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San Francisco, 8:17 AM
Sun Nov 22
10 posts in the last 24 hours
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09/15/09
I suggest cutting the idea down to size, recycle the cantilever section and build a park on the causeway.
I'm a horticulturalist, I would sign up in a heartbeat. During the 1990s I was employed by an industrial historian, doing private research on Bay Area infrastructure from the gold rush to the present and I wrote the following letter promoting this idea to the Berkeley Daily Planet in 2006.... (Please ignore the idea of a "backup bridge.")
9.01.2006
Berkeley Daily Planet
Save the old San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge!
BAY BRIDGE
Editors, Daily Planet:
Now that the bids for the final section of the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge are being considered, perhaps we should start a campaign to preserve the existing eastern span, for logistic as well as historical reasons. It would be a backup bridge in the event the new one is a failure and it would be a nice place to walk or ride bicycles and picnic. Saving the old bridge
would be a nice homage to the builders of the 1930s and a prudent effort perhaps, considering the problems we’ve had building a new one.
Hank Chapot
09/15/09
Also, as someone else mentioned, that span of bridge is miles long. It's not like some dinky foot bridge in Podunk, France. There would be no western approach to the bridge to get to a 'bicycle community' anyway, you'd have to enter from the Oakland side.
As for the new bridge being ugly, it's not done yet. Give it a chance. The single-point suspension segment will give it the iconic look you all seek. Besides, simple bridges can be just as iconic as elaborate ones. Look at the Coronado bridge in San Diego.
09/15/09
09/15/09
09/15/09
That being said, of course the seismic issues seem pretty daunting. Does anyone know of a cost estimate for retrofitting the old span?
09/16/09
09/16/09
09/15/09
Great idea in theory though.
09/15/09
09/15/09
09/15/09
09/15/09
09/15/09
09/14/09
09/15/09
09/14/09
(YouTube is realy an interpretation on my part, what with the "footage" in Pattern Recognition. But I stand by it.)
Of course, he whiffed on predicting cell phones, but nobody's perfect.
09/14/09
And besides, everyone who lives in the Bay Area knows that (if and) when the new bridge is finished, the old cantilever section will be demolished and not standing strong at all.
09/14/09
09/14/09
Why would millions of dollars be spent on replacing a bridge if there wasn't something wrong with it, some good reason to go to all that trouble? They think municipalities go around doing giant projects just for the hell of it?
And gosh... isn't that the part that partially collapsed once before? Naaaah.
09/14/09
09/14/09
Well, here's where we're going to make it work. Ya'll see in the book, the shacks and hovels were all cardboard so'd they be very light and all.
09/14/09
09/14/09
Being on the East Coast, I didn't know the reason for the 'makeover '.
inaki(the-rest-of-the-story)zombie certainly introduces one gigantic caveat to what I initially thought was an exciting concept.
09/14/09
09/14/09