В законодательном собрании Калифорнии рассмотрели резолюцию о названии туннеля под мостом Бэй в честь императора Нортона

For decades, San Franciscans have been pushing the city to name a landmark after Emperor Norton, the eccentric 19th-century character who declared himself ruler of the United States and, decades before it existed, proclaimed that a bridge be built across the bay to Oakland. Now, with the actual Bay Bridge marking its 90th anniversary this year, that campaign has its best shot yet: A resolution in the California Legislature seeks to name Yerba Buena Island’s unnamed tunnel, which connects the bridge’s two spans, the Emperor Norton Tunnel. The resolution’s author is state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-S.F.), who said he has known about Norton for decades. What he didn’t know, until recently, is that the Emperor — real name Joshua Abraham Norton — was Jewish. “I first learned about Emperor Norton decades ago, when I was first learning about the Imperial Court in San Francisco in the late ’90s, when I attended my first Imperial coronation,” Wiener said. The Imperial Court System — a nationwide network of LGBTQ charitable groups founded in San Francisco in 1965 by drag performer José Sarria and often cited as one of the oldest LGBTQ institutions in the country — takes its name and pageantry directly from Norton. It crowns an “Emperor” and “Empress” each year in his honor. “That’s how I first got to know who he was and learned about him, and over time, I learned more. And so when folks approached us about doing this, it was a no brainer for me,” Wiener said. Norton’s Jewish identity was new information but not exactly a surprise to Wiener, who is Jewish. “He was someone, as is the case with so many Jews, who was active and vocal to support the marginalized, including immigrants, including people of color, and that’s what San Francisco is about,” Wiener said. Norton was born in England in 1818 and raised in South Africa. He arrived in San Francisco during the Gold Rush as a wealthy businessman, but lost his fortune after a failed venture tied to the rice market. After declaring bankruptcy, he issued a proclamation published in a local newspaper in 1859, declaring himself Emperor of the United States. He later added the title Protector of Mexico. In his role as Emperor, Norton regularly made kooky declarations he seemingly expected would be followed, most famously ordering in 1872 that a suspension bridge be constructed between San Francisco and the East Bay — several decades before any construction actually began. Along with his more outlandish proclamations, Norton opposed corruption and fraud, supported women’s suffrage and fair taxation, and advocated for public services and technological innovation. He also championed immigrants and racial and ethnic minorities, demanding equal treatment for Black Americans, Native Americans and Chinese immigrants. The man, who died in 1880, was already a local folk legend by the time our publication was founded in 1895. J. has been part of the celebration of this idiosyncratic icon ever since. In 1939, for example, our publication offered a detailed account of Emperor Norton’s appearance. “He wore a shabby uniform, gold braided with shiny buttons, and on his head reposed his imperial hat topped by a plume,” our paper wrote. “From his arm dangled a blue cotton umbrella…. He appeared at public functions. Always he dined free at the best restaurants.” We also explained how he made a living. “When he needed funds he levied taxes on his ‘subjects’ in a royal and determined manner, giving his bonds in return,” we wrote. “Seldom was he refused.” A reader who remembered Emperor Norton from childhood published a touching reminiscence that same year. “When he made requests of me to provide him with a handkerchief or a pair of hose, I, even as a boy, could not resist his kind eyes and quiet manner, and I complied with his request,” the reader wrote. “Unbalanced of mind though he was, gentleness and smiling face won my youthful heart, and left an impression upon me that time cannot efface.” Credit for the most recent push to honor Norton by naming a Bay Bridge tunnel after him belongs to an initiative started in 2013 dubbed the Emperor Norton Trust. Its founder, John Lumea, first encountered Norton’s story by chance, and it stuck with him. “I started reading this story, and I was so immediately charmed by it, and I thought it was so poignant that someone who had found himself kind of on the wrong side of official society, and had basically no money and lived in a 9 by 6 room, carried out this persona for 20 years and stood for what he stood for and was really beloved by the people and taken up by them,” Lumea said. “I was just really moved by it.” Lumea has previously attempted to get the bridge itself as well as the Ferry Building clock tower named after Norton, before realizing that there was no name for the tunnel that carries the 10 lanes of I-80 traffic across Yerba Buena Island and connects the two spans of the Bay Bridge. “Sometime after 2023, we sort of figured out that the state actually recognizes the tunnel independently of the bridge,” Lumea said. “The tunnel has never had an official name. Even though it’s administratively known as the Yerba Buena Tunnel, it’s never been named that officially. And so we thought, hey, well maybe this is an opportunity.” The naming resolution, SCR-193, cleared its first legislative hurdle unopposed on Aug. 11 in the Senate Transportation Committee. The Emperor’s Jewish roots are well-documented. He came from a prominent Jewish family. His parents, John and Sarah Norton, took their children with them on an expedition from London to Cape Town. The group became known as the 1820 Settlers, the cape’s first British colonists. Historians say John Norton carried a Torah from England to South Africa and helped build the first synagogue there. As an adult, the Emperor spent Saturday mornings at San Francisco’s Congregation Emanu-El, apparently arriving for the music and leaving before the sermon. He split his time between religions, though, and spent Sundays at a variety of churches — part of his notion of promoting universal religious tolerance in his role as “leader of all people.” After spending many years walking the streets of the city as Emperor Norton in his famous outfits, Norton died in 1880. Over 10,000 people reportedly visited his grave to pay their respects. He was initially buried at San Francisco’s Masonic Cemetery and then reburied in 1934 at Colma’s Woodlawn Memorial Park following San Francisco’s decision to evict its cemeteries. On neither occasion did he receive a Jewish burial. The answer as to why has been lost to history. But in 1983, our publication offered up a theory. “One can only speculate that the Jews of San Francisco were embarrassed by the eccentric Norton,” historian Norton B. Stern wrote in our publication. “They knew themselves to be a community which merited being taken seriously. Perhaps they misread the meaning of the good humor and sincere affection which the Emperor had attracted.” Judi Leff, a local historian who serves on two committees tied to local Jewish burial, offered an alternative explanation. Leff said she found a newspaper account suggesting that representatives of the former Jewish cemetery at Dolores Park approached Norton while he was alive, offering to sell him a plot of land for his final resting place. “The Emperor almost exploded with passion, seeing in the offer at once an attempted swindle and a plot against his life,” Leff said. In 1979, J. reported that the Court of Historical Review, a mock court where real lawyers argue whimsical or controversial historical questions, ruled that Emperor Norton was entitled to be buried in a Jewish cemetery. Given that the ruling had absolutely no authority, nothing immediately happened. But that wasn’t the end of the story. “I thought it’s not right that he’s not acknowledged in the Jewish cemetery,” Leff said. “And I am the historian for the cemeteries, and I’m on the board that helps run it. So I just was feeling like it would be nice to acknowledge him.” To that end in 2015, Leff helped organize a dedication ceremony with Congregation Emanu-El and laid a memorial plaque at the Home of Peace Cemetery in Colma. According to our 2015 reporting, about 50 people attended, with some dressed as the Emperor including Joseph Amster, who continues to lead local tours as Emperor Norton. When asked about the effort to name the tunnel after Norton, Amster said he is excited. “We’ve been trying now for 13 years to get something like that named after him,” Amster said. “This is the closest we’ve come so far, and it’s looking like it might actually happen. And I think that’s just a great thing.”