The Carquinez Bridge is a pair of parallel bridges spanning the

Carquinez Strait The Carquinez Strait (; Spanish: ''Estrecho de Carquinez'') is a narrow tidal strait located in the Bay Area of Northern California, United States. It is part of the tidal estuary of the Sacramento and the San Joaquin rivers as they drain int ...

at the northeastern end of

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay (Chochenyo language, Chochenyo: 'ommu) is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, California, San ...

. They form the part of

Interstate 80 Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one of the ori ...

between Crockett and Vallejo,

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, United States. The name Carquinez Bridge originally referred to a single

cantilever bridge A cantilever bridge is a bridge built using structures that project horizontally into space, supported on only one end (called cantilevers). For small footbridges, the cantilevers may be simple beam (structure), beams; however, large cantilever ...

built in 1927, which was part of the direct route between

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and

Sacramento Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...

. A second parallel cantilever bridge was completed in 1958 to deal with the increased traffic. Later, seismic problems made the 1927 span unsafe in case of an earthquake, and led to the construction, and 2003 opening, of a replacement: a

suspension bridge A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...

officially named the Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge, in memory of iron worker Al Zampa, who played an integral role in the construction of numerous

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

bridges. The Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge carries southbound traffic from Vallejo to Crockett, and the 1958 cantilever span carries northbound traffic.

History and description

The first regular crossing of the Carquinez Strait began in the mid-1800s as a ferry operated between the cities of Benicia and Martinez, six miles upstream from the bridge site. Auto service started on this route in 1913. A

train A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...

ferry operated between Benicia and Port Costa from 1879 until 1930 when a rail bridge opened. Ferry service at the site of the bridge started in 1913 by the Rodeo-Vallejo Ferry Company.

Original span (1927–2007)

The original steel

was designed by Robinson & Steinman and dedicated on May 21, 1927. Prior to this, crossing the

necessitated the use of

ferries A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus. ...

. The bridge cost $8 million to build (equivalent to $ million in ). It was the first major crossing of the

and a significant technological achievement in its time. Upon its completion, the span became part of the

Lincoln Highway The Lincoln Highway is one of the first transcontinental highways in the United States and one of the first highways designed expressly for automobiles. Conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, and formally dedicated Octob ...

. This historic transcontinental roadway's original alignment, like the

Transcontinental Railroad A transcontinental railroad or transcontinental railway is contiguous rail transport, railroad trackage that crosses a continent, continental land mass and has terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks may be via the Ra ...

that preceded it nearly sixty years earlier, chose to avoid crossing the Carquinez Strait entirely. The preferred option, given the engineering limitations of the day, was to skirt around the

Delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta"), the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * Delta Air Lines, a major US carrier ...

by going south from

through Stockton, then proceeding west across the

San Joaquin River The San Joaquin River ( ; ) is the longest river of Central California. The long river starts in the high Sierra Nevada and flows through the rich agricultural region of the northern San Joaquin Valley before reaching Suisun Bay, San Francis ...

and over the

Altamont Pass Altamont Pass, formerly Livermore Pass, is a low mountain pass in the Diablo Range of Northern California between Livermore in the Livermore Valley and Tracy in the San Joaquin Valley. The name is actually applied to two distinct but nea ...

, and finally reaching

Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...

from the south; a route that would later become

U.S. Route 50 U.S. Route 50 or U.S. Highway 50 (US 50) is a major east–west route of the U.S. Highway system, stretching from Interstate 80 (I-80) in West Sacramento, California, to Maryland Route 528 (MD 528) in Ocean City, Maryland, on the Atlantic ...

and ultimately Interstates 5, 205, and 580. This circuitous route, several miles longer, and traversing a rather formidable mountain pass, was preferable to crossing the Carquinez Strait, a deep channel with strong currents and frequent high winds. For decades, building a bridge across the Carquinez Strait was considered prohibitively expensive and technologically risky. Once the bridge was built however, driving from Sacramento to the

East Bay The East Bay is the eastern region of the San Francisco Bay Area and includes cities along the eastern shores of San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay. The region has grown to include inland communities in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Wi ...

became much more direct. The Carquinez Bridge provided a welcome alternative route from the Central Valley to the

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose. The Association of Bay Area Governments ...

, one that no longer required loading one's vehicle onto and off of a ferry. With the bridge completed, the Lincoln Highway was realigned to cross the

Sacramento River The Sacramento River () is the principal river of Northern California in the United States and is the largest river in California. Rising in the Klamath Mountains, the river flows south for before reaching the Sacramento–San Joaquin River D ...

