Red and Green Clash

New York City and San Francisco are both cities that attract a lot of tourists, both nationally and internationally. They each have some very unique tourist attractions ranging from unusual architectural structures to historic islands. Some of New York's better known attractions include: The Empire State Building, St. Patrick's Cathedral, 5th Avenue, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Central Park...I could probably fill up an entire blog on New York City's tourist magnets but I think I'll just stop the list here. San Francisco, while vastly smaller, still has a surplus of places that tourists seem to flock to, including: The Coit Tower, Lombard Street, Fisherman's Wharf, Golden Gate Park and Town Hall. I left two of the biggest tourist attractions off the list because, they clash. Literally.

These two attractions are The Golden Gate Bridge, of San Francisco and The Statue of Liberty located off the coast of New York City. The bridge is a very bright red color whereas the statue is a lovely tarnished copper green. Now, I spent a wonderful semester enrolled in a very intense class about Media Aesthetics, and this class taught me, among many other things, about colors and the color wheel. I understand that technically red and green are complimentary colors, but to my eyes, they clash. The only time they should be together is in late December.  

Maybe I'm just groomed to think this way because the only time I ever really see those colors together signify a holiday, therefore I seem to only associate that mix with Christmas, but let be honest here, if you saw a giant red bridge situated next to a large green statue, what would your first thought be? Mine would most likely be along the lines of, "Wow, those two tourist attractions really clash. Who made the decision to put them next to each other?"

 

I guess I should just be happy that The Golden Gate Bridge is in San Francisco and The Statue of Liberty is all the way across the country in New York City.