long laugh.

“We’ll see what fate brings,” he said. “We’ll see what fate brings.”

Then he quickly changed the subject by asking how far above the water he was — 746 feet.

In the world’s imagination, the Golden Gate Bridge remains San Francisco’s glimmering icon. Up close, it is not so shiny. While the north tower is well protected by the Marin Headlands, the south tower closer to the city bears the brunt of the bay’s wind and fog and is badly rusted. The cables, too, are missing big chunks of the famous International Orange shade made by Sherwin-Williams.

A long-held myth is that workers are always painting the bridge from end to end and back again, but that is not actually true, according to Paolo Cosulich-Schwartz, a spokesperson for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District. Crews spot paint the areas that need it most, he said.

A six-year seismic retrofit of the bridge has begun, during which thousands of gallons of paint will be applied to the south tower, he said.

Newsom’s stunt did not play out exactly as he wanted. The Golden Gate Bridge district prohibited the publication of visuals of his ascent to deter trespassers from trying to repeat the feat.

Newsom has actually climbed the bridge before, when he was lieutenant governor, in a hush-hush escapade he mentioned Tuesday. And he has ridden the elevator to the top of the Golden Gate Bridge as well, as seen in a 2024 video about California tourism. That adventure prompted Fox News to conclude that the governor had “his head in the clouds.”

He also has climbed a cable to the top of a tower on the old section of the Bay Bridge, the workhorse linking Oakland and San Francisco.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Heather Knight/Josh Haner
c. 2026 The New York Times Company