, then proceed southwest through Davis and Vallejo, across the Carquinez Bridge, and along the shores of the San Pablo and

bays to

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

and Oakland; becoming U.S. Route 40, and ultimately

. After the

Loma Prieta earthquake On October 17, 1989, at 5:04 p.m. PST, the Loma Prieta earthquake occurred at the Central Coast of California. The shock was centered in The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park in Santa Cruz County, approximately 10 mi (16 km) ...

engineers determined that the aging 1927 span was seismically unstable, and that a retrofit was impossible. The decision was made to replace it with a new suspension bridge. The 1927 span was temporarily used to hold eastbound traffic while the 1958 eastbound span underwent a seismic retrofit, deck and superstructure rehabilitation, and painting to extend its serviceable life. The old 1927 cantilever bridge was dismantled three years after the opening of its replacement; with completion on September 4, 2007. A 3,000-pound bronze bell atop one of the bridge piers was removed and placed into storage. The bell will eventually be displayed in a new museum to be built at the Oakland end of the

San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, commonly referred to as the Bay Bridge, is a complex of bridges spanning San Francisco Bay in California. As part of Interstate 80 in California, Interstate 80 and the direct road between San Francisco an ...

Parallel span (1958)

At a cost of $38 million (equivalent to $ million in ),a parallel bridge was built just east of the 1927 bridge. The new bridge carried all traffic for a few months after it opened in November 1958, then after new ramps were built, the three-lane 1927 span, originally two-way, served westbound traffic while the four-lane 1958 span handled eastbound traffic.

Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge (2003 replacement span)

At a cost of $240 million (equivalent to $ million in ) a new

was built, to the west of the two earlier bridges, by the joint venture consisting of Flatiron Structures of Longmont, Colorado, FCI Constructors of Benicia, California, and the

Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company was a British bridge works and structural steel contractor based in Darlington. It built various structures including the Victoria Falls Bridge, Tees Transporter Bridge, Forth Road Bridge, Forth Road, Hum ...

of Darlington, England. This new bridge was named the Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge, after an ironworker who worked on a number of the San Francisco Bay Area bridges, including the

Golden Gate Bridge The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean in California, United States. The structure links San Francisco—the northern tip of the San Francisco Peni ...

, and the original 1927 Carquinez span. The bridge was dedicated on November 8, 2003, and opened for traffic on November 11, 2003. Originally, the plan was to dedicate the bridge on November 15, but complications involving then just-recalled Governor

Gray Davis Joseph Graham "Gray" Davis Jr. (born December 26, 1942) is an American attorney and former politician who served as the 37th governor of California from 1999 until he was recalled and removed from office in 2003. He is the second state governor ...

and the transfer of power to

Arnold Schwarzenegger Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July30, 1947) is an Austrian and American actor, businessman, former politician, and former professional bodybuilder, known for his roles in high-profile action films. Governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger, ...

resulted in the date being moved. The coins minted to commemorate the event have the original date on them. The new suspension bridge, consists of the south anchorage, a transition pier, the South and North towers, and the north anchorage. It has spans of 147 m, 728 m, and 181 m. for a total span of . It features a pedestrian and bicycle path, part of a bike trail which it is hoped will eventually circle the entire Bay Area. The towers are each founded on two footings, which are each supported by six vertical, steel shells infilled with reinforced concrete, followed by drilled shafts in rock, i.e., cast-in-drilled hole, or CIDH, piles. The total length of the CIDH pile at the South Tower is approximately 89 m, with about 43 m of drilled shaft in rock. The total length of the CIDH pile at the North Tower ranges from 49 to 64 m, with about 16 to 26 m of drilled shaft in rock. The design parameters used for the South Tower piles were later confirmed by a pile load test. Additional field investigations during construction revealed significant variations in rock conditions at the North Tower, resulting in the redesign of the length of the piles. Major construction challenges encountered during construction of the South Tower piles, and the revised construction procedure, i.e., under-reaming, used by the constructor to mitigate caving. Materials for the New Bridge came from all over the world: * Steel Caissons for CIDH: XKT Engineering – Vallejo, California * Orthotropic Deck Sections: IHI – Japan * Tower and Splay Saddles: ** Castings: Sheffield Steel – England ** Finishing and Machining: Kvaerner – England * Main Cable Wire: Bridon – England * Wire for Cable Wrapping: Canada * Cable Bands: France * Suspenders (Hardware, Casting, Fabrication): WRCA – St. Joseph, Missouri * (3) Maintenance Travelers Under Deck Sections: Jesse Engineering – Tacoma, Washington

Tolls

Tolls are only collected from eastbound traffic after they cross from Crockett at the toll plaza on the Vallejo side of the bridge. Although the 2003 Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge is the newer span, no toll is charged in that direction, continuing the practice of the now-demolished 1927 span.

