The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, commonly referred to as the Bay Bridge, is a complex of bridges spanning
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay (Chochenyo language, Chochenyo: 'ommu) is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, California, San ...
in
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
. As part of
Interstate 80
Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one of the ori ...
and the direct road between
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
and
Oakland
Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...
, it carries about 260,000 vehicles a day on its two decks.
It includes one of the
longest bridge spans in the United States.
The
toll bridge
A toll bridge is a bridge where a monetary charge (or '' toll'') is required to pass over. Generally the private or public owner, builder and maintainer of the bridge uses the toll to recoup their investment, in much the same way as a toll road ...
was conceived as early as the
California gold rush
The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...
days, with "Emperor"
Joshua Norton famously advocating for it, but construction did not begin until 1933. Designed by
Charles H. Purcell, and built by
American Bridge Company
The American Bridge Company is a heavy/civil construction firm that specializes in building and renovating bridges and other large, complex structures. Founded in 1900, the company is headquartered in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsb ...
, it opened on Thursday, November 12, 1936, six months before the
Golden Gate Bridge
The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean in California, United States. The structure links San Francisco—the northern tip of the San Francisco Peni ...
. It originally carried automobile traffic on its upper deck, with trucks, cars, buses and
commuter trains on the lower, but after the
Key System abandoned its rail service on April 20, 1958, the lower deck was converted to all-road traffic as well. On October 12, 1963, traffic was reconfigured to one way traffic on each deck, westbound on the upper deck, and eastbound on the lower deck, with trucks and buses also allowed on the upper deck.
In 1986, the bridge was unofficially dedicated to former
California governor
The governor of California is the head of government of the U.S. state of California. The governor is the commander-in-chief of the California National Guard and the California State Guard.
Established in the Constitution of California, th ...
James Rolph.
The bridge has two sections of roughly equal length; the older western section, officially known as the Willie L. Brown Jr. Bridge (after former
San Francisco Mayor
The mayor of the City and County of San Francisco is the head of the executive branch of the San Francisco city and county government. The officeholder has the duty to enforce city laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by t ...
and
California State Assembly Speaker Willie L. Brown Jr.), connects downtown San Francisco to
Yerba Buena Island
Yerba Buena Island ( Spanish: ''Isla Yerba Buena'') sits in San Francisco Bay within the borders of the City and County of San Francisco. The Yerba Buena Tunnel runs through its center and connects the western and eastern spans of the San Fran ...
, and the newer east bay section connects the island to Oakland. The western section is a double
suspension bridge
A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...
with two decks, westbound traffic being carried on the upper deck while eastbound is carried on the lower one. The largest span of the original eastern section was a
cantilever bridge
A cantilever bridge is a bridge built using structures that project horizontally into space, supported on only one end (called cantilevers). For small footbridges, the cantilevers may be simple beam (structure), beams; however, large cantilever ...
.
During the
1989 Loma Prieta earthquake
On October 17, 1989, at 5:04 p.m. Pacific Time Zone, PST, the Loma Prieta earthquake occurred at the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California. The shock was centered in The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park in Santa Cruz Cou ...
, a portion of the eastern section's upper deck collapsed onto the lower deck and the bridge was closed for a month.
Reconstruction of the eastern section of the bridge as a
causeway
A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet T ...
connected to a
self-anchored suspension bridge began in 2002; the new eastern section opened September 2, 2013, at a reported cost of over $6.5 billion; the original estimate of $250 million was for a seismic retrofit of the existing span. Unlike the western section and the original eastern section of the bridge, the new eastern section is a single deck carrying all eastbound and westbound lanes. Demolition of the old east span was completed on September 8, 2018.
Description

The bridge consists of two crossings, east and west of
Yerba Buena Island
Yerba Buena Island ( Spanish: ''Isla Yerba Buena'') sits in San Francisco Bay within the borders of the City and County of San Francisco. The Yerba Buena Tunnel runs through its center and connects the western and eastern spans of the San Fran ...
, a natural mid-bay outcropping inside San Francisco city limits. The western crossing between Yerba Buena and downtown San Francisco has two complete suspension spans connected at a center anchorage.
Rincon Hill
Rincon Hill ( Spanish ''Rincón'', meaning "corner") is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. It is one of San Francisco's many hills, and one of its original " Seven Hills". The relatively compact neighborhood is bounded by Folsom Stre ...
is the western anchorage and touch-down for the San Francisco landing of the bridge connected by three shorter
truss
A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as Beam (structure), beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure.
In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so ...
spans. The eastern crossing, between Yerba Buena Island and Oakland, was a
cantilever bridge
A cantilever bridge is a bridge built using structures that project horizontally into space, supported on only one end (called cantilevers). For small footbridges, the cantilevers may be simple beam (structure), beams; however, large cantilever ...
with a double-tower span, five medium truss spans, and a 14-section truss
causeway
A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet T ...
. Due to earthquake concerns, the eastern crossing was replaced by a new crossing that opened on Labor Day 2013. On Yerba Buena Island, the double-decked crossing is a concrete
viaduct
A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide ...
east of the west span's cable anchorage, the
Yerba Buena Tunnel
The Yerba Buena Tunnel, also known as the Yerba Buena Island Tunnel, is a highway tunnel in San Francisco, California. It is the part of San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge complex that crosses Yerba Buena Island. The Yerba Buena Tunnel carries t ...
through the island's rocky central hill, another concrete viaduct, and a longer curved high-level steel truss viaduct that spans the final to the cantilever bridge.
["Yerba Buena Crossing (Contract No. 04-5)As Built Drawings" Caltrans 2006]

The toll plaza on the Oakland side (westbound traffic only since 1969) has eighteen toll lanes, with all charges now made either through the
FasTrak electronic toll collection system or through invoices mailed through the
USPS
The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal serv ...
, based on the license plate of the car per Department of Motor Vehicle records.
Metering signals are about west of the toll plaza. Two full-time bus-only lanes bypass the toll booths and metering lights around the right (north) side of the toll plaza; other high occupancy vehicles can use these lanes during weekday morning and afternoon commute periods. The two far-left toll lanes are
high-occupancy vehicle lane
A high-occupancy vehicle lane (also known as an HOV lane, carpool lane, diamond lane, 2+ lane, and transit lane or T2 or T3 lanes) is a restricted traffic lane reserved for the exclusive use of vehicles with a driver and at least one passenger, ...
s during weekday commute periods. Radio and television traffic reports will often refer to congestion at the toll plaza, metering lights, or a parking lot in the
median
The median of a set of numbers is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a Sample (statistics), data sample, a statistical population, population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as the “ ...
of the road for bridge employees; the parking lot is about long, stretching from about east of the toll plaza to about west of the metering lights.
During the morning commute hours,
traffic congestion
Traffic congestion is a condition in transport that is characterized by slower speeds, longer trip times, and increased vehicular queueing. Traffic congestion on urban road networks has increased substantially since the 1950s, resulting in m ...
on the westbound approach from Oakland stretches back through the
MacArthur Maze interchange at the east end of the bridge onto the three feeder highways,
Interstate 580,
Interstate 880, and
I-80
Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one of the ori ...
toward
Richmond
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, California, a city in the United States
* Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...
.
Since the number of lanes on the eastbound approach from San Francisco is structurally restricted, eastbound backups are also frequent during evening commute hours. The eastbound bottleneck is not the bridge itself, but the approach, which has just three lanes in each direction, in contrast to the bridge's five.
