California's Bridges: Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco Bay (2)

1999 (37.818 deg, -122.478 deg.) Golden Gate Bridge

The Golden Gate Bridge includes a park where people can enjoy views of the Bay. When I first started at Caltrans, a new deck was being installed (by Caltrans for some reason). An engineer in my design section had worked on the deck replacement which was being done at night. He told me that several times a week, someone would drive onto the bridge and slam on the brakes. Then the driver would run out of the car and throw themselves off the bridge. I can hardly imagine what that must feel like, except that it must feel really awful.

California's Bridges: Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco Bay (2) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

California's Bridges: Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco Bay (1)

1999 (37.818 deg, -122.478 deg.) Golden Gate Bridge

The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge built in 1937 with a 4200 ft long main span. It carries traffic between the City of San Francisco and Marin County over a narrow strait where San Francisco Bay empties into the Pacific. It's the only toll bridge in San Francisco Bay that is not owned and managed by Caltrans. Instead, it is owned by the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District, whose responsibilities extend to the single bridge that towers over their headquarters.

California's Bridges: Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco Bay (1) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

California's Bridges: Benicia-Martinez Bridges across the Carquinez Straits (5)

1999 (38.043 deg, -122.122 deg.) Benicia-Martinez Bridges

Well, this is my best photo of the Benicia-Martinez Railway Bridge (owned by the Union Pacific Railroad). You can see that this photo was taken before the segmentally-constructed highway bridge was built to the east. Its amazing that this old railway bridge (from 1930) stands between an expensively retrofit and an expensive new highway bridge. The railroads are run by a tough bunch of business-people who guard their rights zealously. Whenever we want to build anything near their right-of-way they drive a very hard bargain.

Despite its fragile appearance, the railway bridge does carry a couple dozen trains every day. I do recall the railway bridge had some damage from the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. I believe there is a lift span at the center of the bridge, but I can't recall if it ever is opened.

California's Bridges: Benicia-Martinez Bridges across the Carquinez Straits (5) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.