All-electronic tolling Open road tolling (ORT), also called all-electronic tolling, cashless tolling, or free-flow tolling, is the collection of tolls on toll roads without the use of tollbooths. An electronic toll collection system is usually used instead. The major ...

has been in effect since 2020, and drivers may either pay using the FasTrak electronic toll collection device or using the license plate tolling program. It remains not truly an

open road tolling Open road tolling (ORT), also called all-electronic tolling, cashless tolling, or free-flow tolling, is the collection of tolls on toll roads without the use of tollbooths. An electronic toll collection system is usually used instead. The major ...

system until the remaining unused toll booths are removed, forcing drivers to slow substantially from freeway speeds while passing through. Effective , the toll rate for passenger cars is $8. During peak traffic hours on weekdays between 5:00 am and 10:00 am, and between 3:00 pm and 7:00 pm,

carpool Carpooling is the sharing of Automobile, car journeys so that more than one person travels in a car, and prevents the need for others to have to drive to a location themselves. Carpooling is considered a Demand-Responsive Transport (DRT) serv ...

vehicles carrying three or more people, clean air vehicles, or motorcycles may pay a discounted toll of $4 if they have FasTrak and use the designated carpool lane. Drivers without Fastrak or a license plate account must open and pay via a "short term" account within 48 hours after crossing the bridge or they will be sent an invoice of the unpaid toll. No additional toll violation penalty will be assessed if the invoice is paid within 21 days.

Historical toll rates

Crossing the original 1927 bridge required a toll, but tolls were removed within five years after the state bought the bridge in 1940. Tolls in 1926 were originally set at $0.60 per car () plus $0.10 per passenger (). This was reduced in 1938 to $0.45 per car () plus $0.05 per passenger (). After the state took ownership in 1940, tolls were immediately reduced to $0.30 per car (). In 1942, tolls were further reduced to $0.25 () before being removed in 1945. Tolls were reinstated in 1958 with the completion of the parallel span, set again at $0.25 (). It was increased to $0.35 in 1970 (), and then $0.40 in 1978 (). The basic toll (for automobiles) on the seven state-owned bridges, including the Carquinez Bridge, was standardized to $1 by Regional Measure 1, approved by Bay Area voters in 1988 (). A $1 seismic retrofit surcharge was added in 1998 by the state legislature, increasing the toll to $2 (), originally for eight years, but since then extended to December 2037 (AB1171, October 2001). On March 2, 2004, voters approved Regional Measure 2 to fund various transportation improvement projects, raising the toll by another dollar to $3 (). An additional dollar was added to the toll starting January 1, 2007, to cover cost overruns on the eastern span replacement of the Bay Bridge, increasing the toll to $4 (). The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), a regional transportation agency, in its capacity as the Bay Area Toll Authority, administers RM1 and RM2 funds, a significant portion of which are allocated to public transit capital improvements and operating subsidies in the transportation corridors served by the bridges. Caltrans administers the "second dollar" seismic surcharge, and receives some of the MTC-administered funds to perform other maintenance work on the bridges. The state legislature created the Bay Area Toll Authority in 1997 to transfer the toll administration of the seven state-owned bridges to the MTC. The Bay Area Toll Authority is made up of appointed officials put in place by various city and county governments, and is not subject to direct voter oversight. Due to further funding shortages for seismic retrofit projects, the Bay Area Toll Authority again raised tolls on all seven of the state-owned bridges in July 2010. The toll rate for autos on the Carquinez Bridge was thus increased to $5 (). In June 2018, Bay Area voters approved Regional Measure 3 to further raise the tolls on all seven of the state-owned bridges to fund $4.5 billion worth of transportation improvements in the area. Under the passed measure, the toll rate for autos on the Carquinez Bridge was increased to $6 on January 1, 2019; to $7 on January 1, 2022; and then to $8 on January 1, 2025. In September 2019, the MTC approved a $4 million plan to eliminate toll takers and convert all seven of the state-owned bridges to

all-electronic tolling Open road tolling (ORT), also called all-electronic tolling, cashless tolling, or free-flow tolling, is the collection of tolls on toll roads without the use of tollbooths. An electronic toll collection system is usually used instead. The major ...

