SF-Oakland Bay Bridge Time-Lapse

The new span of the Bay Bridge opened this morning.

Traffic began streaming across the graceful new $6.4 billion east span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge well before normal Tuesday commuter time, assured by officials that it would not only withstand any future earthquakes but provide a lifeline for emergency supplies and vehicles in the event of disaster. The new span replaces a structure that was damaged during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. It is designed to withstand the strongest earthquake estimated by seismologists to occur at the site over a 1,500-year period.