MULVANE – Larry Richardson won’t let go of two dreams he had as a Derby High School senior in 1967 – a girl named Barbara and the Golden Gate Bridge. He married Barbara Patton in 1969 and he completed a 150-foot replica of the Golden Gate Bridge in their backyard in 2001. "I proposed to Barbara over the phone after we’d had one date," he said. "I was a senior in high school and she was a sophomore. I don’t think she believed I was serious." Larry told Barbara they had to wait to marry until he’d seen the Golden Gate Bridge in person and she graduated high school. He drove over the San Francisco bridge in an Army bus in February 1968, en route to a tour of duty in Vietnam. Larry returned from Vietnam in February 1969, and they married in May – the same month Barbara graduated. "It was such a busy time, I accidentally threw away my graduation invitations," she said. "Fortunately, I got the wedding invitations in the mail." Larry, a former postman, built the Golden Gate Bridge in his backyard with the help of his father (a machinist), using a postcard picture as a guide. Larry said the bridge was a real success: "We never fell in the water building it, and nobody got hurt." The bridge is built primarily of recycled materials. Towers came from an old wooden bridge, cables off an oil rig, and Boeing salvage was the source for the suspender cables. "It was all handmade, hand dug," said Larry. "We backpacked supplies across, and built a crane to stand the towers up. It all went pretty smoothly, although a few times we went, ‘Uh-oh!’" Larry estimates he spent $5,000 and seven years building his bridge, while the original cost $35 million and four years to construct. The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco will celebrate its 75th anniversary next year. It opened to vehicular traffic on May 28, 1937. The bridge at 1414 N. Peaceful Lane in Mulvane has plenty of foot traffic, but no vehicles. Visitors include senior center groups, a bridge (structures, not card-playing) club, school groups, photography clubs and people who hear about it from friends or the Internet. "One couple came out at dusk and he proposed," Larry said. "I can turn the twinkly lights on at dusk, and it’s really pretty." The bridge has brought much enjoyment to Larry and Barbara. "I got to spend a lot of time with my dad while we were building it," he said. "He died this past November." They both enjoy the people who visit the unusual, off-the-beaten-path attraction. "That’s the best thing about it," Larry said. "We’ve met more nice people. If they come out, it seems like it’s because life interests them, and they’re interesting people."