Friday, September 21

Bay Bridge

The Bay Bridge is the bluecollar bridge connecting the East Bay's Oakland to San Francisco and the peninsula. Unfortunately for the 280,000 daily drivers, the regions affordable housing is on one side and Silicon Valley and jobs the other - there are only three bridges and everybody drives at rush hour creating the second worst traffic zone in America trailing only horrible L.A. The Bay Bridge opened in 1936 while the western crossing (pictured), from San Francisco to the island, consists of two suspension bridges end-to-end with an anchorage, plus three shorter truss spans connecting the San Francisco landing to the western cable anchorage located on Rincon Hill. The eastern span between Yerba Buena Island and Oakland consists of a double-tower cantilever span, five medium-span truss bridges, and a 14 section truss causeway. These east bay structures are scheduled to be replaced by an entirely new crossing now under construction though for the life of me I have never seen a construction worker during my umpteen visits these past five years. My photo taken this morning from Christian Wright's flat.