, citing that 80 percent of drivers are now using FasTrak and the change would improve traffic flow. On March 20, 2020, accelerated by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, all-electronic tolling was placed in effect for all seven state-owned toll bridges. The MTC then installed new systems at all seven bridges to make them permanently cashless by the start of 2021. In April 2022, the Bay Area Toll Authority announced plans to remove all remaining unused toll booths and create an open-road tolling system which functions at highway speeds. The Bay Area Toll Authority then approved a plan in December 2024 to implement 50-cent annual toll increases on all seven state-owned bridges between 2026 and 2030 to help pay for bridge maintenance. The standard toll rate for autos will thus rise to $8.50 on January 1, 2026; $9 in 2027; $9.50 in 2028; $10 in 2029; and then to $10.50 in 2030. And becoming effective in 2027, a 25-cent surcharge will be added to any toll charged to a license plate account, and a 50-cent surcharge added to a toll violation invoice, due to the added cost of processing these payment methods.

In popular culture

* The 1927 span of the Carquinez Bridge is featured on a Season 4 episode of ''MythBusters'' in the Miniature Earthquake Machine segment. This experiment, based upon a claim by inventor

Nikola Tesla Nikola Tesla (;"Tesla"
. ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; 10 July 1856 – 7 ...

that his mechanical oscillator produced an earthquake in 1898, employed a small tunable reciprocating mass driver to shake the bridge at its resonance frequency. While not structurally significant, the shaking was felt some distance from the driver. * An hour-length program, titled ''Break It Down: "Bridge"'', documenting the demolition of the 1927 bridge aired on

National Geographic Channel National Geographic (formerly National Geographic Channel; abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo or Nat Geo TV) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by the National Geographic Global Networks unit of Disney Enter ...

, on November 1, 2007 * On October 5, 2007, a man jumped off the new bridge. The

Coast Guard A coast guard or coastguard is a Maritime Security Regimes, maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with cust ...

, Vallejo Police, and Fire responded to find him on the breakwater. He survived the fall. * Four books have been published about, or featuring, the Carquinez Bridges:''Spanning the Carquinez Strait: The Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge'' (2003) by Caltrans, and ''Spanning the Strait: Building the Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge'' (2004), ''Al Zampa and the Bay Area Bridges'' (2005), and, most recently, ''Carquinez Bridge: 1927-2007'' (2017) all by John V. Robinson. * The bridge is depicted in the 2017

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

TV series ''

13 Reasons Why ''13 Reasons Why'' (also stylized as ''TH1RTEEN R3ASONS WHY'') is an American teen drama television series based on the 2007 novel '' Thirteen Reasons Why'' by author Jay Asher. Developed for Netflix by Brian Yorkey and with Selena Gomez ser ...

''. * The bridge is depicted in the 2016 Czech computer game '' American Truck Simulator''.

References

External links

Bay Area FasTrak
– includes toll information on this and the other Bay Area toll facilities
Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge Foundation

Bridging the Bay
History of the Carquinez Bridge, as well as other bridges.

Building the Al Zampa Bridge
– Site written by Dick McCabe Jr, a union ironworker who worked on the bridge with pictures of the construction and a journal of the construction progress. * * *

Break it Down: "Bridge" on National Geographic Channel.

Bay Area Toll Authority Bridge Facts on Carquinez Bridge.

Publisher's Web site for ''Spanning the Strait: Building the Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge,'' John V. Robinson's book about the new bridge.
''Third Carquinez Strait Bridge''
OAPC Consulting Engineers alternatives and selection report * {{Crossings navbox , structure = Crossings , place =

, bridge = Carquinez Bridge , bridge signs = , upstream = Benicia-Martinez Bridge , upstream signs = , downstream = Richmond-San Rafael Bridge , downstream signs = 1927 establishments in California Bicyclable and walkable bridges on the Interstate Highway System Bridges completed in 1927 Bridges completed in 1958 Bridges completed in 2003 Bridges in the San Francisco Bay Area Bridges in Contra Costa County, California Bridges in Solano County, California Cantilever bridges in the United States Carquinez Strait Historic American Engineering Record in California History of Solano County, California Interstate 80 Lincoln Highway Road bridges in California San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay Trail Steel bridges in the United States Suspension bridges in California Toll bridges in California Tolled sections of Interstate Highways U.S. Route 40 Vallejo, California