Posted on 02/13/2013 7:58:58 PM PST by Lonely Bull
Bay Area bridge commuters will be ponying up $37 for each of the 150,000 people expected to walk across the new Bay Bridge span during the big Labor Day opening celebration.
That's the breakdown on the math for the $5.6 million in toll money going toward the public side of the public-private celebration marking completion of the new eastern span.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Why don’t they get the money from Diane Frankenstein, George “Walrus” Miller, Nasty Piglosi. They are all RICH! They should be forced to contribute yet these same morons who will be partying are the ones electing these jackasses. I just saw a news bit on this on my local news. They have only 1 corporate sponsor but they have said who it was.
what on earth is all this dough going to be spent on??
I was in SF when a catastrophe almost happened. I still think this was more dangerous than was ever publicized.
The bridge was packed with people and flattened out.
Wasn’t on the bridge; but saw this from a mile away.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/When-300-000-human-sardines-flattened-the-Golden-3118665.php
The day the Golden Gate Bridge flattened
By Stephen Tung
05/23/2012Picture this: Hundreds of thousands of people are crammed shoulder to shoulder on the Golden Gate Bridge when suddenly the bridge's gentle arch begins to flatten out. A metal groan then echoes across San Francisco Bay as the majestic towers begin tilting toward each other.
As the towers hit their breaking point, the 3-foot-thick main suspension cables slacken and the roadway splits open, dropping waves of pedestrians more than 200 feet to their deaths.
That almost happened 25 years ago today, at least according to urban legend.
On May 24, 1987, 300,000 people were stuck in human gridlock for hours while getting a rare chance to cross the 1.7-mile bridge en masse on foot to celebrate the bridge's golden anniversary. Officials quickly closed the bridge, so a half-million other people waiting to cross never got the chance. Still, the enormous, unprecedented weight caused the middle of the bridge to sag 7 feet.
"I'm grateful because if the others had gotten out there, maybe the bridge would have fallen down," Gary Giacomini, then president of the bridge district's board, told The Associated Press at the time.
I beat you by one post!
I was there; not on the bridge, but about a mile away to stay away form the crowds.
I would love to hear from an engineer that knows,but I think the situation that day was very serious.
31 seconds!!
The full article I posted from the Merc quotes several engineers who say there was plenty of capacity left in the bridge and collapse was nowhere imminent. There was a much bigger risk of widespread panic and everybody trying to get off the bridge all at once.
What if a quake had happened!? Bet that extra load capacity would have vanished!
It was a bit ominous seeing the arch gone in real life. I knew something looked different; took a couple of seconds to figure it out.
I don’t think they’re charging in Frisco; it sounds like they’re subsidizing a big party around this walk with money they got from people who crossed the bridge in cars.
(Of course this is the PRE-next-big-earthquake condition.)
.
“That almost happened 25 years ago today, at least according to urban legend.”
I’m not sure how much legend that was. I think reality is a better word. It was close. As I read it, one of the engineers that runs the bridge was looking at it out of his window and noticed that the deck had flattened. He was like Holy Excrement, and put an end to that stunt.
If you take 300k people and assume an average of 150 lbs, you're talking an added 45 million lbs placed on the bridge that day. The main span of the bridge itself is 4200 ft long, which results in a load of approximately 10715 lb per linear foot. With a width of 90 ft, the load resolves to approximately 119 lbs per square foot.
YMMV, these were quick calcs I just did while drinking coffee.
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