California
Bridges
SF-Oakland Bay Bridge
This bridge is the often
over-shadowed by its neighbor, the Golden Gate Bridge. However it has
more superlatives than the GG. Open earlier, more traffic, more lanes,
longer overall spans, and 2 decks of traffic.
The Bay Bridge actually consists
of 3 bridges, a causeway and tunnel. From Oakland cars after the toll
plaza, cars enter the causeway. The causeway steadily rises to the
Cantilever span. From there you make landfall onto Yerba-Buena Island.
Here you enter a tunnel. After the tunnel, you enter onto the 2
back-to-back suspension bridges, linked at the middle by a concrete
pier.
The upper-deck is for SF bound
traffic, lower, Oakland. Originally the top deck was two-way traffic for
cars only. The lower deck was for trucks/busses, plus 2 tracks for
interurbans from Oakland & the East Bay.
This bridge suffered damage from
the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989. The Cantilevered span is due to be
replaced due to earthquakes, but not sure when it will be built.
