Background
According to the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities, the project's goal was to "provide better service to the airport and allow for development of large tracts of land on the island".
A ferry runs to the island every 30 minutes, and every 15 minutes during the May–September peak tourist season. It charges $5 per adult, with free same-day return, and $6 per automobile each way (as of 2011).
According to USA Today, the bridge was to have been nearly as long as the Golden Gate Bridge and taller than the Brooklyn Bridge. The bridge would cross the Tongass Narrows, part of Alaska's Inside Passage, so the bridge was designed to be tall enough to accommodate ship traffic, including the Alaska Marine Highway and the cruise ships that frequent Alaskan waters during the summer.
Ketchikan's airport is the second largest in Southeast Alaska, after Juneau International Airport, handles over 200,000 passengers a year, while the ferry shuttled 350,000 people in the same time period (as of December 2006). In comparison, the Golden Gate Bridge carried more than 43,000,000 vehicles in 2006, or about 118,000 vehicles each day.
A number of alternative bridge routes were considered. The decision in September 2004 was actually for two bridges, connecting Pennock Island in the middle, and is known as Alternative F1. A map is available at dot.Alaska.gov/stwdplng/projectinfo/ser/Gravina/assetts/Final_EIS/Figures/Figure_2-10.pdf. The west span of the bridge was designed to have a vertical clearance of 120 feet (37 m), and the east span of the bridge was to have a vertical clearance of 200 feet (61 m).
Read more about this topic: Gravina Island Bridge
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