Free Republic

Dozens of protesters on Thursday shut down the westbound lanes of the Bay Bridge for roughly four hours, demanding that President Joe Biden call for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war. Police, sheriff's deputies and California Highway Patrol units responded to the scene and detained the protesters. The San Francisco Sheriff's Office said roughly 80 protesters were cited and released. At least five tow trucks were at the scene towing away at least 15 protesters' vehicles. The CHP said the drivers of those vehicles tossed the keys into the bay.

A naked woman in California got out of her car on one of the nation’s busiest bridges and began firing a gun Tuesday. The bizarre scene unfolded during rush hour on the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, according to the California Highway Patrol. A driver called 911 to report that another driver had brandished a gun at them on the I-80 span, which crosses the San Francisco Bay, around 4:40 p.m., police said. The woman then stopped in the middle of her lane, got out of her car with a knife and began yelling at other drivers, according to cops. She...

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – A motorcycle flew off the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge around 9:45 a.m. Thursday, according to California Highway Patrol. The motorcyclist was struck by a Mini Cooper when the car was merging into the fast lane, and the bike flew off the bridge, though the motorcyclist stayed on the bridge, Officer Mark Andrews told KRON4. The motorcyclist transported himself to a hospital, where he was treated for minor injuries. The driver of the Mini Cooper was not cited. The CHP told KRON4 they did attempt to retrieve the motorcycle, but were unsuccessful. They sent a dive team...

A massive ship carrying a new, giant crane to the Port of Oakland made narrow passages under the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge this morning and is heading for the Ben E. Nutter Terminal. The Zhen Hua 26 from China is 764 feet long, just a tad shorter than San Francisco's iconic Transamerica Pyramid. The crane stands more than 300 feet tall on the ship, and the crew made preparations to allow the crane to fit under the bridges on its final leg from China.

Editor's Note: This article was originally published in June 2012 and has been updated with the most recent information. After the construction of the Bay Bridge in 1933, San Francisco began considering duplicating the bridge and running a second one further south across the bay. Enter Frank Lloyd Wright, a little-known architect whose idea and design for a second Bay Bridge never came to fruition. The noted architect hated the idea of a second steel structure similar to the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. Partnering with engineer Jaroslav J. Polivka, Wright proposed a concrete "Butterfly Bridge,” spanning from Army Street (now...

A set of videos from the 1989 San Francisco earthquake. After Part 1, I edited the tapes VERY heavily, so I'd suggest starting with something after the first confusions, like Parts 2 or 3 or 4.

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) - Charges against 25 protesters who stopped traffic on the Bay Bridge in January were dismissed this morning by a San Francisco Superior Court judge, according to an attorney representing the group. The group, known collectively as the Bay Bridge 25, was arrested on Jan. 18 on the bridge on suspicion of misdemeanors, including obstructing traffic on a freeway, public nuisance and unlawful assembly, in addition to having their cars impounded.

YERBA BUENA ISLAND (CBS SF) -- Protesters shut down the westbound lanes of the Bay Bridge just east of Treasure Island Monday afternoon, according to the California Highway Patrol. Protesters announced just before 4 p.m. they had shut down Bay Bridge traffic heading into San Francisco. They posted photos of several protesters chained to cars stopped across the bridge. Members of protest groups Black Seed and the Black Queer Liberation Collective took responsibility for the protest in a statement, citing recent police shootings.

New documents raise questions about the integrity of the steel rods that hold together the Bay Bridge eastern span and point to potentially widespread problems that experts warn could lead to premature failure.

Now that a crucial section of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge has been replaced by a new $6.4 billion span, nobody needs it anymore -- nobody except about 800 birds who call the decrepit, 78-year-old segment home. The double-breasted cormorants - protected, though not endangered - have nested along the bridge for decades, and have so far shown no interest in relocating to the shiny new section that replaced the eastern section of the famed bridge. Officials have tried pricey decoys, bird recordings and even specially-made nests installed underneath the new span to lure them roughly 100 feet next door....

