Visiting the San Francisco Bay Bridge
While there are no pedestrian walkways or vista points here, but you can drive on it and stop midway at Treasure Island to view the span. Eastbound lanes travel on the lower deck, and you can see little.The best ways to enjoy the San Francisco Bay Bridge are: From the waterfont 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. There is no toll if you turn around here 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, which were clogging the waterways. 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 carried 3 lanes each way on its upper deck, with trucks and the inter-urban railway traveling on the lower. 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. Finally 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 bored through a hill on Yerba Buena Island. On the San Francisco side of the island, it consists of two complete suspension bridges 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 is the longest high-level, steel bridge in the world.
- The Yerba Buena Tunnel, which connect the two sections of the San Francisco Bay Bridge, is the tallest bore in the world, 76 feet wide and 58 feet tall.
- The deepest pier extends 242 feet below the water's surface, and it 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.
