Why? We just opened the new Bay Bridge, a beautiful structure that will last until our grandchildren are old and gray.
Instead, we marked the opening of this landmark with a ceremony featuring the lieutenant governor, California's official backup quarterback, who showed up half an hour late and forgot to wear a tie. Then we had a parade of old cars across the new bridge, featuring politicians waving. How lame is that? It was a cut below the Grand Opening of a pizza joint in Brisbane.
It could have been unforgettable. As long as the whole Bay Bridge was closed, we could have allowed people to walk from San Francisco to Oakland and back again. How cool would that have been? Too late now. We had our chance and blew it.
Sour tinge to opening
The whole opening event on Labor Day had a sour tinge to it. The event was broadcast live on television and the reporters were quick to note with a concerned scowl that the bridge cost $6.4 billion and was 24 years late.
Not only that, the nuts that make sure the whatchamacallit is bolted to the whooziz bar are cracked. So the bridge may fall down in the next big earthquake or heavy rainstorm, or looming climate change, whichever comes first.
It reminded me of a nasty old man who lived across the street when I was a kid. He had a view about everything our family did no matter what it was. "You're doing it wrong," he'd say.
Six billion dollars for half a bridge! So what? We'll probably spend that much bombing the hell out of Syria next month. The International Monetary Fund lent $6.7 billion to those ingrates in Pakistan just last week. Didn't even make the evening news.
In the year 2113, when our descendants celebrate the bridge's centennial, $6.4 billion might be enough to buy a nice house in Noe Valley.
And about those bolts. People forget that when the Golden Gate Bridge was only 15 years old, a strong wind moved the deck so much the bridge had to be closed for three hours. Very scary. Changes had to be made to make the bridge stiffer and eventually a new, lighter deck was installed.
They forget that when the Bay Bridge was brand new, it took nearly five extra years to finish a bridge railway so that electric trains could cross the bay. As it turned out, the bridge trains were an expensive mistake and the tracks were taken out after only 17 years of service.
The bridge had to be reconfigured at a cost of millions of dollars. Millions! Who remembers that now?
I'm a great one for nostalgia. I miss Playland at the Beach and the Washington Square Bar and Grill. But I don't miss the old cantilever section of the old Bay Bridge, all girders and shadows. "It looked prehistoric," my esteemed colleague Michael Taylor wrote in a blog on SFGate.com.
He also blogged about driving out of the Yerba Buena Tunnel toward Oakland and seeing the new white tower with its lacy cables up ahead for the first time. "Breathtaking," he wrote.
Wednesday night, I had an appointment in Sausalito and took the last ferry of the evening back to San Francisco. A beautiful ride, the day fading into night, and the lights just coming on on the new bridge. As we approached San Francisco the new bridge disappeared behind Yerba Buena Island. But then the lights flickered and lit up the suspension cables of the older part of the Bay Bridge like a curtain of moving light.
Tourists have right idea
Two tourists stood on deck near the stern and watched, amazed. Two halves of one bridge, glittering against the dark September sky. First the new one, then the older bridge.
"What is this?" they asked. "Is all this new?"
Yes, I said. Only 2 days old. "You had a big party to open, no?" one of them asked. The answer, of course, was no.
It was embarrassing, like forgetting your wife's birthday.
