BAY AREA QUAKE : The Bay Bridge: The Backbone of S.F. Is Broken

More so than the celebrated Golden Gate, the Bay Bridge is the workaday backbone of the huge Bay-Area metropolis. Close to half a million people cross it every day, and more than a few probably think about earthquakes as they do it.

For several hundred, the seldom-spoken fear struck close during Tuesday evening rush hour when a piece of the upper deck--five lanes of roadway carrying commuters into San Francisco--swayed and collapsed in front of motorists bound the other way on the lower deck.

No cars pitched over into the dark waters of San Francisco Bay, but at least one motorist was killed in a car trapped by the falling debris. Fate seemed to spare many others, since the usual 5 p.m. rush-hour traffic was remarkably thin for a Tuesday afternoon.

The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is the “other” bridge soaring out of San Francisco, but it is actually visible to more of the Bay Area than the Golden Gate. In recent years, the Bay Bridge spans have been brightly lit at night, although Tuesday the bridge was eerily dark except for the flashing orange lights of emergency trucks inching across the two decks.

Motorists who were on the bridge when the quake hit reported confusion in the aftermath. Debbie and Thomas Kelly were on the upper deck, trying to return to San Francisco, when they shot videotape of a car falling through the crevice in the roadway. They said the car had been directed back toward safety, but had inadvertently turned the wrong way and pitched into the hole. The Kellys said as many as 100 cars had driven toward the collapsed section of the road rather than back to safety in San Francisco.

“It was sort of mass confusion,” Thomas Kelly said.

There also were unconfirmed reports from witnesses on the bridge that some terrified motorists jumped into the water, but the Coast Guard could find no evidence.

Other Bay Area bridges weathered the quake better. The Golden Gate remained open, and the San Mateo Bridge--which was closed as a precaution--is expected to reopen today. However, transportation officials advised residents to stay home if at all possible today to avoid gridlock on the roads.

But it is the Bay Bridge that will signal the Bay Area’s return to normalcy. Caltrans announced late Tuesday night that the Bay Bridge will be closed at least two days, maybe longer if inspectors find major structural problems. If no serious fissures are found, the lower deck of the bridge will be opened with three lanes going in either direction, allowing at least limited traffic to cross.

However, the roadbed leading onto the bridge from the Oakland side was buckled and torn up, with parts of it under water, witnesses said Tuesday night. One crack in the pavement near the Oakland toll booth was about 100 yards long and a foot wide.

State emergency officials in Sacramento said they will install temporary Bailey bridges to span the collapsed section of the upper deck, and will try to operate ferries between the west and east sides of the bay.

The gray Bay Bridge is squatter and less grand than the brightly painted Golden Gate. But the Bay Bridge is longer by at least double, and is a fitting symbol for the World Series between the Bay Area’s baseball teams.

The Bay Bridge carries twice as much traffic as the Golden Gate, and its opening presaged tremendous growth in the East Bay. Oakland is the best-known community on the east side of the bay, but the bridge is the conduit that allows commuters to live in distant suburbs of Contra Costa County and drive to jobs in San Francisco.

Some engineers also believe that it is the more notable marvel. The American Society of Civil Engineers named it one of the nation’s seven landmark structures, an honor never bestowed on the Golden Gate.

The Bay Bridge and Golden Gate, longtime dreams of the Bay Area’s more grandiose thinkers, were both built during the Great Depression, beginning in 1933. The Bay Bridge was finished first, opening in a grand celebration Nov. 12, 1936.

From Oakland, the bridge is cantilevered over the bay as far as Yerba Buena Island, where the world’s largest bore tunnel was driven through hills. Then two suspension spans are attached to moorings in the Embarcadero area of downtown San Francisco.

Rocks and dirt from the tunneling were dumped in the bay to create Treasure Island, site of a 1939-40 World’s Fair and now a Navy base.

A national survey in 1986, when the Bay Bridge quietly celebrated its 50th anniversary, found that less than 1% of people asked to name a San Francisco landmark listed the Bay Bridge, while nearly half mentioned the Golden Gate.

The Bay Bridge’s obscurity outside the Bay Area extends to suicide attempts as well. More than 800 people have died after jumping from the Golden Gate, slightly more than 100 from the Bay Bridge, though the roadways are both 250 feet above the water. Some who jumped from the Bay Bridge even left notes indicating that they believed it was the Golden Gate.