How to Dismantle a Bridge

(lively music)

[Voiceover] On November 12th, 1936

the first cars rolled across the Bay Bridge

connecting Oakland and San Francisco.

It was a marvel of engineering

that used 6% of the nation's steel in 1933.

[Radio Announcer] High above the waters of the Bay

the fabricated steel sections swing into place

with infinite care and precision.

[Voiceover] Today, there's a new bridge

and the old one is being slowly, methodically dismantled

by Caltrans, the state transportation agency.

It's another engineering feat

hauling away those thousands of tons of steel.

(explosives)

Some portions, like this pier,

have been imploded with explosives.

But Caltrans can't just ka-boom

all the metal into a watery grave.

That would be an environmental disaster

and it would be a huge pain to recover the steel

which can be reused.

Caltrans is carefully removing the first of five

2500 ton trusses, each of them 504 feet long.

The trusses will be severed from the piers

and slowly lowered onto a pair of waiting barges

to be taken away for further dismantling.

450 tons of the steel will be donated to local artists

who will have a hell of a time

dragging it all to Burning Man.

(lively music)