Gerald Desmond Bridge

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Gerald Desmond Bridge

Carries	4 lanes of I-710
Crosses	Cerritos Channel
Locale	Terminal Island and Long Beach, California
Design	Arch bridge
Longest span	1,053 feet (321 m)
Total length	5,134 feet (1,565 m)
Vertical clearance	155 feet (47 m)
Opening date	1968
Coordinates	33°45′52″N, 118°13′16″W

The Gerald Desmond Bridge is an arch bridge that carries 4 lanes of Interstate 710 across the Cerritos Channel between Terminal Island and Long Beach, California. The bridge is named after Gerald Desmond, a prominent civic leader and a former city attorney for the City of Long Beach.

The bridge was designed by Moffatt & Nichol Engineers and was constructed by Bethlehem Steel Corporation. Ground breaking for the construction of the bridge occurred on October 19, 1965, and was completed in 1968. It has a 410-foot long suspended main span, 155-foot vertical clearance over the Cerritos Channel, and connects Terminal Island on its east side to downtown Long Beach.

This bridge has developed various maintenance problems and the Port of Long Beach has suggested it would be more economical to replace the bridge with a new cable-stayed bridge with 200 feet of vertical clearance. This would allow access to the port for even the tallest container ships and would be the first long-span cable-stayed bridge in California. In order for the bridge to be so tall, long approaches are required to allow heavy trucks to cross the structure. A joint venture of Parsons Transportation Group and HNTB is performing preliminary engineering for the main span and the approaches. The project is estimated to cost $800 million and is scheduled for completion by 2016.

The bridge had a featured role in the film Head, featuring rock group The Monkees, released in 1968. The first scene of the film features the actual dedication ceremony for the bridge, which is interrupted by the group members, who commit suicide by running into the middle of the ceremony and jumping off the bridge.