The western section of the Bay Bridge is currently restricted to motorized
freeway
A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...
traffic. Pedestrians, bicycles, and other non-freeway vehicles are not allowed to cross this section. A project to add bicycle/pedestrian lanes to the western section has been proposed but is not finalized. A
Caltrans
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is an Executive (government), executive department of the U.S. state of California. The department is part of the Government of California#State agencies, cabinet-level California State Tran ...
bicycle shuttle operates between Oakland and San Francisco during peak commute hours for $1.00 each way.
Freeway ramps next to the tunnel provide access to Yerba Buena Island and
Treasure Island
''Treasure Island'' (originally titled ''The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys''Hammond, J. R. 1984. "Treasure Island." In ''A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion'', Palgrave Macmillan Literary Companions. London: Palgrave Macmillan. .) is an adventure a ...
. Because the toll plaza is on the Oakland side, the western span is a ''de facto'' non-tolled bridge; traffic between the island and the main part of San Francisco can freely cross back and forth. Those who only travel from Oakland to Yerba Buena Island, and not the entire length to the main part of San Francisco, still must pay the full toll.
Early history
Developed at the entrance to the bay, San Francisco was well placed to prosper during the
California Gold Rush
The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...
. Almost all goods not produced locally arrived by ship, as did numerous travelers and erstwhile miners. But after the
first transcontinental railroad
America's first transcontinental railroad (known originally as the "Pacific Railroad" and later as the "Overland Route (Union Pacific Railroad), Overland Route") was a continuous railroad line built between 1863 and 1869 that connected the exis ...
was completed in May 1869, San Francisco was on the wrong side of the Bay, and separated from the new rail link.
Many San Franciscans feared that the city would lose its position as the regional center of trade. Businessmen had considered the concept of a bridge spanning the San Francisco Bay since the Gold Rush days. During the 1870s, several newspaper articles explored the idea. In early 1872, a "Bay Bridge Committee" was hard at work on plans to construct a
railroad
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...
bridge. The April 1872 issue of the ''San Francisco Real Estate Circular'' reported on this committee:
The self-proclaimed
Emperor Norton
Joshua Abraham Norton (February 4, 1818 – January 8, 1880) was a resident of San Francisco, California, who in 1859 declared himself "Emperor of these United States" in a proclamation that he signed "Norton I., Emperor of the United States" ...
decreed three times in 1872 that a suspension bridge be constructed to connect Oakland with San Francisco. In the third of these decrees, in September 1872, Norton, frustrated that nothing had happened, proclaimed:

Unlike most of Emperor Norton's eccentric ideas, his decree to build a bridge had a widespread public and political appeal. Yet the task was too much of an engineering and economic challenge, since the bay was too wide and too deep there. In 1921, more than forty years after Norton's death, an underground tube was considered, but it became clear that one would be inadequate for vehicular traffic.
Support for a trans-bay crossing increased in the 1920s based on the popularity and availability of automobiles.
Planning

The
California State Legislature
The California State Legislature is the bicameral state legislature of the U.S. state of California, consisting of the California State Assembly (lower house with 80 members) and the California State Senate (upper house with 40 members). ...
and governor enacted a law, effective in 1929, to establish the
California Toll Bridge Authority (Stats. 1929, Chap 763) and to authorize it and the State Department of Public Works to build a bridge connecting San Francisco and
Alameda County
Alameda County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,682,353, making it the 7th-most populous county in the state and 21st most populous nationally. The county seat is Oakland. A ...
(Stats. 1929, Chap 762).
The state appointed a commission to evaluate the idea and various designs for a bridge across the Bay, the Hoover-Young Commission. Its conclusions were made public in 1930.
In January 1931,
Charles H. Purcell, the State Highway Engineer of California, who had also served as the secretary of the Hoover-Young Commission, assumed the position of Chief Engineer for the Bay Bridge.
Glenn B. Woodruff served as design engineer for the project. He explained in a 1936 article that several elements of the bridge required not only new designs, but also new theories of design.
To make the bridge feasible, a route was chosen via
Yerba Buena Island
Yerba Buena Island ( Spanish: ''Isla Yerba Buena'') sits in San Francisco Bay within the borders of the City and County of San Francisco. The Yerba Buena Tunnel runs through its center and connects the western and eastern spans of the San Fran ...
, which would reduce both the material and the labor needed. Since Yerba Buena Island was a
U.S. Navy base at the time, the state had to gain approval from
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
for this purpose as it regulates and controls all
federal lands
Federal lands are lands in the United States owned and managed by the federal government. Pursuant to the Property Clause of the United States Constitution ( Article 4, section 3, clause 2), Congress has the power to retain, buy, sell, and regu ...
and the
armed services
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...
. After a great deal of lobbying, California received Congressional approval to use the island on February 20, 1931, subject to final approvals by the
Departments of War,
Navy
A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...
, and
Commerce
Commerce is the organized Complex system, system of activities, functions, procedures and institutions that directly or indirectly contribute to the smooth, unhindered large-scale exchange (distribution through Financial transaction, transactiona ...
. The state applied for permits from the 3 federal departments as required. The permits were granted in January 1932, and formally presented in a ceremony on Yerba Buena Island on February 24, 1932.
On May 25, 1931, Governor
James Rolph Jr. signed into law two acts: one providing for the financing of state bridges by revenue bonds, and another creating the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge Division of the State Department of Public Works. On September 15, 1931, this new division opened its offices at 500 Sansome Street in San Francisco.
During 1931, numerous aerial photographs were taken of the chosen route for the bridge and its approaches.
That year, engineers had not determined the final design concept for the western span between San Francisco and Yerba Buena Island, although the idea of a double-span suspension bridge was already favored.
In April 1932, the preliminary final plan and design of the bridge was presented by Chief Engineer Charles Purcell to Col. Walter E. Garrison, Director of the State Department of Public Works, and to
Ralph Modjeski, head of the Board of Engineering Consultants. Both agencies approved and preparation of the final design proceeded. In 1932,
Joseph R. Knowland, a former U.S. Congressman from California, traveled to Washington to help persuade President
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st president of the United States, serving from 1929 to 1933. A wealthy mining engineer before his presidency, Hoover led the wartime Commission for Relief in Belgium and ...
and the
Reconstruction Finance Corporation
The Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) was an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the United States federal government that served as a lender of last resort to US banks and businesses. Established in ...
to advance $62 million to build the bridge.
Construction

Before work began, 12 massive underwater telephone cables were moved of the proposed bridge route by crews of the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Co. during the summer of 1931.
Construction began on July 9, 1933 after a groundbreaking ceremony attended by former president
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st president of the United States, serving from 1929 to 1933. A wealthy mining engineer before his presidency, Hoover led the wartime Commission for Relief in Belgium and ...
, dignitaries, and local beauty queens.
The western section of the bridge between San Francisco and Yerba Buena Island presented an enormous engineering challenge. The bay was up to deep in places and the soil required new foundation-laying techniques.
A single main suspension span some in length was considered but rejected, as it would have required too much fill and reduced wharfage space at San Francisco, had less vertical clearance for shipping, and cost more than the design ultimately adopted. The solution was to construct a massive concrete anchorage halfway between San Francisco and the island, and to build a main suspension span on each side of this central anchorage.
East of Yerba Buena Island, the bay to Oakland was spanned by a combination of double cantilever, five long-span through-trusses, and a truss causeway, forming the longest bridge of its kind at the time.
The cantilever section was longest in the nation and third-longest anywhere.
Much of the original eastern section was founded upon treated wood pilings. Because of the very deep mud on the bay bottom, it was not practical to reach bedrock, although the lower levels of the mud are quite firm. Long wooden pilings were crafted from entire old-growth
Douglas fir
The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is the tallest tree in the Pinaceae family. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Or ...
trees, which were driven through the soft mud to the firmer bottom layers. The construction project had casualties: twenty-four men would die while constructing the bridge.
