The first regular crossing of the Carquinez Strait began in the mid-1800s as a ferry operated between the cities of Benicia and Martinez, six miles upstream from the bridge site. Auto service started on this route in 1913. A
train ferry operated between Benicia and Port Costa from 1879 until 1930 when a rail bridge opened. Ferry service at the site of the bridge started in 1913 by the Rodeo-Vallejo Ferry Company.
Original span (1927–2007) The original steel
cantilever bridge was designed by
Robinson & Steinman and dedicated on May 21, 1927. Prior to this, crossing the
Carquinez Strait necessitated the use of
ferries. The bridge cost $8 million to build (equivalent to $ million in ). It was the first major crossing of the
San Francisco Bay and a significant technological achievement in its time. Upon its completion, the span became part of the
Lincoln Highway. This historic transcontinental roadway's original alignment, like the
Transcontinental Railroad that preceded it nearly sixty years earlier, chose to avoid crossing the Carquinez Strait entirely. The preferred option, given the engineering limitations of the day, was to skirt around the
Delta by going south from
Sacramento through
Stockton, then proceeding west across the
San Joaquin River and over the
Altamont Pass, and finally reaching
Oakland from the south; a route that would later become
U.S. Route 50 and ultimately Interstates
5,
205, and
580. This circuitous route, several miles longer, and traversing a rather formidable mountain pass, was preferable to crossing the Carquinez Strait, a deep channel with strong currents and frequent high winds. For decades, building a bridge across the Carquinez Strait was considered prohibitively expensive and technologically risky. Once the bridge was built however, driving from Sacramento to the
East Bay became much more direct. The Carquinez Bridge provided a welcome alternative route from the
Central Valley to the
Bay Area, one that no longer required loading one's vehicle onto and off of a ferry. With the bridge completed, the Lincoln Highway was realigned to cross the
Sacramento River, then proceed southwest through
Davis and
Vallejo, across the Carquinez Bridge, and along the shores of the
San Pablo and
San Francisco bays to
Richmond and Oakland; becoming
U.S. Route 40, and ultimately
Interstate 80. After the
Loma Prieta earthquake engineers determined that the aging 1927 span was seismically unstable, and that a retrofit was impossible. The decision was made to replace it with a new suspension bridge. The 1927 span was temporarily used to hold eastbound traffic while the 1958 eastbound span underwent a seismic retrofit, deck and superstructure rehabilitation, and painting to extend its serviceable life. The old 1927 cantilever bridge was dismantled three years after the opening of its replacement; with completion on September 4, 2007. A 3,000-pound bronze bell atop one of the bridge piers was removed and placed into storage. The bell will eventually be displayed in a new museum to be built at the Oakland end of the
San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge.
Parallel span (1958) At a cost of $38 million (equivalent to $ million in ),a parallel bridge was built just east of the 1927 bridge. The new bridge carried all traffic for a few months after it opened in November 1958, then after new ramps were built, the three-lane 1927 span, originally two-way, served westbound traffic while the four-lane 1958 span handled eastbound traffic.
Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge (2003 replacement span) Capitol Corridor train in 2025 At a cost of $240 million (equivalent to $ million in ) a new
suspension bridge was built, to the west of the two earlier bridges, by the joint venture consisting of Flatiron Structures of Longmont, Colorado, FCI Constructors of Benicia, California, and the
Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company of Darlington, England. This new bridge was named the
Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge, after an ironworker who worked on a number of the San Francisco Bay Area bridges, including the
Golden Gate Bridge, and the original 1927 Carquinez span. The bridge was dedicated on November 8, 2003, and opened for traffic on November 11, 2003. Originally, the plan was to dedicate the bridge on November 15, but complications involving then just-recalled Governor
Gray Davis and the transfer of power to
Arnold Schwarzenegger resulted in the date being moved. The coins minted to commemorate the event have the original date on them. The new suspension bridge, consists of the south anchorage, a transition pier, the South and North towers, and the north anchorage. It has spans of 147 m, 728 m, and 181 m. for a
total span of . It features a pedestrian and bicycle path, part of a bike trail which it is hoped will eventually
circle the entire Bay Area. The towers are each founded on two footings, which are each supported by six vertical, steel shells infilled with reinforced concrete, followed by drilled shafts in rock, i.e., cast-in-drilled hole, or CIDH, piles. The total length of the CIDH pile at the South Tower is approximately 89 m, with about 43 m of drilled shaft in rock. The total length of the CIDH pile at the North Tower ranges from 49 to 64 m, with about 16 to 26 m of drilled shaft in rock. The design parameters used for the South Tower piles were later confirmed by a pile load test. Additional field investigations during construction revealed significant variations in rock conditions at the North Tower, resulting in the redesign of the length of the piles. Major construction challenges encountered during construction of the South Tower piles, and the revised construction procedure, i.e., under-reaming, used by the constructor to mitigate caving. Materials for the New Bridge came from all over the world: • Steel Caissons for CIDH: XKT Engineering – Vallejo, California • Orthotropic Deck Sections:
IHI – Japan • Tower and Splay Saddles: • Castings: Sheffield Steel – England • Finishing and Machining: Kvaerner – England • Main Cable Wire:
Bridon – England • Wire for Cable Wrapping: Canada • Cable Bands: France • Suspenders (Hardware, Casting, Fabrication): WRCA – St. Joseph, Missouri • (3) Maintenance Travelers Under Deck Sections: Jesse Engineering – Tacoma, Washington ==Tolls==