page_title: San Diego–Coronado Bridge
section_title: Construction
hierarchical_section_title: San Diego–Coronado Bridge / Description / Construction
caption_attribution_description: A view of the San Diego-Coronado Bridge from above in a commercial jet.
context_page_description: The 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 with Coronado, California. The bridge is signed as part of State Route 75.
context_section_description: In 1926, John D. Spreckels recommended that a bridge be built between San Diego and Coronado, but voters dismissed the plan. The U.S. Navy initially did not support a bridge that would span San Diego Bay to connect San Diego to Coronado. They feared a bridge could be collapsed by attack or an earthquake and trap the ships stationed at Naval Base San Diego. In 1935, an officer at the naval air station at North Island argued that if a bridge was built to cross the bay then the Navy would leave San Diego.
  In 1951–52, the Coronado City Council initiated plans for bridge feasibility studies. By 1964 the Navy supported a bridge if there was at least 200 feet (61 m) of clearance for ships which operate out of the nearby Naval Base San Diego to pass underneath it. To achieve this clearance with a reasonable grade, the bridge length was increased by taking a curved path, rather than a more direct path to Coronado. The clearance would allow an empty oil-fired aircraft carrier to pass beneath it – it is not sufficient for Nimitz-class nuclear aircraft carriers in light load condition.
  The principal architect was Robert Mosher. Construction on the San Diego–Coronado Bay Bridge started in February 1967. The bridge required 20,000 tons of steel (13,000 tons in structural steel and 7,000 in reinforcing steel) and 94,000 cubic yards of concrete. To add the concrete girders, 900,000 cubic yards of fill was dredged and the caissons for the towers were drilled and blasted 100 feet into the bed of the bay.
  The bridge opened to traffic on August 3, 1969, during the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the founding of San Diego. The 11,179-foot-long (3,407 m or 2.1 mi) bridge ascends from Coronado at a 4.67 percent grade before curving 80 degrees toward San Diego. It is supported by 27 concrete girders, the longest ever made at the time of construction.
  In 1970, it won an award of merit for long span bridge from the American Institute of Steel Construction. The five-lane bridge featured the longest continuous box girder  in the world until it was surpassed by the Shibanpo Yangtze River Bridge in Chongqing, China in 2008. The bridge is the third largest orthogonal box in the country – the box is the center part of the bridge, between piers 18 and 21 over the main shipping channel.
caption: A view of the bridge from a commercial jet
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