Yerba Buena Tunnel

California Department of Transportation engineer
C.H. Purcell served as chief engineer for the Bay Bridge, including the construction of the Yerba Buena Tunnel. Before starting excavation, the ground through which the western half of the tunnel would be bored was stabilized by injecting cement grout under pressure through 25 holes bored into the loose rock over the crown of the tunnel.
After excavating the western and eastern open portals, three drifts were bored from west to east along the path of the tunnel: one at the crown and the other two at the lower corners.
The first drift broke through in July 1934, approximately one year after the start of construction. A ceremonial party led by
Governor Merriam celebrated the completion of the first drift on July 24 by walking through it, followed by a short speech.
The space between the three drifts was then excavated, resulting in a single arch-shaped bore (in cross-section), and the tunnel roof was constructed using steel
I-beam
An I-beam is any of various structural members with an - (serif capital letter 'I') or H-shaped cross section (geometry), cross-section. Technical terms for similar items include H-beam, I-profile, universal column (UC), w-beam (for "wide flang ...
ribs spaced apart to support the rock, which were then embedded in concrete up to thick at the crown.
No cave-ins occurred during the excavation of the tunnel.
After the roof was completed, the remaining core of rock between the tunnel roof and lower deck was excavated using a power shovel.
By May 1935, work on removing the core was progressing and 40 steel ribs had been placed; concrete embedment was just starting.
Removal of the core was completed on November 18, 1935.
Once the excavation was complete, the upper deck was placed and the interior ceiling above the upper deck was lined with tiles.
The last concrete poured during the construction of the Bay Bridge was part of the upper deck lining in late summer 1936.
This included the emplacement of regularly spaced refuge bays ("deadman holes") along the south wall of the lower deck tunnel, escape alcoves common in all railway tunnels into which track maintenance workers could duck if a train came along. These remain and are visible to eastbound motorists today.
The completed tunnel bore is wide and high overall, and the dimensions of the tunnel interior are wide and high.
In 1936, it was hailed as the world's largest-bore tunnel.
The cross-sectional area of the upper half is , and the lower half is .
Reminders of the long-gone bridge railway survive along the south side of the lower Yerba Buena Tunnel. These are the regularly spaced refuge bays ("deadman holes"), escape alcoves common in all railway tunnels, along the wall, into which track maintenance workers could safely retreat if a train came along. (The north side, which always carried only motor traffic, lacks these holes.)
The tunnel is wide, high, and long.
It is the largest diameter transportation bore tunnel in the world.
The large amount of material that was excavated in boring the tunnel was used for a portion of the landfill over the
shoal
In oceanography, geomorphology, and Earth science, geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank (geography), bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material, and rises from the bed of a body ...
s lying adjacent to Yerba Buena Island to its north, a project which created the artificial
Treasure Island
''Treasure Island'' (originally titled ''The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys''Hammond, J. R. 1984. "Treasure Island." In ''A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion'', Palgrave Macmillan Literary Companions. London: Palgrave Macmillan. .) is an adventure a ...
. The contract to build the Yerba Buena Cable Anchorage, Tunnel & Viaduct segment was opened for bids on March 28, 1933, and awarded to the low bidder, Clinton Construction Company of California, for $1,821,129.50 (equivalent to $ in ).
Yerba Buena Island was the main site of the official groundbreaking for the Bay Bridge on July 9, 1933, when President
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
remotely set off a dynamite blast on the eastern side of the island at 12:58 p.m. local time.
Former President
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st president of the United States, serving from 1929 to 1933. A wealthy mining engineer before his presidency, Hoover led the wartime Commission for Relief in Belgium and ...
and Governor
James Rolph were onsite; the two men were the first to turn over the earth with ceremonial golden spades.
Other ceremonies took place simultaneously in San Francisco (on
Rincon Hill
Rincon Hill ( Spanish ''Rincón'', meaning "corner") is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. It is one of San Francisco's many hills, and one of its original " Seven Hills". The relatively compact neighborhood is bounded by Folsom Stre ...
) and Oakland Harbor.
The Yerba Buena Tunnel opened, along with the rest of the Bay Bridge, on November 12, 1936. the tunnel lacks an official name.
Opening day
The bridge opened on November 12, 1936, at 12:30 p.m. In attendance was former
U.S. president
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st president of the United States, serving from 1929 to 1933. A wealthy mining engineer before his presidency, Hoover led the wartime Commission for Relief in Belgium and ...
, Senator
William G. McAdoo
William Gibbs McAdoo Jr.McAdoo is variously differentiated from family members of the same name:
* Dr. William Gibbs McAdoo (1820–1894) – sometimes called "I" or "Senior"
* William Gibbs McAdoo (1863–1941) – sometimes called "II" or "J ...
, and the
Governor of California
The governor of California is the head of government of the U.S. state of California. The Governor (United States), governor is the commander-in-chief of the California National Guard and the California State Guard.
Established in the Constit ...
,
Frank Merriam. Governor Merriam opened the bridge by cutting gold chains across it with an
acetylene
Acetylene (Chemical nomenclature, systematic name: ethyne) is a chemical compound with the formula and structure . It is a hydrocarbon and the simplest alkyne. This colorless gas is widely used as a fuel and a chemical building block. It is u ...
cutting torch
Principle of burn cutting
Oxy-fuel welding (commonly called oxyacetylene welding, oxy welding, or gas welding in the United States) and oxy-fuel cutting are processes that use fuel gases (or liquid fuels such as gasoline or petrol, diesel, bio ...
.
The ''
San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...
'' report of November 13, 1936, read:

The total cost was US$77 million (equivalent to $ in ).
Before opening the bridge was blessed by
Cardinal Secretary of State
The Secretary of State of His Holiness (; ), also known as the Cardinal Secretary of State or the Vatican Secretary of State, presides over the Secretariat of State of the Holy See, the oldest and most important dicastery of the Roman Curia. Th ...
Eugene Cardinal Pacelli, later
Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...
.
Because it was in effect two bridges strung together, the western spans were ranked the second and third
largest suspension bridges. Only the
George Washington Bridge
The George Washington Bridge is a double-decked suspension bridge spanning the Hudson River, connecting Fort Lee in Bergen County, New Jersey, with the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It is named after George W ...
had a longer span between towers.
As part of the celebration a
United States commemorative coin was produced by the
San Francisco Mint. A
half dollar, the obverse portrays California's symbol, the
grizzly bear
The grizzly bear (''Ursus arctos horribilis''), also known as the North American brown bear or simply grizzly, is a population or subspecies of the brown bear inhabiting North America.
In addition to the mainland grizzly (''Ursus arctos horr ...
, while the reverse presents a picture of the bridge spanning the bay. A total of 71,369 coins were sold, some from the bridge's tollbooths.
Post-opening history
1930s–1960s
The Bridge Railway

Construction of the Bridge Railway began on November 29, 1937, with the laying of the first ties. The first train was run across the Bay Bridge on September 23, 1938, a test run utilizing a Key System train consisting of two articulated units with California Governor
Frank Merriam at the controls. On January 14, 1939, the
San Francisco Transbay Terminal
The San Francisco Transbay Terminal was a transportation complex in San Francisco, California, United States, roughly in the center of the rectangle bounded north–south by Mission Street and Howard Street, and east–west by Beale Street an ...
was dedicated. The following morning, January 15, 1939, the electric
interurban
The interurban (or radial railway in Canada) is a type of electric railway, with tram-like electric self-propelled railcars which run within and between cities or towns. The term "interurban" is usually used in North America, with other terms u ...
trains started in revenue service, running along the south side of the lower deck of the bridge. The terminal originally was supposed to open at the same time as the Bay Bridge, but had been delayed.
