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Home  Education  Tides and Water Levels  The Importance of Monitoring the Tides and Their Currents
  << Back ...On June 14, 2002, these four industrial cranes, valued at approximately $1.25 million  each, arrived in San Francisco Bay from Shanghai, China. Designed to  rapidly hoist 40-foot-long containers from super-sized cargo ships,  they had to be transported beneath the Oakland Bridge to reach their  final destination, the Port of Oakland. The tidal range of San  Francisco Bay when these cranes were transported was 4.1 feet and the bridge had a motion of approximately 6 inches. With light chop on the  bay and winds blowing at around 10 mph, there was little room for  error. With detailed knowledge of the tidal cycle and skillful piloting of the vessel, the cranes cleared the bottom of the bridge by about 6  feet.


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