Bay Bridge Marks 50th Year
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SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, an 8-mile workhorse traveled by a quarter-million vehicles a day, marked its 50th birthday today with blaring horns, thousands of balloons and free crossings for thousands of commuters.
The Bay Bridge, the longest high-level bridge ever built, has served the local population since Nov. 12, 1936. As ear-splitting truck horns blared on the bridge roadway overhead, hundreds of people lined for tributes to the bridge that links San Francisco with the fast-growing communities of the East Bay. One of the more interested spectators was 78-year-old Frank Cronin of Burlingame, who said he was the first toll collector on the bridge at the opening 50 years ago.
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