<P> The toll bridge was conceived as early as the gold rush days, but construction did not begin until 1933 . Designed by Charles H. Purcell, and built by American Bridge Company, it opened on November 12, 1936, six months before the Golden Gate Bridge . It originally carried automobile traffic on its upper deck, and trucks and interurban streetcars on the lower, but after the Key System abandoned rail service, the lower deck was converted to all - road traffic as well . In 1986 the bridge was unofficially dedicated to James Rolph . </P> <P> The bridge has two sections of roughly equal length; the older western section, officially known as the Willie L. Brown Jr . Bridge (after former San Francisco Mayor and California State Assembly Speaker Willie L. Brown Jr .), connects downtown San Francisco to Yerba Buena Island; and the newer unnamed eastern section connects the island to Oakland . The western section is a double suspension bridge with two decks, westbound traffic being carried on the upper deck while eastbound is carried on the lower one . The largest span of the original eastern section was a cantilever bridge . During the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, a portion of the eastern section's upper deck collapsed onto the lower deck and the bridge was closed for a month . Reconstruction of the eastern section of the bridge as a causeway connected to a self - anchored suspension bridge began in 2002; the new eastern section opened September 2, 2013, at a reported cost of over $6.5 billion, a 2,500% cost overrun from the original estimate of $250 M. Unlike the western section and the original eastern section of the bridge, the new eastern section is a single deck with the eastbound and westbound lanes on each side making it the world's widest bridge, according to Guinness World Records, as of 2014 . Demolition of the old east span is expected to be completed by the end of 2017 . </P> <P> The bridge consists of two crossings, east and west of Yerba Buena Island, a natural mid-bay outcropping inside San Francisco city limits . The western crossing between Yerba Buena and downtown San Francisco has two complete suspension spans connected at a center anchorage . Rincon Hill is the western anchorage and touch - down for the San Francisco landing of the Brown bridge connected by three shorter truss spans . The eastern crossing, between Yerba Buena Island and Oakland, was a cantilever bridge with a double - tower span, five medium truss spans, and a 14 - section truss causeway . Due to earthquake concerns, the eastern crossing was replaced by a new crossing that opened on Labor Day 2013 . On Yerba Buena Island, the double - decked crossing is a 321 - foot (98 m) concrete viaduct east of the west span's cable anchorage, the 540 - foot (160 m) Yerba Buena Tunnel through the island's rocky central hill, another 790.8 - foot (241.0 m) concrete viaduct, and a longer curved high - level steel truss viaduct that spans the final 1,169.7 feet (356.5 m) to the cantilever bridge . </P> <P> The toll plaza on the Oakland side (since 1969 for westbound traffic only) has eighteen toll lanes, of which six are FasTrak - only . Metering signals are about 1,000 feet (300 m) west of the toll plaza . Two full - time bus - only lanes bypass the toll booths and metering lights around the right (north) side of the toll plaza; other high occupancy vehicles can use these lanes during weekday morning and afternoon commute periods . The two far - left toll lanes are high - occupancy vehicle lanes during weekday commute periods . Radio and television traffic reports will often refer to congestion at the toll plaza, metering lights, or a parking lot in the median of the road for bridge employees; the parking lot stretches from about 800 feet (240 m) east of the toll plaza to about 100 feet (30 m) west of the metering lights . </P>

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