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| Bridges Now and Then posted The San Mateo-Hayward Bridge over San Francisco Bay. I'm not sure, but I think this may be opening day, March 2, 1929. At the time of completion, it was the longest bridge in the world. (Palo Alto Historical Association) |
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| Kevin Walsh commented on the above post [This shows part of the old lift span on the left.] |
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| San Mateo–Hayward Bridge Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia. License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike (CC BY-SA) "San Mateo-Hayward Bridge (1967), showing some of the electric transmission towers paralleling the bridge route and Werder Pier (at left)" It took just a year to build the first bridge. It is still [Nov 2021] the longest bridge in California and the 25th longest in the world. The fishing pier was the trestle of the first bridge to the first truss span. "The original bridge was mostly a two-lane causeway trestle with five 300-foot (91 m) truss spans in the center incorporating a vertical lift over the main shipping channel. Clearance when the lift was down to allow road traffic over the bridge was 35 feet (11 m), and clearance when the lift was up to allow marine traffic to pass the bridge was 135 feet (41 m)." The new bridge was the first large-scale use of an orthotropic deck, which reduces weight. A 500t barge crane was built to help build the bridge. "The total length of the bridge is 7 miles (11.3 km), which is made up of a western 1.9-mile (3.1 km) highrise section and an eastern 5.1 miles (8.2 km) trestle section....[The highrise section] crosses a shipping channel, with an orthotropic main span that is 750 feet (229 m) long (at the time, the longest girder span in the United States) and has a vertical clearance of 135 feet (41 m)....Although the spans appear to be formed from continuous box girders, they consist of alternating anchor spans and suspended spans. Anchor spans rest on top of two adjacent piers and cantilever over each side slightly, and suspended spans are hung between the ends of two adjacent anchor spans." |
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| mtc The bridge was widened in 2003. |
It looks like part of the piers, as well as the orthotropic deck, is made of steel.
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| robdude1969, Sep 2017 |
I drove across the original San Mateo-Hayward Bridge with my parents in 1961, and again about a month before the new span opened in the late summer of 1967 - that bridge was a real white-knuckle experience - two VERY narrow lanes, no turnouts with the traffic travelling at about 50 mph in each direction over eight full miles of water (not including the approaches) over San Francisco Bay.
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