San Diego-Coronado Bridge

Infobox Bridge | bridge_name=San Diego-Coronado Bridge

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carries=State Route 75
crosses=San Diego Bay
locale=San Diego, California and Coronado, California
design=Prestressed concrete/steel bridge
length=3,407 meters (11,179 ft)
below=60.96 meters (200 ft)
opened=1969
lat=32.6865
long=-117.1583The San Diego-Coronado Bridge, locally referred to as the Coronado Bridge, is a "prestressed concrete/steel" girder bridge, crossing over San Diego Bay in the United States, linking San Diego, California with Coronado, California. The bridge is signed as part of State Route 75.

Description

The 11,288-foot-long (3,407m or 2.1mi) bridge ascends from Coronado at a 4.67 percent grade before curving 80 degrees toward San Diego. The span reaches a maximum height of 200 feet (61m), allowing the U.S. Navy ships which operate out of the nearby Naval Station San Diego to pass underneath it. The two Nimitz class aircraft carriers home-ported in San Diego, the Nimitz and the Reagan, are convert|201|ft|m high and tie up at Naval Air Station North Island, located between the bay entrance and the bridge. The five-lane bridge features the longest box girder in the world.

The Coronado Bridge opened in 1969, with a $1 toll collected for traffic going westbound to Coronado. In 2002, it became the last toll bridge in Southern California to discontinue tolls. Though tolls are no longer collected, the original toll booths remained intact for a short while. They were temporarily replaced with newer, more modern-looking toll booths for the filming of a car commercial in April 2007.

The bridge was designed entirely and exclusively for motor-vehicle traffic: there are no pedestrian walkways, bike paths, or shoulders ("breakdown lanes"). On September 7, 2008, close to 2000 cyclists jumped to the chance of crossing the bridge on bike for the first time in two decades. [cite news | url=http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/17421176/detail.html | title=Hundreds Bike Coronado Bridge | publisher=NBC San Diego]

It is the third deadliest suicide bridge in the USA, trailing only the Golden Gate bridge [http://www.sptimes.com/News/71799/TampaBay/Bridge_phones_offer_a.shtml] in San Francisco, CA, and the Aurora Bridge in Seattle, WA. Between 1972 and 2000, more than 200 suicides occurred on the bridge [http://www.sdreader.com/php/cityshow.php?id=548] .

In popular culture

Aside from giving birth to the world famous Chicano Park (located beneath the bridge), in the 1980s the bridge helped further San Diego's identity as a separate and distinct city from its northern neighbor of Los Angeles when it was used as the visual centerpiece of the opening credits for the hit television show Simon & Simon, whose characters were private detectives in San Diego.

The Coronado Bridge was also featured on the television show "Veronica Mars" as the location where main character Logan's mother Lynn (Lisa Rinna) commits suicide. It later was the location where Logan (Jason Dohring) was framed for murder.

References

External links

* [http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/esc/tollbridge/Coronado/Corofacts.html Caltrans - Bridge History and Facts]
* [http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/esc/tollbridge/Coronado/Coronado.html Caltrans - Bridge Contracts]
* [http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist11/facts/corbridge.pdf California Department of Transportation -The San Diego-Coronado Bridge]
* [http://www.coronado.ca.us/bridge.html City of Coronado - Transportation Management Association Bridge]