On January 11, 2015, the New York Times (
visit link) ran the following story:
"New Golden Gate Bridge Barrier Draws Sighs of Relief
By RONNIE COHENJAN. 11, 2015
SAN FRANCISCO — Dillon Hartwig’s commute from south of San Francisco to a Sausalito restaurant took three times longer than usual this weekend because his usual route — over the Golden Gate Bridge — was closed.
But Mr. Hartwig, a 23-year-old busboy and barista, had no complaints about the inconvenience of his two-and-a-quarter-hour alternative commute via a train and a bus to get to work.
For the longest period in its nearly eight decades, the Golden Gate Bridge was closed to vehicular traffic during the weekend as crews retrofitted the span to install a safety barrier to separate northbound from southbound traffic.
“It’s better than those little tubes,” Mr. Hartwig said of the flimsy 19-inch plastic tubes that had separated traffic. “It’ll definitely feel safer for me with more of a wall,” he said, while working Saturday night at Le Garage, a popular Sausalito bistro, which was quieter than usual because of the bridge closing.
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For Mr. Hartwig and countless other drivers, the 1.7-mile trek across the Golden Gate Bridge was often a white-knuckle experience, with only the plastic tubes offering protection from opposing traffic. Accidents are commonplace, with vehicles crossing into oncoming lanes. (Just a few weeks ago, Mr. Hartwig covered a shift for another busboy who crashed his car while crossing the bridge.)
Sixteen people have died in 128 head-on collisions on the bridge since 1970, said Priya Clemens, a spokeswoman for the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District.
Dr. Grace Dammann survived a 2008 bridge crossover crash and has been pushing for a more impregnable median barrier since she awoke from a seven-week coma after that accident. In her case, a southbound driver fell asleep and drifted into her northbound lane. Dr. Dammann, a pioneering AIDS doctor, sustained paralysis in the accident and uses a wheelchair. Her caretakers consider her survival, detailed in a recent documentary called “States of Grace,” a miracle.
“Life turns on a dime. And if we can make it a gentler landing for people, that’s good,” Dr. Dammann, 67, said before speaking at a ceremony Sunday on the bridge. “That’s my prayer.”
From the Art Deco span’s 1937 opening until 1962, its six lanes were equally divided between northbound and southbound traffic. In 1963, the lanes were regularly changed, dictated by the traffic flow, with yellow plastic pylons (as easy to knock down as bowling pins) separating oncoming vehicles.
The new barrier contains 3,500 movable steel-clad concrete blocks, each standing 32 inches high. Two trucks will move the blocks, similar to the motion of adjusting a zipper, across the six lanes to accommodate the traffic demands of 40 million vehicles a year.
Though Bay Area residents have favored a sturdier traffic divider for decades, the bridge district needed to wait on both the technology and the financing before moving ahead with the $30 million project, Ms. Clemens said.
Over the years, the bridge had closed for hours at a time because of high winds or for celebrations and visits by dignitaries. But the 52-hour weekend closure was the longest by far. It complicated at least one pregnant woman’s delivery plans, threw some air travelers into a panic, delayed wedding and birthday party plans and slowed businesses on both sides of the span. But laid-back Bay Area residents generally accepted the annoyance with resilience and creativity.
Clutching a gift wrapped in lavender silk, Meg Krehbiel, 43, stepped gingerly in four-inch black-suede Prada heels down a shaky floating dock in Sausalito to catch a water taxi to a friend’s birthday party in San Francisco on Saturday night. She called the $50 fare for the 15-minute boat ride “quite a deal.”
Years ago, Elektra Perkins, 70, a Sausalito gallery owner, blew out a tire on the bridge. She ended up in an oncoming traffic lane but somehow escaped injury.
Business was painfully slow over the weekend, “but I’m not complaining,” she said. “I understand that it’s really important to have the median barrier. I’m all for that.”
Anna Bruce, 41, of Mill Valley, a city in the Bay Area’s Marin County, welcomed the occasion to ferry across the bay to see public radio’s “Prairie Home Companion” with Garrison Keillor in San Francisco on Saturday. Mr. Keillor used the bridge closing to discuss the frequently long commutes for workers priced out of sky-high rentals in San Francisco. “Traffic conditions may be as bad as L.A., especially now that they closed the Golden Gate Bridge,” he said.
But predicted traffic jams failed to materialize. In fact, some roads seemed almost eerily empty, which comforted Lisa and Joel Bakamis as they waited in their San Anselmo, Calif., home for signs that her first baby, due last week, was ready to be delivered at a San Francisco hospital.
“The first time in 77 years the bridge closed had to be on our due date,” Joel Bakamis said.
The couple had planned out a detour, if necessary: east over the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge and then west again over the Bay Bridge into San Francisco.
Instead of a nuisance, the closing presented an opportunity for some. The bridge remained open to pedestrians and bicyclists, who seized the chance to traverse it without cars, trucks and honking horns.
“The Golden Gate Bridge is my favorite part of San Francisco,” Clarke Weatherspoon, 35, said on Sunday after cycling across the span. “To be on the bridge with no cars, you can hear the water. You can feel the volume of the nature. It’s ethereal.”"