SAN DIEGO - CORONADO BRIDGE 9.2009 CA

SAN DIEGO - CORONADO BRIDGE 9.2009 CA

The 11179-foot-long (3407 m or 2.1 mi) 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 US Navy ships which operate out of the nearby Naval Station San Diego to pass underneath it. The five-lane bridge featured the longest box girder in the world until it was surpassed by a bridge in Chonqing, China in 2008. The Coronado Bridge construction started in February 1967, and the bridge was opened to traffic on August 3, 1969, during the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the founding of San Diego.[2] Originally, the toll was $0.60 in each direction. Several years later, this was changed to a $1 toll collected for traffic going westbound to Coronado only. Although the bridge was supposed to become “toll-free” once the original bridge bond was paid (which occurred in 1986), the tolls continued for sixteen additional years. In 2002, it became the last toll bridge in Southern California to discontinue tolls.[3] The original toll booths remained intact for a short while, and were temporarily replaced with newer, more modern-looking toll booths for the filming of a car commercial in April 2007. The islands upon which the toll booths sat, as well as the canopy over the toll plaza area, are still intact, located at the western end of the bridge in the westbound lanes. Though tolls are no longer collected, beginning February 19th, 2009 there was talk of resuming …

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