'FRISCO BRIDGE

Hokitika Guardian, 18 January 1933, Page 3

'FRISCO BRIDGE

FOUR MILES IN LENGTH. 70 COST ABOUT £15,000,000. SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 21. On March Ist next work \\ i.l commence on the first unit of the great .tructure which is to span San Franisco Bay and link this city with nik.and, realising a dream of 5U ears. To cost ultimate.y aboiit oIo,CCO,CCO, the project, often -bought incapable of realisation, has .cen made possible by the Iteconstrucjion Finance Corporation, established >y President Hoover, -which has taken .p 80 per cent of the bonds. With its approaches, the bridge will oe more than four miles long, threeourths of it lying over water, which .n places is 301/I't deep and is shallow n no spot except in immediate proxmity to the San Francisco shore line jf Yerba Buena Island. No suspension bridge in the world is at aLI comparable to the combined projected spans oetween the city and the island. The undertaking becomes a tunnel through, die peak of the island, and thence by cantilever and steel trestle reaches the eastern shore of the bay. The suspension part of the bridge

>vill 1)0 divided into five spans. The -lid spans, irom the 500 ft towers to the, hmd anchorages, will he 1150 ft sach. Next to these on either side will be a, 2400 ft span, supported in the centre by a concrete pier 3001't high. This central pier is thought to lie a unique feature in suspension bridges - l| icl was adopted ,by the engineers to permit all the towers to be kept at die uniform .height of 500 ft. The spans wid overhang one 0 f the world's busy waterways, and ghe ample clearance for the tal.est liners or vvarships entering or leaving through the Golden Gate. The space between each pair of towers will lie as wide ai the chanel into nearly all the greatest larhours. The bridge will have two decks, one of - w hich wilj -'•acconimodate (inter‘irban and, possibly at a later date, transcontinental trains. The other vill have six lanes for fast automibilo traffic, and tliree for lorries, trucks and other slow motor vehicles. "When the bridge is opened in 1937 die revenue, according to present esimatos, will he about £1,400,000 a •ear.