The Park Street Bridge is a double-leaf bascule drawbridge spanning 372 feet of the

Oakland Estuary The Oakland Estuary is the strait in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, separating the cities of Oakland and Alameda and the Alameda Island from the East Bay mainland. On its western end, it connects to San Francisco Bay proper, while it ...

in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

. It links the cities of Oakland and

Alameda An alameda is a Avenue (landscape), street or path lined with trees () and may refer to: Places Canada *Alameda, Saskatchewan, town in Saskatchewan **Grant Devine Dam, formerly ''Alameda Dam'', a dam and reservoir in southern Saskatchewan Chile ...

. In a year, the bridge is opened approximately 1700 times and carries approximately 40,000 vehicles per work day. It was built when the Oakland Estuary was trenched, converting Alameda from a peninsula to an

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

. The Park Street bridge is one of the four bridges that allow access to Alameda. It is considered the best route for bicycles to cross to Alameda as the small narrow walkway in the Posey Tube is difficult to navigate if there is another pedestrian or bicyclist also using it. According to th
Historic Bridges.org
The design of this fixed trunnion bascule bridge is strikingly similar to the earliest fixed trunnion bascule bridges built in Chicago in the first decade of the 20th Century including external rack (visible at the ends of the trusses) and through truss design (with no overhead bracing at the center of the bridge), however this California example dates to 1935.

History

The original Park Street bridge was completed in 1893. The Park Street, High Street, and Fruitvale Avenue bridges were built by the U.S. Government in exchange for permission and

rights-of-way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...

to dredge the channel between San Antonio Creek and San Leandro Bay. It had a wooden deck, a wrought iron thru truss swing span and wooden trestle approach spans. Riding the bridge as it opened to let water traffic through, as well as fishing off the bridge, were popular activities. It took ten years after the bridge's completion to dredge the channel. The present bridge was designed by the County of Alameda Surveyors Office and constructed under the Federal WPA Program. It was opened in 1935 with a grand opening celebration that included a public wedding of a man from Oakland and woman from Alameda to symbolize the unity of the two cities with the building of the bridge.

References

External links

* *https://historicbridges.org/bridges/browser/?bridgebrowser=california/alamedapark/ Buildings and structures in Alameda, California Bascule bridges in the United States Buildings and structures in Oakland, California Transportation in Oakland, California Road bridges in California Bridges in Alameda County, California San Francisco Bay Trail {{AlamedaCountyCA-struct-stub