How old is bay bridge san francisco

In , San Francisco was struck with an earthquake causing the east span from the upper deck to collapse, one week before its scheduled retrofit. Since then, studies have been done to determine if the bridges in California were seismically safe for its commuters. As a result, the east span of the bridge needed to be completely replaced.

The 1,foot replacement became the longest, single-towered, self-anchored suspension bridge in the world. Original San Francisco Bay Bridge. Search Project Archive. This website uses cookies to improve your experience.

Accept Read More. Presiding over the ceremony was Oakland's Harrison S. Robinson, president of the Financial Advisory Committee.

Hamilton, Chairman of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, called the bridge "the greatest engineering feat of modern times. McCracken agreed. He called it "a world-wonder, significant in its economic, human and spiritual advantages to all of California. Former President Hoover described some of the difficulties he had helped unravel during the planning of the bridge, noting, "But let no one think these things are as easy to do as to say them.

That this is the greatest bridge yet constructed in the world requires no repetition by me. Its construction also spans the whole advance in industrial civilization-our discoveries in science, our inventions, our increasing skill. It is the product of hundreds of years of cumulative knowledge. But above them all are the engineers and workmen right here who combined all those centuries of knowledge with courage and imagination-your own chief engineer, Charles Purcell and his able assistants, Charles Andrew and Glenn Woodruff, are men whose courage and whose knowledge combine not only the product of these generations of ideas but from their own genius designed and built this bridge.

As Governor Merriam prepared to deliver the final address of the ceremony, a thousand pigeons were released "and soared into the air with a din of drumming wings. This bridge belongs to this generation.

We built it and we shall pay for. But in a broader sense it belongs to the generations that are to come. When the youths of today become the citizens of tomorrow they will use it without cost.

Accordingly we dedicate it today to our own use and to theirs, hoping that they will receive it as a legacy of great worth and an indication of our desire to serve. May it always remain a thing of beauty and interest, an example of the genius and courage of the engineer, financier, builder and the people of California. Stepping to the heavy golden chain stretched across the traffic lanes of the new bridge, Governor Merriam applied an acetylene torch to sever the chain:.

Overhead, two hundred navy planes in perfect mass formation roared by, huge bombs burst high in the sky releasing parachutes with American flags, sirens and whistles in Oakland and the East Bay cities added to the bedlam of noise, and the chain barrier fell apart.

The eastern end of the bridge was open to the traffic that soon was to flood over it to San Francisco. Hastening to automobiles, the Governor and his official party sped across the bridge to the San Francisco approach, where another chain barred their way. Hundreds of fishing boats, yachts and water craft passed under the bridge in "the greatest marine parade San Francisco ever has witnessed. With the chain severed, the dignitaries headed to the speaker's platform for another round of speeches.

San Francisco Mayor Angelo Rossi said:. Senator McAdoo called it "a bridge of national implications-an imposing tribute to the genius of our people and the progress of our times-a great miracle.

In a few seconds he will press an electric switch. Turn around all of you and look at the signal tower. Soon the red light will turn to orange and then to green. There it goes. It was a dramatic moment. A dramatic, stirring scene. As the light on the signal tower flashed from orange to green cheers from thousands of throats swelled into the air, whistles and sirens screeched and down on navy row big guns boomed a salute. It was a half hour after noon on November 12, The Governor and his party returned to their cars for the ride back to Oakland followed by thousands of cars.

A similar parade of cars left Oakland bound for San Francisco. When darkness fell the huge bay bridge that had loomed up in the dusk as a great silvery span across the bay suddenly became aflame with light as the sodium vapor lamps spaced along the upper deck from the Oakland plaza to the curving ramps of the San Francisco approaches burst into fire.

Simultaneously, searchlights on every battleship in navy row shot great beams of light into the clear night sky and for an hour wove designs in the heavens. Against a blue-black background of the southern horizon an endless procession of automobiles moved back and forth across the bridge, their headlights giving the impression of flaming pearls in motion on an unearthly jeweled brooch stretched across the bay.

It was given a nice opening ceremony, and it made lots of money from tolls. But the opening was minor compared with the gala opening of the Golden Gate Bridge just a few months later.

No one wants to sing about it. No one wants to paint pictures of it. No one remembers Charles Purcell, the Chief Engineer, who was not quirky, not a known dreamer, and not short in a photo of the chain-cutting ceremony in San Francisco, Purcell is just an inch or two shorter that the 5'11" former President Hoover.

After many years of helping to create California's highway and bridge network, Purcell retired in "because of nervous exhaustion and a reported heart ailment," according to Kral. He died 5 weeks later, on September 7, , at the age of Meanwhile, the world falls all over itself thinking of ways to praise the Golden Gate Bridge.

Many of them-over 1, have done so-drive across the bridge to get to the Golden Gate Bridge so their death can have a poetic feel to it. And so it goes. On the 50th anniversary of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, one newspaper called it "the ugly stepsister to the famed arches of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Nature even conspired against the bridge during the Loma Prieta Earthquake. The earthquake shook part of the upper deck loose, sending a car into a nose dive into the lower deck and killing the driver. Of course, Ms. Perfect, the Golden Gate Bridge, made it through the earthquake unscathed--and was praised for its durability. The replacement East Span opened on September 2, What times of day do most bikes and pedestrians travel the path? Unveiled in to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Bay Bridge, the installation dazzles the San Francisco waterfront.

San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is the region's workhorse bridge, carrying more than a third of the traffic of all of the state-owned bridges combined.

Get the details at Seismic Safety. See the data. Norton traveled to California seeking fortune during the Gold Rush, but fell on hard times after failing to secure the rice market. He became a colorful local character and eventually dubbed himself Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico, and charmed newspaper writers and other business owners with his fanciful outfits and wild decrees.

Purcell—needed to include the island, which sits 1. Army and Navy. With their permission, a foot wide, foot high bore tunnel, the largest in the world , was dug through a shale hill on Yerba Buena and connected the East and West bridge sections. A February article in Popular Science detailed the incredible work done by engineers to construct the bridge over eight miles of land and the San Francisco Bay.

Moran that supported 55 steel tubes filled with air to the location in the bay.