Trains over the Bridge Railway were operated by the
Sacramento Northern Railroad (
Western Pacific), the
Interurban Electric Railway (
Southern Pacific) and the
Key System. Freight trains never used the bridge. The tracks left the lower deck in San Francisco just southwest of the end of 1st St. They then went along an elevated viaduct above city streets, looping around and into the terminal on its east end. Departing trains exited on the loop back onto the bridge. The loop continued to be used by buses until the terminal's closure in 2010. The tracks left the lower deck in Oakland. The Interurban Electric Railway tracks ran along Engineer Road and over the
Southern Pacific yard on trestles (some of it is still standing and visible from nearby roadways) onto the streets and dedicated right-of-ways in Berkeley, Albany, Oakland and Alameda. The Sacramento Northern and Key System tracks went under the SP tracks through a tunnel (which still exists and is in use as an access to the
EBMUD treatment plant) and onto 40th St. Due to falling ridership, Sacramento Northern and IER service ended in 1941.
On September 13, 1942, a stop was opened at Yerba Buena Island to serve expanded wartime needs on adjacent Treasure Island.
Despite the vital role the railroad played, the last train went over the bridge in April 1958. The tracks were removed and replaced with pavement on the Transbay Terminal ramps and Bay Bridge. The Key System handled buses over the bridge until 1960 when its successor,
AC Transit
AC Transit is the main Public transport bus service, bus transit operator in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, California. AC Transit is the third largest bus operator in California, serving the western portions of Alameda and C ...
, took over operations. It still handles service today, running to a new transbay terminal located in the same vicinity in San Francisco, the
Salesforce Transit Center.
Emperor Norton plaque and relocation
In 1872, the San Francisco entrepreneur and eccentric
Emperor Norton
Joshua Abraham Norton (February 4, 1818 – January 8, 1880) was a resident of San Francisco, California, who in 1859 declared himself "Emperor of these United States" in a proclamation that he signed "Norton I., Emperor of the United States" ...
issued three proclamations calling for the design and construction of a suspension bridge between San Francisco and Oakland via Yerba Buena Island (formerly Goat Island). A 1939 plaque honoring Emperor Norton for the original idea for the Bay Bridge was dedicated by the fraternal society
E Clampus Vitus
The Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus (ECV) is a fraternal organization dedicated to the preservation of the heritage of the Western United States, especially the history of the Mother Lode#California Mother Lode, Mother Lode and gold ...
and was installed at
The Cliff House in February 1955. In November 1986, in connection with the bridge's 50th anniversary, the plaque was moved to the
Transbay Terminal, the public transit and Greyhound bus depot at the west end of the bridge in downtown San Francisco. When the terminal was closed in 2010, the plaque was placed in storage.
1960s–2010s
Roadway retrofit
Until the 1960s, the upper deck ( wide between curbs) carried three lanes of traffic in each direction and was restricted to automobiles only.
The lower deck carried three lanes of truck and bus traffic, with autos allowed, on the north side of the bridge.
In the 1950s traffic lights were added to set the direction of travel in the middle lane, but there still remained no divider. Two
interurban railroad tracks on the south half of the lower deck carried the electric commuter trains. In 1958 the tracks were replaced with pavement, but the reconfiguration to what the traffic eventually became did not take place until 1963.
The Federal highway on the bridge was originally a
concurrency of U.S. Highway 40 and U.S. Highway 50. The bridge was re-designated as
Interstate 80
Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one of the ori ...
in 1964, and the western ends of U.S. 40 and U.S. 50 are now in
Silver Summit, Utah, and
West Sacramento, California
West Sacramento (also known as West Sac) is a city in Yolo County, California, United States. The city is separated from Sacramento, California, Sacramento by the Sacramento River, which also separates Sacramento County, California, Sacramento a ...
, respectively.
Reconstruction of approaches
The original western approach to (and exit from) the upper deck of the bridge was a long ramp to Fifth Street, branching to Harrison St for westward traffic off the bridge and Bryant St for eastward traffic entering. There was also an on-ramp to the upper deck on
Rincon Hill
Rincon Hill ( Spanish ''Rincón'', meaning "corner") is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. It is one of San Francisco's many hills, and one of its original " Seven Hills". The relatively compact neighborhood is bounded by Folsom Stre ...
from Fremont Street (which later became an off-ramp) and an off-ramp to First Street (later extended over First St to Fremont St). The lower deck ended at Essex and Harrison St; just southwest of there, the tracks of the bridge railway left the lower deck and curved northward into the elevated loop through the
Transbay Terminal that was paved for buses after rail service ended.
The eastern approach to the bridge included a causeway landing for the "incline" section, and the construction of three feeder highways, interlinked by an extensive interchange, which in later years became known as "The
MacArthur Maze". A massive landfill was emplaced, extending along the north edge of the existing
Key System rail
mole to the existing bayshore, and continuing northward along the shore to the foot of Ashby Avenue in
Berkeley. The fill was continued northward to the foot of University Avenue as a causeway which enclosed an artificial lagoon, subsequently developed by the WPA as "
Aquatic Park". The three feeder highways were
U.S. Highway 40 (Eastshore Highway) which led north through Berkeley,
U.S. Highway 50 (38th Street, later MacArthur Blvd.) which led through Oakland, and
State Route 17 which ran parallel to U.S. 50, along the
Oakland Estuary
The Oakland Estuary is the strait in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, separating the cities of Oakland, California, Oakland and Alameda, California, Alameda and the Alameda (island), Alameda Island from the East Bay mainland. On its weste ...
and through the industrial and port sections of the city.
The current approaches were constructed in the 1960s, as the original ones were not up to interstate highway standards and were designed mainly for local use.
Yerba Buena Tunnel Reconstruction
As originally completed, the upper deck was reserved for automobile traffic, and carried six lanes, each wide.
The lower deck was further divided into three lanes of traffic for heavy trucks (each wide), and the two railroad tracks on the south side ( wide for both tracks).
The initial design in 1932 called for the two rail tracks to flank a central truck deck on the lower level.
After
Key System trains stopped running over the bridge in 1958, bids were opened on October 11, 1960, to rebuild the tunnel. The rebuild consisted of multiple stages of work:
# Remove Key System rails, lower rail deck and repave
# Lower the truck traffic half of the lower deck by and repave
# Remove center columns supporting upper deck
# Lower the upper deck by by placing precast concrete units
After the reconstruction, the tunnel would handle only road traffic. The upper deck was lowered to accommodate heavy truck traffic, as each deck would now carry five lanes of unidirectional traffic. The upper deck was dedicated to westbound traffic, and the lower deck was dedicated to eastbound traffic.
The impact to traffic during reconstruction of the tunnel was minimized mainly by working outside normal commuting hours and through the use of a portable steel bridge long and wide, designed to fit between the curbs of the existing upper deck.
The bridge spanned the gap between the new upper deck and old upper deck, and the overall elevation change of caused drivers to slow to , resulting in traffic jams. The first accident caused by "The Hump", the nickname the bridge acquired after prominent warning signs advertising its presence, occurred just twelve minutes after it was first deployed on November 25, 1961.