Video at link. Now that a crucial section of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge has been replaced by a new $6.4 billion span, nobody needs it anymore -- nobody except about 800 birds who call the decrepit, 78-year-old segment home. The double-breasted cormorants - protected, though not endangered - have nested along the bridge for decades, and have so far shown no interest in relocating to the shiny new section that replaced the eastern section of the famed bridge. Officials have tried pricey decoys, bird recordings and even specially-made nests installed underneath the new span to lure them roughly 100...

"Who is responsible for the Bay Bridge?" I asked California Gov. Jerry Brown at a San Francisco Chronicle editorial board meeting in May. Before Brown's 2010 election victory, which made him the boss of all Caltrans, Brown was the mayor of Oakland whose political posturing helped delay the retrofit of the eastern span of the Bay Bridge, made necessary after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake knocked down a chunk of the span. It took 24 years and $5 billion more than the original budget for the state to complete the $6.4 billion span. Before the new span even opened, the...

Some of the most vulnerable and integral cable sections and rods on the new $6.5 billion San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge are rusting. The bridge suspension span and iconic tower rely on an unusual design: A single cable, comprising 137 steel strands, loops over the tower and under the bridge to hold it up. That cable is secured on the eastern edge of the span, inside chambers designed to keep out water and marine air to prevent corrosion. But a Sacramento Bee investigation found that inside one of the chambers, where the suspension cable is attached, the cable strands and rods...

<p>Can't post that Bloomberg text shite on here. Follow the linkie.</p>

Yun Chung, a retired engineer and metallurgist, read the official report explaining why massive, high-strength steel rods on the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge broke last March and was stunned – then alarmed. At first glance, Chung said about the July report, he saw obvious errors – some typographical, others that confused basic terminology. Digging deeper, he discovered more important problems. He concluded that the analysis defied metallurgical science and common sense. “I think it’s very shameful that in this public document, this important (oversight) report, there are so many errors. (I have) a sense of outrage,” Chung said in...

With the east span finally open, planners are already at work on the next mega-Bay Bridge project - a $1 billion-plus makeover of the western span that would include a $500 million hanging bike path. "I'm sure the bike advocates are going to start agitating for that" soon, Metropolitan Transportation Commission Executive Director Steve Heminger said from the stage at Monday's bridge re-opening ceremony. They already are. --SNIP-- But the biggest challenge of all could be selling toll-paying commuters on the idea. Drivers are already paying up to $6 at peak hours to cross the Bay Bridge. Redoing the western...

<p>A family of four touring San Francisco in a GoCar Monday took a wrong turn and ended up getting stranded halfway across the Bay Bridge, authorities said.</p> <p>The California Highway Patrol responded around 2 p.m. to calls of a caravan of GoCars chugging along slowly in the left lane of the Bay Bridge, heading toward Oakland, said Officer Mike Ferguson.</p>

While broken bolts on the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge are commanding everyone's attention, Caltrans has another problem on its hands - 96 seismic shock absorbers on the western span, some of which began leaking lubricant just three years after they were installed. The estimated cost of the fix - $13 million. And, like the brittle bolts on the eastern span, there are questions as to whether Caltrans ordered the right shocks - or dampers, as they are known - in the first place. The dampers are located between the bridge towers just below the roadway, and are...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Gov. Jerry Brown recently stepped in it when a reporter asked him about the Bay Bridge. In March, 32 of 96 key rods in the under-construction eastern span cracked after they were tightened. Dao Guv -- who, as Oakland's mayor, helped delay construction of the new span to win a tony, world-class design -- gave the wrong answer: "(Scatological stuff) happens." The state Senate Transportation and Housing Committee held a hearing Tuesday to find out how such stuff happens. State Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, wants to know. As a member of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission in 1998,...

The rods connect steel earthquake safety devices to the deck of the bridge and a large concrete cap. They snapped while being tightened in March.