History
The original Park Street bridge was completed in 1893. The Park Street bridge, the High Street and Fruitvale Avenue bridges, were built by the U.S. Government in exchange for permission and rights-of-way to dredge the channel between San Antonio Creek and San Leandro Bay. It had a wooden deck, a wrought iron thru truss swing span and wooden trestle approach spans. Riding the bridge as it opened to let water traffic through, as well as fishing off the bridge, were popular activities. It took a full ten years after the bridge was built to dredge the channel.
The present bridge was designed by the County of Alameda Surveyors Office and constructed under the Federal WPA Program. it was opened in 1935 with a Grand Opening celebration that included a public wedding of a man from Oakland and woman from Alameda to symbolize the unity of the two cities with the building of the bridge.
Read more about this topic: Park Street Bridge
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“There is no history of how bad became better.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Properly speaking, history is nothing but the crimes and misfortunes of the human race.”
—Pierre Bayle (1647–1706)