i live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and we have a lot of bridges. it seems there is a bridge to cross in every direction you travel.
the Bay Bridge has the longest span and will take you from Oakland to San Francisco, the Golden Gate will get you from San Francisco to Marin County, if you want to go from Oakland to San Rafael you’d take the San Rafael Bridge. The San Mateo Bridge goes from San Mateo to Hayward, the Dumbarton is the shortest bridge and goes from Menlo Park to Fremont. and let us not forget the first major bridge built in the Bay Area, the Carquinez Bridge, which connects Crockett to Vallejo.
the Golden Gate bridge is one of the most beautiful and photographed bridges. it’s bright orange-red definitely makes for a wonderful picture on a clear day, with blue sky behind and the shimmering bay below. it has also been named one of the modern Wonders of the World by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
i’ve been thinking a lot about our bridges recently, as the Bay Bridge will be closing once again this weekend for construction. they are opening a new span right after the toll plaza on the East Bay side of the bridge. the repair of the bridge is both fascinating and annoying at the the same time. annoying because i drive across the bridge quite a bit, and the closure of the bridge makes transportation just that much more complicated to figure out. BART doesn’t run 24/7, the San Mateo Bridge is far from where i want to be, not too mention, the new span will really jack up the morning commute on Tuesday.
but it’s fascinating to watch the new construction as well. you just know when the bridge was originally designed they never thought it would be used as much as it is today. it carries approximately 270,000 vehicles per day, that’s crazy. if memory serves correctly, my friends great-great grandfather was one of the few engineers that submitted a design for the original Bay Bridge. they laughed at him because his design had something like 16 lanes going across, and the committee felt that was just absurd. what i wouldn’t give for 16 lanes……
a couple of years ago i had the opportunity to see the Bay and Golden Gate Bridges from a different vantage point than usual, i was in a zeppelin (no, not a blimp, a zeppelin) for a one hour tour over the Bay. it was very cool, and the view, unlike anything i’ve ever seen before. a plane flight takes you much higher than the zeppelin, so you aren’t able to see things as close. a hot air balloon would be similar i suppose, but it’s a different feeling all together.
seeing the bridges from above gave me a real appreciation for the people that originally designed and built the structures that i for one, now take for granted. when you see/use something every day, you tend to forget how amazing it really is. come Tuesday morning when i’m stuck in commute traffic because some idiot has crashed into the new S-curve, i will try to remember to take a deep breath and appreciate the structure that is, the Bay Bridge.