Carquinez Bridge
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| Carquinez Bridge | |
|---|---|
 The Carquinez Bridge in 2007: (from closest to furthest) a 2003 suspension bridge and a 1958 cantilever bridge |
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| Official name | Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge (suspension bridge) |
| Carries | 8 lanes of I-80, pedestrians and bicycles. |
| Crosses | Carquinez Strait |
| Locale | Crockett, California and Vallejo, California |
| Maintained by | Caltrans |
| ID number | 28+0352 (2003 span), 23+0015L (1927 span), 23+0015R (1958 span) |
| Design | 2 Cantilever bridges and 1 Suspension bridge |
| Total length | 0.66 miles (3465 feet / 1056.1 m / 1.06 km) |
| Clearance below | 45 meters (148 feet) |
| Opening date | May 21, 1927 (original span) 1958 (eastbound) November 11, 2003 (westbound) |
| Destruction date | 2006 (original span) |
| Toll | $4.00 (eastbound) (FasTrak) |
| Coordinates | Coordinates: |
The Carquinez Bridge refers to two parallel bridges which cross the Carquinez Strait linking Vallejo, California to the north, with Crockett, California to the south. The bridges are signed as part of Interstate 80. Toll is only charged to eastbound traffic.
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[edit] History and description
The original bridge, a steel cantilever bridge, was designed by Robinson & Steinman and dedicated on May 21, 1927. It cost $8 million to build and was the first major bridge in the San Francisco Bay Area.[1]
Upon completion of the 1927 bridge, the Lincoln Highway was rerouted over the span. The Lincoln Highway was the first road across America. Its original alignment from Sacramento to San Francisco avoided the un-bridged waterways of the San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento Delta by routing itself through the Altamont Pass and the central valley. With the bridge built, the Sacramento to San Francisco route was realigned in 1928 to pass along the eastern shores of the San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay, then in a northeastern direction.
In 1958, a similar parallel bridge was built alongside the original one to accommodate the ever-increasing traffic. The original 1927 span served westbound traffic while the newer 1958 span served eastbound traffic.
In 2003, as a resolution to seismic problems of the aging 1927 span, a new suspension bridge was opened to replace it. This new bridge was named the Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge, after an ironworker who worked on a number of the San Francisco Bay Area bridges, including the Golden Gate Bridge. This span features a pedestrian and bicycle path, completing a bike trail which circles the entire Bay Area. The span measures 0.66 miles (3465 feet / 1056.1 m / 1.06 km). The bridge was dedicated on November 8, 2003 and opened for traffic on November 11. (Originally, the plan was to dedicate the bridge on November 15, but complications involving when just-recalled Governor Gray Davis would have to transfer power to Arnold Schwarzenegger resulted in the date being moved. The coins minted to commemorate the event have the old date on them.[2]) It is the newest suspension bridge built in the United States, as of 2003. The 1927 span was dismantled in 2007, after it was temporarily used to hold eastbound traffic while the eastbound span underwent a seismic retrofit, deck and superstructure rehabilitation, and painting to extend its serviceable life.[3] During demolition, the 3,000-pound bronze bell atop one of the Carquinez Bridge piers was removed and placed into storage. The bell will eventually be displayed in a new museum to be built at the Oakland end of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
By September 4, 2007, all of the original 1927 steel structure had been demolished.
[edit] Carquinez Bridge in the media
- The 1927 span of the Carquinez Bridge is featured on a Season 4 episode of MythBusters in the Miniature Earthquake Machine segment. This experiment, based upon the researches of Nikola Tesla, employed a small tunable reciprocating mass driver to shake the bridge at its resonance frequency. While not structurally significant, the shaking was felt some distance from the driver.
- An hour-length program, titled Break It Down: "Bridge", documenting the demolition of the 1927 bridge aired on National Geographic Channel, on Thursday November 1st. 2007
- On October 5th 2007 a man jumped off the new 156 foot high bridge. The Coast Guard, Vallejo Police and Fire responded to find him on the breakwater. He survived the fall.
[edit] References
- ^ The Barrier Broken - Vallejo Evening Chronicle, May 21, 1927
- ^ "Alfred Zampa memorial coins" - Official Web Site
- ^ "Old Carquinez Bridge is disappearing" - San Francisco Chronicle, April 25, 2006.
[edit] External links
- AlZampaBridge.com Official Web site of the Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge.
- Bridging the Bay History of the Carquinez Bridge, as well as other bridges.
- Caltrans New Carquinez Bridge page
- Dick McCabe Jr's Site - Site written by a union ironworker who worked on the bridge with a journal of the construction progress.
- Carquinez Strait Bridge (1927) in the Structurae database
- Carquinez Strait Bridge (1958) in the Structurae database
- Alfred Zampa Memorial (New Carquinez) Bridge (2003) in the Structurae database
- [1] Break it Down: "Bridge" on National Geographic Channel.
- [2] Bay Area Toll Authority Bridge Facts on Carquinez Bridge.
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