Al (Flywright) came in Fort Pierce with a copy of the great calendars “Delta Bridges 2020” he made himself
, so I would like to return to that topic about the bridges in the Bay Area we discussed there between two guys who love bridges rather than walls. Hopefully I am not hijacking this thread.
In 2012 a major renovation "The Golden Gate Bridge Seismic Retrofit Construction Project" was performed on the Bridge infrastructure which was the installation of new roadway deck panels (fabricated in Napa, CA) that replaced the North Anchorage Housing roof/roadway deck. The first new deck section was installed on February 13, 2012, the last roadway deck section was installed on July 9, 2012. This work was done at night with traffic allowed to cross the Bridge at all times.
At that time, since one of the operating major companies was owned by a good friend of mine in Marin County, CA, I got one of the iron bars built between 1935 and 1937 at the original construction of the Bridge which had just been replaced by new ones. These bars were welded to large metallic powders on the deck bridge to maintain its steel structure. On-site of my friend’s company we cut the bar into 3 sections for easier transport on my flight back to France.
On attached picture it's interesting to note the bending of the right section due to weight constraints which resulted in a mechanical deformation. Perhaps that flexibility of the materials provided good resistance to different pressures also to weather conditions especially temperature shocks ? just wondering.
These original sections of Golden Gate Bridge remained in place during 75 years, bearing traffic of 1,941,900,000 vehicles
(*) (**) for the period between the bridge opened to traffic in May 1937 and the Bridge Seismic Retrofit Construction Project in 2012. In late 2012 these historic pieces of iron became mobile in turn, traveled 6,000 miles from Marin County CA to my home in France, leaving Pacific ocean to cross Atlantic ocean. As I write this post, one of these original Golden Gate Bridge sections is traveling 6,000 miles again, now from my city back to San Francisco Bay which seems to be a just return, for a well-deserved retirement aboard Al's boat "Flywright".
(*) Plus about 10,000 pedestrians rolling across the Golden Gate Bridge every day along with 6,000 bikes, according to current estimates from the District.
(**) On October 17, 1989 during evening commute the Bay Area experienced the Loma Prieta earthquake. The Golden Gate Bridge wasn't damaged, then to the failure of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge 30,000 to 40,000 drivers were diverted from the East Bay to Highway 101 and the Golden Gate Bridge in addition to the normal daily traffic on Highway 101. On October 27, 1989, the all-time record of 162,414 vehicles crossed the Golden Gate Bridge in both South and North directions.
