Largest suspension bridge in 30 years opens
Ceremony moved up to let recalled California governor preside
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California Gov. Gray Davis presents a plaque to Fred Zampa, brother of ironworker Alfred Zampa, at the ceremony.
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VALLEJO, California (AP) -- With speeches, parades and a blowtorch, Californians opened the nation's first major suspension bridge since 1973, a 3,400-foot span across the Carquinez Straits, 25 miles northeast of San Francisco.
Gov. Gray Davis helped ironworkers christen the Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge by slicing through a ceremonial chain with a blast of fire.
State officials held the ceremony a week earlier than originally scheduled to give the honor to Davis, who presided over the bridge's construction and will leave office November 17 after voters recalled him last month.
The $400 million bridge is 410 feet tall, rests on two piers and is designed to withstand an earthquake of magnitude 8.0. It is named for an ironworker who fell from the Golden Gate Bridge during its construction in 1936 and survived to help build six more bridges in the Bay Area.
Zampa died in 2000 at 95, weeks after turning the first shovel of dirt for the bridge. The bridge named for him is the longest suspension span to open in the United States since the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Maryland opened.
More than two dozen members of Zampa's family attended Saturday's ceremony, including his grandson Dick Zampa Jr., 47, who sliced the thick iron chain with an oxyacetylene torch.
The Zampa replaces a cantilevered steel structure bridge built in 1927 that carries eastbound traffic on Interstate 80. The route is increasingly crowded with commuters driving home to new suburbs between the Bay Area and Sacramento, and the bridge is considered at risk to earthquakes.
Eastbound traffic will begin using the new bridge Sunday, while a span built in 1958 will continue to carry westbound vehicles. Workers will soon remove the 1927 bridge.
Copyright 2003 The
Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