The new precast upper deck units were each long, and were installed in two halves. One side of each half rested on a temporary falsework erected in the middle of the lower deck, and the other side rested on the shoulder of the tunnel wall previously used to support the old upper deck. After the two halves were fastened together, a steel form was used to close the gap between halves, and concrete was poured in the gap.
The upper deck rests on shoulders built into the tunnel wall, padded by Masonite.
The planned completion date for tunnel reconstruction was July 1962, but "The Hump" was not dismantled until October 27, 1962. The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' marked the occasion by quipping "
he Humpproduced more jams than Grandma ever made."
After reconstruction, both the upper and lower decks featured of vertical clearance. Upper deck clearance is restricted by the tunnel portal, and lower deck clearance is restricted by the upper deck.
Rail removal

Automobile traffic increased dramatically in the ensuing decades of the bridge's opening. This, among other things, resulted in the
Key Systems decline, and by the 1960s having rails on the bridge had become obsolete and a detriment to traffic, as they carried nothing on them. Work began on removing the tracks in October 1963. After the work was completed, the Bay Bridge was reconfigured with five lanes of westbound traffic on the upper deck and five lanes of eastbound traffic on the lower deck. The Key System originally planned to end train operations in 1948 when it replaced its streetcars with buses, but Caltrans did not approve of this. Trucks had their ban lifted and were allowed on the top deck for the first time.
Due to this, the upper deck was retrofitted to handle the increased loads, with understringers added and prestressing added to the bottom of the floor beams. This retrofit is still in place today, and is visible to Eastbound traffic on the western span.
In current times, there have been attempts to restore rail service to the bridge, but none were successful. A study released in 2000 estimated the cost of restoring rail service across the bridge at up to $8 billion .
1968 aircraft accident
On February 11, 1968, a
U.S. Navy training aircraft crashed into the cantilever span of the bridge, killing both
reserve officers aboard. The
T2V SeaStar, based at
NAS Los Alamitos in
southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...
, was on a routine weekend mission and had just taken off in the fog from nearby
NAS Alameda
Naval Air Station Alameda (NAS Alameda) was a United States Navy Naval Air Station mostly in Alameda, California, with a slight portion of it within San Francisco proper, on San Francisco Bay.
NAS Alameda had two runways: 13–31 measuring and ...
. The plane struck the bridge about above the upper deck roadway and then sank in the bay north of the bridge.
There were no injuries among the motorists on the bridge.
One of the truss sections of the bridges was replaced due to damage from the impact.
1986 Cable lighting
The series of lights adorning the westbound spans suspension cables were added in 1986 as part of the bridge's 50th-anniversary celebration.
James B. Rolpf Jr. designation
The bridge was unofficially "dedicated" to
James B. "Sunny Jim" Rolph, Jr.,
["Named Freeways, Highways, Structures and Other Appurtenances in California"](_blank)
, California Department of Transportation, 2013, p. 43. but this was not widely recognized until the bridge's 50th-anniversary celebrations in 1986. The official name of the bridge for all functional purposes has always been the "San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge", and, by most local people, it is referred to simply as "the Bay Bridge". Rolph, a
Mayor of San Francisco
The mayor of the City and County of San Francisco is the head of the executive branch of the Government of San Francisco, San Francisco city and county government. The officeholder has the duty to enforce city laws, and the power to either appro ...
from 1912 to 1931, was the
Governor of California
The governor of California is the head of government of the U.S. state of California. The Governor (United States), governor is the commander-in-chief of the California National Guard and the California State Guard.
Established in the Constit ...
at the time construction of the bridge began. He died in office on June 2, 1934, two years before the bridge opened, leaving the bridge to be named for him out of respect.
1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake and emergency repairs

On the evening of October 17, 1989, during the
Loma Prieta earthquake
On October 17, 1989, at 5:04 p.m. PST, the Loma Prieta earthquake occurred at the Central Coast of California. The shock was centered in The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park in Santa Cruz County, approximately 10 mi (16 km) ...
, which measured a 6.9 on the
moment magnitude scale
The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mwg, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. was defined in a 1979 paper ...
, a section of the upper deck of the eastern
truss
A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as Beam (structure), beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure.
In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so ...
portion of the bridge at Pier E9 collapsed onto the deck below, indirectly causing one death. The bridge was closed for just over a month as construction crews repaired the section. That same year, the bridge reopened to traffic on November 18.
2001 terrorism threat
On November 2, 2001, in the aftermath of the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
, Governor
Gray Davis
Joseph Graham "Gray" Davis Jr. (born December 26, 1942) is an American attorney and former politician who served as the 37th governor of California from 1999 until he was recalled and removed from office in 2003. He is the second state governor ...
announced a threat of a rush hour attack against a West Coast suspension bridge (a group which includes the Bay Bridge and the
Golden Gate Bridge
The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean in California, United States. The structure links San Francisco—the northern tip of the San Francisco Peni ...
) some time between November 2 and 7, resulting in an increase of openly armed law enforcement patrols.
A small fraction of drivers shifted to ferries and
BART
Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area in California. BART serves List of Bay Area Rapid Transit stations, 50 stations along six routes and of track, including eBART, a spur line running t ...
.
It was later revealed that crews had secretly been working under armed guard for several weeks to harden the suspension cable attachment points, which were vulnerable to cutting with common weapons and tools. An anchor room was filled with concrete, doors welded shut, and a
razor wire fence added. A blast wall was also added to defend against a potential
truck bomb.
In the end, no attack occurred.
Emperor Norton naming campaign
In November 2004, after a campaign by ''
San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...
'' cartoonist
Phil Frank, then-San Francisco District 3 Supervisor
Aaron Peskin introduced a resolution to the
San Francisco Board of Supervisors
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is the board of supervisors, legislative body within the government of San Francisco, government of the San Francisco, City and County of San Francisco in the U.S. state of California.
Government and polit ...
calling for the entire two-bridge system, from San Francisco to Oakland, to be named for Emperor Norton.
On December 14, 2004, the Board approved a modified version of this resolution, calling for only "new additions"—i.e., the new eastern crossing—to be named "The Emperor Norton Bridge".
Neither the City of Oakland nor Alameda County passed any similar resolution, so the effort went no further.
Western span retrofit
The western section has undergone extensive
seismic retrofit
Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes (or generally, quakes) and the generation and propagation of elastic ...
ting. During the retrofit, much of the
structural steel
Structural steel is steel used for making construction materials in a variety of shapes. Many structural steel shapes take the form of an elongated beam having a profile of a specific cross section (geometry), cross section. Structural steel sha ...
supporting the bridge deck was replaced while the bridge remained open to traffic. Engineers accomplished this by using methods similar to those employed on the
Chicago Skyway
Interstate 90 (I-90) in the US state of Illinois runs roughly northwest-to-southeast through the northern part of the state. From the Wisconsin state line at South Beloit, Illinois, South Beloit, it heads south to Rockford, Illinois, Ro ...
.
The entire bridge was fabricated using hot steel rivets, which are impossible to heat treat and so remain relatively soft. Analysis showed that these could fail by shearing under extreme stress. Therefore, at most locations, rivets were replaced with high-strength bolts.
Most bolts had domed heads placed facing traffic so they looked similar to the rivets that were removed.. This work had to be performed with great care as the steel of the structure had for many years been painted with
lead
Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...
paint, which had to be carefully removed and contained by workers with extensive protective gear so that they would not
suffocate.
Most of the beams were originally constructed of two plate -beams joined with lattices of flat strip or angle stock, depending upon structural requirements. These have all been reconstructed by replacing the riveted lattice elements with bolted steel plate and so converting the lattice beams into box beams. This replacement included adding face plates to the large diagonal beams joining the faces of the main towers, which now have an improved appearance when viewed from certain angles.
