September 2, 2013: US Still Making Engineering History

A Brief History

On September 2, 2013, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge completed a rebuild project that resulted in it becoming the widest bridge in the world, as certified by the Guinness Book of World Records in 2014.

Digging Deeper

A $6.5 billion project that was started in 2002, the Eastern half of the bridge was made into 10 lanes side by side instead of the previous double decker arrangement of 5 lanes in each deck. This made the bridge an incredible 258.33 feet wide, compared to the original 57.5 feet. Original construction cost only $77 million, but the completion year of 1936 tells you it was built during the Great Depression, when dollars went a bit further. When first completed, 2 of the spans between supports ranked as the second and third longest bridge spans in the world at the time. The bridge today carries about 240,000 vehicles per day, as well as pedestrian and bicycle traffic, each car paying a rush hour toll of $6 or a non-rush hour toll of $4. (Weekend toll is $5, and car-pool autos are only $2.50.)

The 1989 earthquake that struck the Bay area damaged the Eastern portion of the bridge, and besides the repairs done at that time, other reconstruction has been done at various times and places on the bridge, including the deletion of rail traffic in 1963. Total length of the bridge is almost 2 miles, and minimum clearance to the water is 191 feet. The highest part of the bridge towers 526 feet above the water.

The Bay Bridge (as it is called by locals) was designed by Polish born engineer Ralph (born Rudolph Mordrzejewski) Modjeski, who learned bridge building at the School of Bridges and Roads in Paris, France, not surprisingly graduating #1 in his class in 1885. Modjeski had already become one of the premier bridge builders in the world when his giant San Francisco Bay project was built.

Just as in the 1930’s when spectacular American engineering projects were being built, such as the Golden Gate Bridge (completed 2 months after the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge), Hoover Dam, the TVA projects, The Empire State Building, and of course, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, the United States is still capable of creating superlative engineering projects, sometimes of mammoth proportions, as evidenced by this bridge.

Question for students (and subscribers): What recent American engineering projects (of the last 2 or 3 decades) do you consider worthy of note? Tell us your favorites in the comments section below this article.

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