New and Old Bay Bridge

7 responses to “New and Old Bay Bridge”

1. 

   jurvetson

   May 27, 2013 at 10:36 pm

   and some of my other perspectives…
   The burning man lights at night
   

   With some hefty perspective compression
   

   This cable here…
   

   …has an amazing cross-section
   

   The rebar in the base took much modeling to convince contractors that it was even possible:
   

   It’s a huge project, currently clocking in at $6.3 billion:
   

   Reply
2. 

   California Swede – George Wester & Family

   May 27, 2013 at 10:51 pm

   I prefer the ferry whenever possible. It’s the journey and avoiding some of the less than stellar drivers. A streamlined bridge, I look forward to crossing on it.

   This cable design is very interesting. I expect that the manufacturing process was difficult to maintain it’s integrity.

   Reply
3. 

   gcquinn

   May 28, 2013 at 2:06 am

   Man, I hope that thing holds together!

   Reply
4. 

   m.p.moody

   Jun 1, 2013 at 11:42 pm

   As a serious Space buff, you will appreciate that the main bridge tower design was based on the Saturn 5. Not commonly known.

   "MacDonald said he came up with his vision by looking at America’s space program in the late 1960’s, and patterned his design after the Saturn 5 rockets that took the astronauts to the moon."

   “I had to get something out there I felt would be lasting for the next 50 years. I felt, well, there will be a lot of space exploration. There will be rockets here and there, so it has a lot of similarities. The base of it is like the base of our tower. The vertical elements, the negative spaces are like ours, the top has these rounded elements like ours. So when I matched them up it was just dynamite how they came together.”

   From this article,
   sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/02/03/soaring-design-makes…

   Reply
5. 

   jurvetson

   Jun 2, 2013 at 1:52 am

   How cool! I had not heard that. When I squint, I see a Falcon 9 with the lightning towers to the side… but I don’t quite see the Saturn V elements (other than the white obelisk with some dark parts). I think it could really use a nose cone.

   Reply
6. 

   m.p.moody

   Jun 2, 2013 at 2:37 am

   I agree, a nose cone would serve as a fitting ornamentation – notwithstanding the currently mounting $6+ billion price tag

   Reply
7. 

   sbove

   Jun 8, 2013 at 4:26 pm

   Trying very hard to like the aesthetics of this new suspension section…but still not working.The older suspension bridges have much more elegant, sweeping lines…and this one breaks almost every rule of classical proportion and symmetry. Its technically interesting, but an aesthetic meh. If it fell in the bay on completion, I’d shrug and be over it. Projects of this size and intrusiveness have to be beautiful. Its a requirement.

   Reply