Diagonal box beams have been added to each bay of the upper and lower decks of the western spans. These add stiffness to reduce side-to-side motion during an earthquake and reduce the probability of damage to the decking surfaces.
Analysis showed that some massive concrete supports could burst and crumble under likely stresses. In particular the western supports were extensively modified. First, the location of existing reinforcing bar is determined using magnetic techniques. In areas between bars holes are drilled. Into these holes is inserted and glued an L-shaped bar that protrudes . This bar is retained in the hole with a high-strength
epoxy
Epoxy is the family of basic components or Curing (chemistry), cured end products of epoxy Resin, resins. Epoxy resins, also known as polyepoxides, are a class of reactive prepolymers and polymers which contain epoxide groups. The epoxide fun ...
adhesive. The entire surface of the structure is thus covered with closely spaced protrusions. A network of horizontal and vertical reinforcing bars is then attached to these protrusions. Mold surface plates are then positioned to retain high-strength concrete, which is then pumped into the void. After removal of the formwork the surface appears similar to the original concrete. This technique has been applied elsewhere throughout California to improve freeway overpass abutments and some overpass central supports that have unconventional shapes. (Other techniques such as ''jacket and grout'' are applied to simple vertical posts; see the
seismic retrofit
Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes (or generally, quakes) and the generation and propagation of elastic ...
article.)
The western approaches have also been retrofitted in part, but mostly these have been replaced with new construction of reinforced concrete.
2007 ''Cosco Busan'' oil spill
In 2007, a container ship then named the ''Cosco Busan,'' and subsequently renamed the ''
Hanjin Venezia,'' collided with the Delta Tower fender, resulting in the
''Cosco Busan'' oil spill.
October 2009 eyebar crack, repair failure and bridge closure
During the 2009
Labor Day
Labor Day is a Federal holidays in the United States, federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday of September to honor and recognize the Labor history of the United States, American labor movement and the works and con ...
weekend closure for a portion of the replacement, a major crack was found in an
eyebar, significant enough to warrant bridge closure. Working in parallel with the retrofit,
California Department of Transportation
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is an Executive (government), executive department of the U.S. state of California. The department is part of the Government of California#State agencies, cabinet-level California State Tran ...
(Caltrans), and its contractors and subcontractors, were able to design, engineer, fabricate, and install the pieces required to repair the bridge, delaying its planned opening by only hours. The repair was not inspected by the
Federal Highway Administration
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two programs, the Federal-aid Highway Program a ...
, which relied on state inspection reports to ensure safety guidelines were met.
On October 27, 2009, during the evening commute, the steel crossbeam and two steel tie rods repaired over
Labor Day
Labor Day is a Federal holidays in the United States, federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday of September to honor and recognize the Labor history of the United States, American labor movement and the works and con ...
weekend snapped off the Bay Bridge's eastern section and fell to the upper deck. This may have been due to metal-on-metal vibration from bridge traffic and wind gusts of up to , which resulted in one of the rods breaking off and caused one of the metal sections to come crashing down. Three vehicles were either struck by or hit the fallen debris, though there were no injuries.
On November 1, Caltrans announced that the bridge would probably stay closed at least through the morning commute of Monday, November 2 after repairs performed during the weekend failed a stress test on Sunday.
BART
Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area in California. BART serves List of Bay Area Rapid Transit stations, 50 stations along six routes and of track, including eBART, a spur line running t ...
and the
Golden Gate Ferry
Golden Gate Ferry is a commuter ferry service operated by the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District in San Francisco Bay, part of the Bay Area of Northern California, United States. Regular service is run to the Ferry Bui ...
systems added supplemental service to accommodate the increased passenger load during the bridge closure. The bridge reopened to traffic on November 2, 2009.
The pieces that broke off on October 27 were a saddle, crossbars, and two tension rods.
2010s–present
Willie L. Brown, Jr., Bridge naming resolution
In June 2013, nine state assemblymen, joined by two state senators, introduced Assembly
Concurrent Resolution
A concurrent resolution is a resolution (a legislative measure) adopted by both houses of a bicameral legislature that lacks the force of law (is non-binding) and does not require the approval of the chief executive ( president). Concurrent reso ...
No. 65 (ACR 65) to name the western crossing of the bridge for former California Assembly Speaker and former San Francisco Mayor
Willie Brown. Six weeks later, a grassroots petition was launched seeking to name the entire two-bridge system for Emperor Norton. In September 2013, the petition's author launched a nonprofit, The Emperor's Bridge Campaign — now known as
The Emperor Norton Trust — that advocates for adding "Emperor Norton Bridge" as an honorary name (rather than "renaming" the bridge) and that undertakes other efforts to advance Norton's legacy. The state legislative resolution naming the western section of the Bay Bridge the "Willie L. Brown, Jr., Bridge" passed the Assembly in August 2013 and the Senate in September 2013. A ceremony was held on February 11, 2014, marking the resolution and the installation of signs on either end of the section.
Eastern span replacement
For various reasons, the eastern section would have been too expensive to retrofit compared to replacing it, so the decision was made to replace it.
The replacement section underwent a series of design changes, both progressive and regressive, with increasing cost estimates and contractor bids. The final design included a single-towered
self-anchored suspension span starting at Yerba Buena island, leading to a long inclined viaduct to the Oakland touchdown.
Separated and protected bicycle lanes are a visually prominent feature on the south side of the new eastern section. The
bikeway and pedestrian path across the eastern span opened in October 2016 and carries recreational and commuter cyclists between Oakland and Yerba Buena Island. The original eastern cantilever span had
firefighting
Firefighting is a profession aimed at controlling and extinguishing fire. A person who engages in firefighting is known as a firefighter or fireman. Firefighters typically undergo a high degree of technical training. This involves structural fir ...
dry standpipes installed. No
firefighting
Firefighting is a profession aimed at controlling and extinguishing fire. A person who engages in firefighting is known as a firefighter or fireman. Firefighters typically undergo a high degree of technical training. This involves structural fir ...
dry or
wet standpipes were designed for the eastern section replacement, although, the
firefighting
Firefighting is a profession aimed at controlling and extinguishing fire. A person who engages in firefighting is known as a firefighter or fireman. Firefighters typically undergo a high degree of technical training. This involves structural fir ...
wet standpipes do exist on the original western section visible on both the north-side upper and lower decks.
The original eastern section closed permanently to traffic on August 28, 2013, and the replacement span opened for traffic five days later. The original eastern section was dismantled between January 2014 and November 2017.
File:800px-EasternSFOBBSkyExt.jpg, Some new construction (2004)
File:SFOBBESR-1787C-May15-2011.jpg, Substantial progress (2011)
File:SFOBBESR-1787C-Oct-1-2013.JPG, The completed replacement and the old bridge (2013)
File:San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge - Old and New bridges.jpg, Rest of old and new bridge (June 2015)
File:ProposedSFOBBEasternSpanRecrop.jpg, Artist's simulation of final appearance after old span demolition
2013 public "light sculpture" installation
On March 5, 2013, a public art installation called "
The Bay Lights" was activated on the western span's vertical cables. The installation was designed by artist
Leo Villareal and consists of 25,000
LED
A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (corresp ...
lights originally scheduled to be on nightly display until March 2015. However, on December 17, 2014, the non-profit Illuminate The Arts announced that it had raised the $4 million needed to make the lights permanent; the display was temporarily turned off starting in March 2015 in order to perform maintenance and install sturdier bulbs and then re-lit on January 30, 2016.
