There was so much going on at the same time, one radio journalist decided that the easiest way to see it all was by climbing 400 feet to the top of the Bay Bridge’s tower and reporting from there. San Francisco also held swimming and diving competitions at Aquatic Park, and the day culminated in firework displays at either end of the bridge. There were demonstrations by the Coast Guard and the fire-boat service. In the bay, there was a regatta, as well as races involving fishing boats, a merchant life boat, the Sea Scouts and rowing clubs. Meanwhile, there was a bridge dedication on both sides of the Bay, while an Army and Navy air show roared overhead. (Digital First Media Group/Oakland Tribune via Getty Images) Cars line up at the toll plaza to be some of the first to cross the Bay Bridge. Truly, the Bay Bridge started as it continues to this day - with way, way too much traffic. Once those lights were on, cars could begin crossing. FDR, very casually messing with our traffic lights. One can only assume that this is how people showed off before the internet existed. That time, the little button on his desk set off a dynamite explosion on Yerba Buena Island. This activation of the lights was a more measured gesture to Northern California than the one FDR had offered at the beginning of Bay Bridge construction. Roosevelt hitting a little button in the Oval Office, which turned on traffic signals on the bridge. Which was, as you may have guessed by now, completely bonkers. All of which, believe it or not, was merely the opening act for the actual bridge opening on Nov. Holding the largest parade in Oakland history apparently didn’t feel quite big enough because, that day, there was also a luncheon, a military pageant, a football game, a ball and fireworks.

(MediaNews Group/Oakland Tribune via Getty Images) The Armistice Day parade moving along Broadway in Oakland, Nov. The Armistice Day party was meant to honor the lives of those lost in World War I, while also marveling at the possibilities for the future that were symbolized by the Bay Bridge. It was the largest parade in Oakland’s history. The Armistice Day parade route, as seen in ‘The Oakland Tribune’ on Nov.

11, took over 30 blocks of downtown Oakland. After the poetry had been penned, then came the parades. Needless to say, when the work on the bridge was finally finished, the entire region celebrated in a variety of consistently over-the-top ways. At one point, the San Francisco Examiner pondered whether “this new metropolitan area, knit into a single unit” would be called “San Fran-Oakland” or “Oak-Francisco.” (We owe a debt of gratitude to the 1930s humans who refused to allow these terms to catch on.) On top of that, folks were also in a tizzy about the small matter of San Francisco and Oakland suddenly being indelibly connected. Here’s the Eastern cantilever section that same year: Evel Knievel could’ve done something really cool with this. This is what the San Francisco side (specifically Perry, near Fourth St.) looked like in September 1935: The Bay Bridge 14 months before opening, looking like a backyard treehouse with lofty ambitions.

This is what the Bay Bridge looked like at the start of 1936. The bridge’s completion also felt a little miraculous, given how unfinished it had looked just months before the opening. Hell, PG&E had to lay a 25,000-foot long underwater power cable before the work could even start. It had taken three years, 152,000 tons of steel, 30,000 tons of reinforcing steel, 70,815 miles of cable wire, 1 million cubic yards of concrete, 1.3 million barrels of cement, 200,000 gallons of paint, 30 million feet of boards and 55 million man hours to complete. The construction had cost $77 million (which was actually under budget). Everything about the Bay Bridge was almost unfathomably huge. Looking back, you kind of can’t blame everyone for temporarily lapsing into overly dramatic fugue states. Miller, Alameda County’s coroner ( the actual coroner!) felt the need to share some rhyming words of wisdom about “this modern miracle … the Bay Bridge.” Schoolchildren in Berkeley, Oakland, Alameda and Piedmont were all given assignments to write poems about the brand new bridge. You’ve spanned the Bay and you seem to say:Ĭertainly, poetry was the chosen medium in which to feel overwrought that month. We have seen you write of a victor’s might Now you stand complete and our eyes you greet We’ve watched you grow from a buttress low A less bad poem by Jack Burroughs also made it into the Oakland Tribune that week:

San francisco bay bridge traffic