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San Francisco Bay Bridge

San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge
Oakland Bay Bridge Western Part.jpg
The western span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge
Coordinates 37°49′5″N 122°20′48″W / 37.81806°N 122.34667°W / 37.81806; -122.34667Coordinates: 37°49′5″N 122°20′48″W / 37.81806°N 122.34667°W / 37.81806; -122.34667
Carries 10 lanes of I-80 throughout, and pedestrians and bicycles east of Yerba Buena Island (YBI)
Crosses San Francisco Bay
via YBI
Locale San Francisco and Oakland
Owner Caltrans
Maintained by Caltrans and the Bay Area Toll Authority
ID number
  • 34 0003 (West)
  • 34 0004 (YBI Tunnel)
  • 33 0025 (East)
Characteristics
Design Double-decked suspension spans (two, connected by center anchorage), tunnel, cast-in-place concrete transition span, self-anchored suspension span, precast segmental concrete viaduct
Material Steel, concrete
Total length West: 10,304 ft (3,141 m)
East span: 10,176 ft (3,102 m)
Total: 4.46 miles (7.18 km)
excluding approaches
Width West: 5 traffic lanes totaling 57.5 ft (17.5 m)
East: 10 traffic lanes totaling 258.33 ft (78.74 m)
Height West: 526 ft (160 m)
Longest span West: two main spans
2,310 ft (704 m)
East: one main span
1,400 ft (430 m)
Clearance above Westbound: 14 feet (4.3 m), with additional clearance in some lanes
Eastbound: 14.67 feet (4.47 m)
Clearance below West: 220 feet (67 m)
East: 191 feet (58 m)
History
Designer Charles H. Purcell
Construction begin July 8, 1933
Opened November 12, 1936; 80 years ago (1936-11-12)
Statistics
Daily traffic 240,000
Toll Cars (east span, westbound only)
$6.00 (rush hours)
$2.50 (carpool rush hours)
$4.00 (weekday non-rush hours)
$5.00 (weekend all day)
Designated August 13, 2001
Reference no. 00000525
San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge is located in California
San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge
San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge
Location in California

The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge (known locally as the Bay Bridge) is a complex of bridges spanning San Francisco Bay in California. As part of Interstate 80 and the direct road between San Francisco and Oakland, it carries about 240,000 vehicles a day on its two decks. It has one of the longest spans in the United States.

The toll bridge was conceived as early as the gold rush days, but construction did not begin until 1933. Designed by Charles H. Purcell, and built by American Bridge Company, it opened on November 12, 1936, six months before the Golden Gate Bridge. It originally carried automobile traffic on its upper deck, and trucks and trains on the lower, but after the Key System abandoned rail service, the lower deck was converted to all-road traffic as well. In 1986 the bridge was unofficially dedicated to James Rolph.

The bridge has two sections of roughly equal length; the older western section, officially known as the Willie L. Brown Jr. Bridge (after former San Francisco Mayor and California State Assembly Speaker Willie L. Brown Jr.), connects downtown San Francisco to Yerba Buena Island and the newer unnamed eastern section connects the island to Oakland. The Willie Brown bridge (west span) is a double suspension bridge with two decks, westbound traffic being carried on the upper deck while eastbound is carried on the lower one. The largest span of the original eastern section was a cantilever bridge. During the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, a section of the eastern span's upper deck collapsed onto the lower deck and the bridge was closed for a month. Reconstruction of the eastern section of the bridge as a causeway connected to a self-anchored suspension bridge began in 2002; the new bridge opened September 2, 2013 at a reported cost of over $6.5 billion. Unlike the west span and the original east span, the new east span is a single deck with the eastbound and westbound lanes on each side making it the world's widest bridge, according to Guinness World Records, as of 2014. Demolition of the old east span is expected to last until 2018.


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