1963,1990 Vincent Thomas Bridge over Los Angeles River in Los Angeles, CA

(Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite)

This 5991' (1.8km, 1.1mile) bridge has a main span of 1499' (457m). [BridgeHunter]

Brian Biekofsky posted
Bridges Now and Then shared

David Kimbrough commented on Brian's post

"The Vincent Thomas Bridge was determined eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Caltrans Historic Bridge Inventory Update of 2010. The bridge is eligible for engineering significance. In addition to being a rare bridge type of 'exceptional spant length, monumental scale and design complexity,' it is the first suspension bridge in the United States not to use rivets in its construction." [Gloria Scott comment in ArchivedBridgeHunter]

Street View, Feb 2023

David Kimbrough posted seven images with the comment:

The Art of the Vincent Thomas Bridge

The Los Angeles - Long Beach Harbor is one of the busiest in the world.  It is almost an entirely artificial harbor.  It is located at the mouth of the Los Angeles River on the west and the San Gabriel River on the east.  The area was originally mostly mud flats at low tide.  Ships had to either use lighters or barges to unload cargo and shuttle to to shore or allow the ship to settle into the mud and wait for the next high (enough) tide to reflow the boat.  However, just beyond mouth of the estuary were two islands, Isla Del Muerto and Isla Raza de Buena Gente, aka Dead Man’s Island and Rattled Snake Island respectively.  These acted as a bit of a natural breakwater.  The developers of the harbor dredged the area and combined these two islands into one large island \ breakwater which became known as Terminal Island.  At the east end the San Pedro Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railway connected the new island to the rest of Los Angeles County and the United States.  This island was the terminus of the railway, and hence the name of the island.  There was a great deal commercial development on Terminal Island, including factories, power plants, naval yards, fish canneries ( I have attached a photograph), and so on. However, many of the workers at these facilities lived in San Pedro, Wilmington, or other locations west of the island.  Their only direct way to get to work was to take ferry (I have attached a photograph).  Local leaders had long contemplated alternatives, such as a tunnel under the channel, but eventually the idea of a bridge was agreed upon.  I recently found two paintings by Art Riley.  He did a series of paintings of the construction of the Vincent Thomas Bridge connecting San Pedro and Terminal Island.  Like many mid-century watercolorist of the California Style, his plein air work covered outdoor subjects, often ordinary situations.  Like others, he had a day job working at the Walt Disney Studios. For nearly thirty years, he produced art work for animated feature films including background watercolors for Cinderella, Pinocchio, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and other classic Disney productions.

David Kimbrough shared

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sindhu alisha, Aug 2022

Karin S., Mar 2024

"This bridge connects San Pedro, a district of Los Angeles but once a separate city, with Terminal Island. Terminal Island is a basically a very large sand bar at the mouth of the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers which has since been turned into a completely paved island. No one lives on Terminal Island any more, it is eniterly given over to ship yards, train yards, coal storage facilities, a fish cannery (the sole survivor of what used to be many), sewage treament plant, etc. The bridge led to the demise of the ferry that used to transport people back and forth between San Pedro and Terminal Island." [David Kimbrohgh comment in ArchivedBridgeHunter]

Carlos G. Lucero posted
Vincent Thomas bridge San Pedro California

Dan Wyman, Jul 2022

WaterAndPower, RegularDaddy
"The Vincent Thomas Bridge is a 1,500-foot-long [457m] suspension bridge, crossing the Los Angeles Harbor, linking San Pedro with Terminal Island. It is the only suspension bridge in the Greater Los Angeles area....The bridge opened in 1963 and is named for California Assemblyman Vincent Thomas of San Pedro, who championed its construction."

WaterAndPower, L.A. Harbor Department Photo
"The bridge is 6,060 feet [1,847m] long, 52 feet [16m] wide, 365 feet [110m] tall.  Its longest span is 1,500 feet [457m], and the clearance below is 185 feet [56m]."

Bridges Now and Then posted
On San Pedro, California's, Vincent Thomas Bridge, c. 1962. (Chronobook)
Dave Frieder: Main Cables and suspender ropes by John A. Roebling's Sons Inc.

Another reminder that the cables don't hang correctly until they have their design weight attached.

WaterAndPower, PortOfLosAngeles
"The Vincent Thomas Bridge is the first suspension span ever to be built on steel piles — 990 of them were sunk to hold it up, instead of the more traditional concrete supports. And it is the first to be built entirely without rivets; the steel is welded together." [No use of rivets explains why Historic Bridges doesn't include this bridge.]

Before the bridge was built, this was the terminal building for the ferry service. It is now the Los Angeles Maritime Museum. [WaterAndPower] 

The Battleship USS Iowa Museum is just a little upstream from here.

Street View, May 2019

SanPedro
In 2005, it got 160 blue LED lights. They are powered by solar panels. "The solar panels feed more electricity into the grid during the day than the LED lights use at night."

Caltrans is planning a $628.5m project to replace the deck. [DailyBreeze]

The bridge carries 53,000 vehicles per day, including nearly 4,700 heavy-duty trucks. [labusinessjournal] 

And most of those trucks are probably carrying containers. Container trains may reduce truck traffic on rural highways, but they increase it on urban streets. But, of course, it is the urban streets that have a big congestion issue to begin with.

10 photos