Visiting the San Francisco Bay Bridge
While there are no pedestrian walkways or vista points, you can drive on the bridge and stop midway at Treasure Island to view the span. Eastbound lanes travel on the lower deck, and you can see little (despite what a scene in the Dustin Hoffman film The Graduate may lead you to believe).The best ways to enjoy the San Francisco Bay Bridge are:
From the waterfront along Embarcadero Street, where you can see and photograph the span and walk under it.
Drive east to the Treasure Island exit, stop just outside the military base entrance and view the San Francisco Bay Bridge and city skyline. Drive to the east side of the island and you can see the new span under construction. There is no toll if you turn around at Treasure Island and drive back to the city.
San Francisco Bay Bridge History
In 1928, the San Francisco Bay looked much different than it does today. Neither of its landmark bridges had yet been constructed. Forty-six million people crossed the bay that year, all of them traveling on ferries. The waterways were rapidly becoming clogged with ferry traffic, and new alternatives were needed.In 1929, the State of California began studies to find an alternative to the ferries. After years of study and a little over three years of construction, the San Francisco Bay Bridge opened to traffic on November 12, 1936. Its total cost, including an electric railroad which has since been abandoned, was $79.5 million.
Initially the San Francisco Bay Bridge upper deck carried 3 lanes in each direction, with trucks and the inter-urban railway traveling on the lower level. However, by 1936, the San Francisco Bay Bridge had already reached traffic levels projected for 1950 and it became clear that something would have to be done. In 1959, the railway was removed and the lower deck converted to carry five lanes of eastbound vehicles. The upper deck was then devoted to five lanes of westbound traffic.
While the San Francisco Bay Bridge towers weathered the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake (7.1 on the Richter scale) without damage, the decks were not so lucky. Bolts sheared, part of the upper deck came unhinged and fell onto the lower deck. Earthquake retrofit work, including replacing the eastern span is ongoing.
San Francisco Bay Bridge Facts
The San Francisco Bay Bridge structure consists of two separate spans, joined by a tunnel cut through a hill on Yerba Buena Island. On the San Francisco side of the island, it consists of two complete suspension bridges, back-to-back with an anchorage in the middle.A few San Francisco Bay Bridge facts and figures:
- The two San Francisco Bay Bridge sections combined are 23,000 feet long (4.5 miles)
- From one approach to the other, the San Francisco Bay Bridge is 43,500 feet long (8.5 miles).
- West span: 2,310 feet (9,260 feet total length), 220 feet above the water. The cables are made from 0.195-inch diameter wires, 17,464 wires in each cable, with a total diameter 28.75 inches.
- East span cantilever bridge: 1,400 feet (10,176 feet total length), 191 feet above the water.
- The San Francisco Bay Bridge was once the longest high-level, steel bridge in the world. The new eastern span will be the world's longest self-anchored suspension bridge.
- The Yerba Buena Tunnel, which connect the two sections of the San Francisco Bay Bridge is 76 feet wide and 58 feet tall.
- The deepest pier extends 242 feet below the water's surface and contains more concrete than the Empire State Building.
- Over a quarter million vehicles cross the San Francisco Bay Bridge daily.
- San Francisco Bay Bridge construction consumed over 6% of the total United States steel output in 1933.
