Tags: bridge (67 pics), san francisco (25 pics), california (377 pics)
The San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge (legally The James "Sunny Jim" Rolph Bridge and known locally as the Bay Bridge) is a complex of toll bridges in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, in the United States. Forming part of Interstate 80 and of the direct road route between San Francisco and Oakland, it carries approximately 270,000 vehicles per day on its two decks. It has one of the longest spans in the world.
The bridge was conceived as early as the gold rush days, but construction did not begin until 1933 (79 years ago). Designed by Charles H. Purcell, it opened for traffic on Nov. 12, 1936 (76 years ago), six months before the Golden Gate Bridge (11 pics). It originally carried automobile traffic on its upper deck, and trucks and trains on the lower, but after the collapse of the Key System, the lower deck was converted to road traffic as well.
The bridge has appeared in many movies, including Shadow of the Thin Man, The Graduate, The Towering Inferno, Basic Instinct, and The Dead Pool. It has also appeared in such science fiction novels as William Gibson's futuristic Bridge trilogy and Cory Doctorow's novel Little Brother.
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