October 17, 1989. Yours truly was shy of about being ten months old by ten days when the Loma Prieta shook the entire Bay Area. The third game of the world series was interrupted, the cypress freeway collapsed, around 60 people died that day from falling debris. But nail in the coffin was the collapse of the bay bridge section before the truss section.



Scooped up by his parents in the back of their '86 Toyota Camry, my parents and I along with hundreds others ran screaming down the lower deck, abandoning vehicles amid cries of "THE BRIDGE IS COLLAPSING!" and "RUN GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!" the commotion ended a short while after, and everyone returned to their vehicles and eventually the bridge was fixed after about one month. But that event stayed with me through my entire life. This led to the state assembly finally approving the plans for a new bridge to replace the old eastern span.

Fast forward to 2013

I've been involved with a few odd projects the last couple of years: the HO scale model of Alcatraz at Pier 33, the murals at SubPar mini golf in Alameda just to name a few but the big one has always been the Bay Bridge. I first got involved in 2007 when the bridge was only a mere causeway and the Self Anchored Suspension span (SAS) hadn't even had it's piles driven yet. But invited back to visit this year, I could not turn down the offer.

At the CalTrans Burma Road office, a van took me and about two dozen aspiring engineers onto the roadway, after passing six or seven armed security checkpoints, we reached the SAS. Or at least the edge of the SAS. Major construction limited us going near the span itself proper.



But you'll all get to see that come Labor day 2013. But in six years, this bridge has come an amazing long way and i'm extremely excited to say in the least for opening day. I couldn't help myself, of my original teammates, I was the only one left in the area to actually get to walk around on this part of the bridge.



This part of the bridge roadway hadn't been paved yet so it still revealed bare steel.



And yours truly posing, showing off that majestic (totally not a penis) tower.



But you may be wondering: "Hey, what's so secret about this? I can see it from the old bay bridge right now and it won't be that secret a few months later when the bridge finally opens." True... but there is a part that I'm willing to bet that none of you will ever get to see. Ever. A few eagle eyed players here may notice stairs that stick off the side of the roadway, some leading to transformer boxes and some seemingly going into the roadway itself. Here's one of them.



Keep in mind, that platform right there is about 150 feet about the water. So looking down would be a nerve racking thing for some of you folks with a fear of heights. The stairs here go under the roadway all the way to the bottom of the concrete section.



And when you get to the bottom catwalk, you're offered with a view that very few people ever get to see.



But inside behind electrically locked doors, the young engineers, mentors and I were led into this room. A substation, just to power the east bound bridge.



The amount of electricity used to light the lamps, operate the dynamic signs and keep the SAS illuminated is enough to power a town of about 3000 houses. I think.



But what's nifty is below the roadway are these huge vast service tunnels. From the center catwalk, it's about twelve feet either direction.



In a few places, you had to duck, or climb some rungs.



But this was as far as our tour would go. This massive piece of stainless steel is designed to slip and slide through its collar, and allow the causeway to sway in event of an earthquake, but still remain standing. The pipe is about four feet in diameter.



Throughout, there was also wiring in very elaborate, complex cable trays for cabling that would fork off in different directions to power the roadway lights and signs.



So! Time to go back up.



So to give you an idea of how dark it really is in there (I had the camera on low light settings) this image shows it brighter than it actually was. There was a feeling of cold, stale air all throughout, and the constant echoing of voices and feet threw you off completely.



Sadly, it was time to go, and I would have preferred to run amok around the entire bridge snapping photos of everything, but I couldn't stay without the safety inspectors who were wanting to leave. So one last look underside, and you can see another stairway to get the idea.



And an opportunity to picture of the old eastern span from an odd angle.



So back on deck. The only thing in my mind I could think of was "soon..."

So a note to you other players. When the bridge opens for traffic, I highly advise you DON'T try to get into the tunnels in the bridge. I was on a construction site with no traffic whatsoever, you'll be dealing with live traffic moving at speeds of 50+ mph and it's NOT worth getting arrested on terrorism charges just wanting to see the tunnels for yourself. There's not much else to see but darkness and what I already showed you. Albeit tempting, the state will not take kindly with you breaking and entering it's 6.3 billion dollar investment.

Edit: so don't listen to the warning. Live your own lives. But this one most likely wont be as accessible after Labor Day.