In order to reduce driver distractions, the privately funded display is not visible to users of the bridge, only to distant observers. This lighting effort is intended to form part of a larger project to "light the bay". Villareal used various algorithms to generate patterns such as rainfall, reflections on water, bird flight, expanding rings, and others. Villareal's patterns and transitions will be sequenced and their duration determined by computerized
random number generator
Random number generation is a process by which, often by means of a random number generator (RNG), a sequence of numbers or symbols is generated that cannot be reasonably predicted better than by random chance. This means that the particular ou ...
to make each viewing experience unique. Owing to the efficiency of the LED system employed, the estimated operating cost is only US$15.00 per night.
The lights were switched off permanently at 8 pm on March 5, 2023 – the 10th anniversary of the artwork. This was done due to their poor condition and increasing costs to maintain properly. There is a plan to raise additional funds and install a new set of lights later in the year.
Alexander Zuckermann Bike Path
The pedestrian and bicycle route on the eastern section opened on September 3, 2013, and is named after Alexander Zuckermann, founding chair of the
East Bay Bicycle Coalition. This forms a transbay route for the
San Francisco Bay Trail
The San Francisco Bay Trail is a bicycle and pedestrian trail that when finished will allow continuous travel around the shoreline of San Francisco Bay. As of 2020, of the trail have been completed. When finished, the trail will be over of pa ...
. Until October 2016, the path did not connect to Yerba Buena and
Treasure Island
''Treasure Island'' (originally titled ''The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys''Hammond, J. R. 1984. "Treasure Island." In ''A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion'', Palgrave Macmillan Literary Companions. London: Palgrave Macmillan. .) is an adventure a ...
sidewalks, due to the need to demolish more of the old eastern section before final construction. On May 2, 2017, public access was extended to seven days a week, 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., with occasional closure days for continued demolition of the old bridge foundations. This work was completed on November 11, 2017.
Yerba Buena Tunnel closure and repair
On January 30, 2016, a chunk of concrete the size of an automobile tire fell from the tunnel wall into the slow lane of eastbound traffic on the lower deck of the Yerba Buena Tunnel, causing a minor accident. The concrete fell from where the upper deck is connected to the tunnel wall. Based on an examination of photographs, a professor from Georgia Tech postulated that water infiltration into the concrete wall had caused the reinforcing steel to corrode and expand, forcing a chunk of the tunnel wall out. A subsequent
California Department of Transportation
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is an Executive (government), executive department of the U.S. state of California. The department is part of the Government of California#State agencies, cabinet-level California State Tran ...
(Caltrans) investigation identified 12 spots on both sides of the tunnel wall in the lower deck space showed signs of corrosion-induced damage, but no immediate risk of further spalling. The apparent cause was rainwater leaking from upper deck drains. Caltrans engineers speculated the Masonite pads had swelled due to rainwater infiltration, cracking the tunnel walls and allowing moisture in to the reinforcing steel.
Repairs to the degraded concrete started in February 2017. Drains and catch basins were replaced to reduce the likelihood of clogging, and fiberglass-reinforced mortar was used to patch removed concrete. The repairs, which required some daytime lane closures, were expected to last until June 2017.
2020 bus lane proposal
In January 2020, the
AC Transit
AC Transit is the main Public transport bus service, bus transit operator in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, California. AC Transit is the third largest bus operator in California, serving the western portions of Alameda and C ...
and
BART
Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area in California. BART serves List of Bay Area Rapid Transit stations, 50 stations along six routes and of track, including eBART, a spur line running t ...
boards of directors supported the establishment of dedicated bus lanes on the bridge. In February 2020,
Rob Bonta introduced state legislation to begin planning bus lanes on the bridge.
Judge John Sutter Regional Shoreline
On October 21, 2020,
Judge John Sutter Regional Shoreline park opened to the public. Located at the foot of the bridge, the opening of the park has led to easier access to the Alexander Zuckermann Bike Path due to improved parking and pedestrian access.
2016–2023 exit reconstructions
In the 1960s directional reconfiguration, there were three off-ramps added to Yerba Buena Island and Treasure Island: a single left-hand side exit in the western direction at the east end of the tunnel, a left-hand side exit in the eastern direction at the west end of the tunnel (originally signed as just "Treasure Island"), and a right-hand side exit in eastern direction at the east end of the tunnel (originally signed as just "Yerba Buena Island").
The eastbound left exit in particular presented an unusual hazard – drivers had to slow within the normal traffic flow and move into a very short off-ramp that ended in a short radius turn left turn; accordingly, a 15 MPH advisory was posted there. The turn had been further narrowed from its original design by the installation of crash pads on the island side. The eastbound and westbound on-ramps were then on the usual right-hand side, but they did not have dedicated merge lanes, forcing drivers to await gaps in traffic and then accelerate from a
stop sign
A stop sign is a traffic sign designed to notify drivers that they must come to a complete stop and make sure the intersection (road), intersection (or level crossing, railroad crossing) is safely clear of vehicles and pedestrians before contin ...
to traffic speeds in a short distance. In 2016, a new on-ramp and off-ramp at the east end of the tunnel were opened in the western direction on the right-hand side of the roadway, replacing the left-hand side off-ramp in that direction. Meanwhile, the eastbound right-hand side off-ramp and on-ramp at the east end of the tunnel was demolished during the reconstruction of the eastern span of the bridge. A new on-ramp on this side was built with a dedicated merge lane, but the off-ramp's replacement was not completed until early-May 2023, well after the
bridge's bike path from the Oakland side to the island was fully completed. The eastbound left-hand side off-ramp and westbound on-ramp at the west end of the tunnel are then scheduled then close as early as late-May 2023 while the western span undergoes a seismic retrofit.
Financing and tolls
Current toll rates

Tolls are only collected from westbound traffic at the toll plaza on the Oakland side of the bridge. Those just traveling between Yerba Buena Island and the main part of San Francisco are not tolled.
All-electronic tolling
Open road tolling (ORT), also called all-electronic tolling, cashless tolling, or free-flow tolling, is the collection of tolls on toll roads without the use of tollbooths. An electronic toll collection system is usually used instead. The major ...
has been in effect since 2020, and drivers may either pay using the
FasTrak electronic toll collection device or using the license plate tolling program. It remains not truly an
open road tolling
Open road tolling (ORT), also called all-electronic tolling, cashless tolling, or free-flow tolling, is the collection of tolls on toll roads without the use of tollbooths. An electronic toll collection system is usually used instead. The major ...
system until the remaining unused toll booths are removed, forcing drivers to slow substantially from freeway speeds while passing through. Effective , the toll rate for passenger cars is $8. During peak traffic hours on weekdays between 5:00 am and 10:00 am, and between 3:00 pm and 7:00 pm,
carpool
Carpooling is the sharing of Automobile, car journeys so that more than one person travels in a car, and prevents the need for others to have to drive to a location themselves. Carpooling is considered a Demand-Responsive Transport (DRT) serv ...
vehicles carrying three or more people, clean air vehicles, or motorcycles may pay a discounted toll of $4 if they have FasTrak and use the designated carpool lane. Drivers without Fastrak or a license plate account must open and pay via a "short term" account within 48 hours after crossing the bridge or they will be sent an invoice of the unpaid toll. No additional toll violation penalty will be assessed if the invoice is paid within 21 days.
Historical toll rates
When the Bay Bridge opened in 1936, the toll was 65 cents (),
collected in each direction by men in booths fronting each lane of traffic. Within months, the toll was lowered to 50 cents in order to compete with the ferry system, and finally to 25 cents since this was shown sufficient to pay off the original revenue bonds on schedule (equivalent to $ and $ in respectively). In 1951 there were eighty collectors working various shifts.
