Ke Alakai o Hawaii, Volume VI, Number 28, 9 November 1933 — 75 MILLION DOLLAR 'FRISCO' BRIDGE WORK BEING RUSHED [ARTICLE]

75 MILLION DOLLAR 'FRISCO' BRIDGE WORK BEING RUSHED

By THOMAS J, BELLEW in San Prancisco Chronicle

■No steei towers as yet stand out as beacons marking the path of the San Francisco-Oakland bay brldge, but to the eyes on the ferry the direction oī the $75,000,000 span4s clear enough.

It ia traced by giant derricks thal dot the buy, in the clamshell bucTcets disgorging mud from the bay bottom, in cofferdamf= ana caissons, eonstruction piatfurma, pile diivers and steam shovels.

To the man 'pn the ferry boat it requires iiUle imagination to envisage the mighty span arising from these «,ctivities. From the moineni that he leavec the Ferry building until he arrives at the East Bay moles, there is visible cheering evidence that the bridge is beginning to take material form. . . .

Work on the gigantic anchorage on Rincon hill was started in July and pouring of the 68,000 cubic yards of concrete, whieh go to make the monolithic block, began about three weeks ago. Steei eyebara and grillages are embedded into the concrete and the cables of the suspension bridge will be connected to these eyebcrs.

only the other day the ferry rider saw emerging from the waters at the ehd of pier 24 at Harrison street, the foundation of the most w«sterly tower of the bridge. This cofierday eonsists of a rectangle of sheet steel piling 52 feel wide by 122 feet long and a'n ayerage depth from roek bottom td water leVel of 80 feet, Wi,thin the stoeka<!e, a concrete block was recently poured to six feet above watfer level. On this concrete monolith wlll be erected a steel tower 465 feet h!gh.

In the center of the bay is located Yerba Buena isid.nd, to whieh the bridge will l|e built from either side. A tunnel fdr the roadway is being dug through this island, the material from the excavation being loaded orito barges whieh in turn are dumped into the bay at a point selected by United States Army engineers.

Construction on the'bridge started July 9 this year. The builders and ēngineers are pressing forward to finish it in Januafy, 1937. At work there are now 1360 men and more will be added from time to time as the work progresses.