[ C.H. Garrigues, "Most Polite Man," ''Nation's Business,'' February 1951, pages 72-74]
On Monday, September 1, 1969, (
Labor Day
Labor Day is a Federal holidays in the United States, federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday of September to honor and recognize the Labor history of the United States, American labor movement and the works and con ...
) a change of policy resulted in the toll being collected thereafter only from westbound traffic, at twice the previous rate; eastbound vehicles were toll-exempt.
Tolls were subsequently raised to finance improvements to the bridge approaches, required to connect with new freeways, and to subsidize public transit in order to reduce the traffic over the bridge. The toll was increased by a quarter dollar to 75 cents in 1978 (), where it remained for a decade.
Caltrans
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is an Executive (government), executive department of the U.S. state of California. The department is part of the Government of California#State agencies, cabinet-level California State Tran ...
, the state highway transportation agency, maintains seven of the eight San Francisco Bay Area bridges. (The Golden Gate Bridge is owned and maintained by the
Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District.)
The basic toll (for automobiles) on the seven state-owned bridges, including the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, was standardized to $1 by Regional Measure 1, approved by Bay Area voters in 1988 (). A $1 seismic retrofit surcharge was added in 1998 by the state legislature, increasing the toll to $2 (), originally for eight years, but since then extended to December 2037 (AB1171, October 2001).
On March 2, 2004, voters approved Regional Measure 2 to fund various transportation improvement projects, raising the toll by another dollar to $3 (). An additional dollar was added to the toll starting January 1, 2007, to cover cost overruns on the
eastern span replacement of the Bay Bridge, increasing the toll to $4 ().
The
Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), a regional transportation agency, in its capacity as the
Bay Area Toll Authority, administers RM1 and RM2 funds, a significant portion of which are allocated to public transit capital improvements and operating subsidies in the transportation corridors served by the bridges. Caltrans administers the "second dollar" seismic surcharge, and receives some of the MTC-administered funds to perform other maintenance work on the bridges. The state legislature created the Bay Area Toll Authority in 1997 to transfer the toll administration of the seven state-owned bridges to the MTC. The Bay Area Toll Authority is made up of appointed officials put in place by various city and county governments, and is not subject to direct voter oversight.
Due to further funding shortages for seismic retrofit projects, the Bay Area Toll Authority again raised tolls on all seven of the state-owned bridges (this excludes the
Golden Gate Bridge
The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean in California, United States. The structure links San Francisco—the northern tip of the San Francisco Peni ...
) in July 2010. The toll rate for autos on other Bay Area bridges was increased to $5 (), but in the Bay Bridge a
congestion pricing
Congestion pricing or congestion charges is a system of surcharging users of public goods that are subject to congestion through excess demand, such as through higher peak charges for use of bus services, electricity, metros, railways, tel ...
tolling scheme was implemented. This
variable pricing
Dynamic pricing, also referred to as surge pricing, demand pricing, or time-based pricing, and variable pricing, is a revenue management pricing strategy in which businesses set flexible prices for products or services based on current market d ...
system was not truly congestion priced because toll rates came from a preset schedule and are not based on actual congestion. A $6 toll () was charged from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday. During weekends cars paid the standard $5 toll like the other bridges.
Carpools before the implementation were exempted but began to pay $2.50 (), and the carpool toll discount became available only to drivers with
FasTrak electronic toll devices. The toll remained at the previous toll of $4 at all other times on weekdays (now ). The Bay Area Toll Authority reported that by October 2010 fewer users are driving during the peak hours and more vehicles are crossing the Bay Bridge before and after the 5–10 a.m. period in which the congestion toll goes into effect. Commute delays in the first six months dropped by an average of 15% compared with 2009. For vehicles with at least 3 axles, the toll rate was $5 per axle.
In June 2018, Bay Area voters approved Regional Measure 3 to further raise the tolls on all seven of the state-owned bridges to fund $4.5 billion worth of transportation improvements in the area. Under the passed measure, the tolls on the Bay Bridge were raised by $1 on January 1, 2019, then again on January 1, 2022, and again on January 1, 2025. Thus under the congestion pricing scheme, the tolls for autos during the peak weekday rush hours were set to $7 in 2019, $8 in 2022, and $9 in 2025; for the non-rush periods, $5 in 2019, $6 in 2022, and $7 in 2025; and on weekends, $6 in 2019, $7 in 2022, and $8 in 2025. Congestion pricing was then suspended indefinitely in April 2020 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, leaving the weekend toll rates in effect for all days and times.
In September 2019, the MTC approved a $4 million plan to eliminate toll takers and convert all seven of the state-owned bridges to
all-electronic tolling
Open road tolling (ORT), also called all-electronic tolling, cashless tolling, or free-flow tolling, is the collection of tolls on toll roads without the use of tollbooths. An electronic toll collection system is usually used instead. The major ...
, citing that 80 percent of drivers are now using Fastrak and the change would improve traffic flow. On March 20, 2020, accelerated by the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, all-electronic tolling was placed in effect for all seven state-owned toll bridges. The MTC then installed new systems at all seven bridges to make them permanently cashless by the start of 2021. In April 2022, the Bay Area Toll Authority announced plans to remove all remaining unused toll booths and create an open-road tolling system which functions at highway speeds; until then, drivers must still slow substantially while passing through the toll plaza.
The Bay Area Toll Authority then approved a plan in December 2024 to implement 50-cent annual toll increases on all seven state-owned bridges between 2026 and 2030 to help pay for bridge maintenance. The standard toll rate for autos will thus rise to $8.50 on January 1, 2026; $9 in 2027; $9.50 in 2028; $10 in 2029; and then to $10.50 in 2030. And becoming effective in 2027, a 25-cent surcharge will be added to any toll charged to a license plate account, and a 50-cent surcharge added to a toll violation invoice, due to the added cost of processing these payment methods.
See also
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49-Mile Scenic Drive
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Bay Bridge Troll
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Cosco Busan oil spill
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Golden Gate Bridge
The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean in California, United States. The structure links San Francisco—the northern tip of the San Francisco Peni ...
*
List of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in California
*
Southern Crossing (California) - proposed parallel bridge
*
Treasure Island Development
*
25 de Abril Bridge
The 25 de Abril Bridge (, 25th of April Bridge, ) is a suspension bridge connecting the city of Lisbon, capital of Portugal, to the municipality of Almada on the left (south) bank of the Tagus, Tagus River. It has a main span length of , ma ...
, a bridge with a similar design in Portugal
References
Notes
Bibliography
*
*
Petroski, Henry. (1995). ''Engineers of Dreams: Great Bridge Builders and the Spanning of America''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. .
* Reisner, Marc (1999). ''A Dangerous Place: California's Unsettling Fate''. Penguin Books.
*
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge East Span Seismic Safety Project Retrieved August 24, 2005.
External links
; Official sites
Bay Area FasTrak– includes toll information on this and the other Bay Area toll facilities
baybridgeinfo.orgSite by
Caltrans
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is an Executive (government), executive department of the U.S. state of California. The department is part of the Government of California#State agencies, cabinet-level California State Tran ...
about all current construction on the bridge.
California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) official Bay Bridge site
; Journals
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; Media
* (17 minutes)
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Lower Deck Rail and Roadway Off Ramps, 1939, Dorothea Lange photoMSS 722.
Special Collections & Archives UC San Diego Library.
"Bridging San Francisco Bay", PDH Online Course C577
; Other
Bay Bridge Oral History Project, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeleyat The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco
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