Episode transcript<\/h2>\nOlivia Allen-Price:<\/b> Hey everyone! This is Bay Curious. I\u2019m Olivia Allen-Price. Crossing bridges can be essential to getting around the Bay Area. No matter what side of the water you live on, odds are, you\u2019re probably going to use a bridge sooner than later.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAnd for the people who live, work or just hang out in the City of Alameda, crossing a bridge is almost non-negotiable. The island is connected to the rest of the Bay by six drawbridges, as well as two underwater tunnels, that span the Oakland Estuary.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWhen those bridges open to let a boat pass, everybody has to wait. One day, Sarah Reid was in her car, watching the Park Street bridge open, when she noticed a little room attached to one of the bridges.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSarah Reid:<\/b> And I remember looking up at those little rooms wondering, does someone just sit up there all day? And what is that like,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOlivia Allen-Price:<\/b> She also wants to hear some stories \u2026<\/span><\/p>\nSarah Reid:<\/b> What\u2019s a good day look like? What\u2019s a bad da y? What\u2019s the weirdest thing that\u2019s ever happened\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOlivia Allen-Price:<\/b> Turns out \u2013 yeah! There\u2019s a bridge tender sitting in that little room 24\/7. And they\u2019ve seen a lot! KQED\u2019s Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman has the story.<\/span><\/p>\nCars on Bridge Noise<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>Car tires hum against the steel deck of the Park Street Bridge. This hypnotic drone is the bridge\u2019s soundtrack.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nDamon Wallace: <\/b>I grew up on these bridges. Um, the sound of the cars going overhead is, is soothing to me. It\u2019s like a, it\u2019s a comfort thing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>That\u2019s Damon Wallace, he\u2019s a bridge utility worker for Alameda County\u2019s Public Works Agency.<\/span><\/p>\nDamon Wallace: <\/b>I\u2019ve been doing that for about two years, and prior to that I was a bridge tender.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>Bridge tenders are the people that operate Alameda\u2019s drawbridges. It runs in his family, his father and his uncle both held the job when he was a kid.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nDamon Wallace: <\/b>My dad 25 years. Uh, my uncle, uh, a little bit less than that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>We\u2019re standing in the machinery room underneath the Park Street Bridge\u2026its a large concrete bunker full of tools and the giant electrical motor that opens and closes the bridge<\/span><\/p>\nIt\u2019s like a little Home Depot in here, just for the bridge, they\u2019ve got everything they need to keep the bridge running which is essential because The Park Street Bridge is the busiest of Alameda\u2019s bridges. Around 40,000 vehicles travel across its four lanes on an average weekday.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nUp on the deck of the bridge, which is about the length of a football field we can see Berkeley, downtown Oakland, and ships at the Port of Oakland. We walk up to the bridge tower. It\u2019s fixed on the Alameda side of the bridge, and almost looks like a little miniature clock tower.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nCarl Speaker:<\/b> Knock, knock. Hello.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nJohn Williams:<\/b> Come on up.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nCarl Speaker:<\/b> How you doing, John?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nJohn Williams:<\/b> Good.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>We head up a spiral staircase to the top floor.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nJohn Williams: <\/b>Welcome to Park Street Bridge, uh, Alameda County Public Works Agency. How you doing?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>John Williams is the bridge tender on duty right now. He\u2019s got a big white beard and his orange public works shirt tucked into his work pants.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nJohn Williams:<\/b> It\u2019s the best job in the world, you know, I mean, I, it\u2019s really an excellent job\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>The top floor is just one room with windows all around, giving the operator a 360 degree view of the bridge and the Oakland estuary. One end is all business: with a control panel for operating the drawbridge,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman (in scene): <\/b>Wow. There are a lot of big red buttons there,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nJohn Williams: <\/b>right? There are. And you don\u2019t just randomly push them either.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman (in scene): <\/b>Oh, that\u2019s too bad.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>There\u2019s also a maritime radio, security cameras, a log book and a laptop. In a corner of the other side of the room is a little kitchenette, there\u2019s a french press and an avocado sitting on the counter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nJohn Williams: <\/b>I\u2019ve seen a lot of wildlife out here over, over the years. You know, way l one time, lot of otters now and then, um, a lot of seabirds.<\/span><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>Some great sunsets too. John says he found the job on Craigslist. Besides the perks, he says this job has some big responsibilities. Public safety is their number one concern.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nJohn Williams:<\/b> Our first job is to make sure no one gets hurt while we\u2019re operating these massive machines.<\/span><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>A normal opening of the bridge splits the road deck in half, tons of concrete and steel lift into the sky at a 70 degree angle, about 143 feet in the air. The process requires constant vigilance and double, triple checking.<\/span><\/p>\nJohn Williams: <\/b>Cause people will run on the bridge while it\u2019s moving. They\u2019ll go underneath the barriers. I think twice we\u2019ve had people run their cars through the barrier.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>And that\u2019s just keeping the PEOPLE safe. The bridge also needs to be opened in a timely manner so that a boat doesn\u2019t hit it.<\/span><\/p>\nJohn Williams: <\/b>You get a call and tug and barge is coming in with like, you know whatever, 20 tons of gravel, you know, with a, a fat tide behind them pushing \u2019em in, in wind, and you have to open the bridge. You can\u2019t not open the bridge. It\u2019s very hard for \u2019em to stop. Really hard for \u2019em to stop.<\/span><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>All but two of Alameda\u2019s drawbridges are staffed around the clock because ships, including the nearby Coast Guard base, need to be able to travel up and down the estuary at all hours. On a busy day, the Park Street bridge might open and close 14 different times.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nJohn Williams: <\/b>I could be in a crowd of a thousand people and if somebody on the other side of that crowd said Park Street Bridge, I would hear them. Because I\u2019m trained to hear it, you know, the radio call.<\/span><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>Boats can schedule openings ahead of time, or just call to request one. The bridges don\u2019t open during the morning and afternoon rush hour unless a boat makes an appointment<\/span><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>John comes off pretty relaxed and friendly, but when it comes time to open the bridge, he gets intensely focused.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>Right now, there isn\u2019t a ship passing, this is an operational check, that the tenders do from time to time, to make sure everything is working as it should. John starts by opening all the blinds in the little tower room. He wants full visibility. And he stops talking to me. He says he needs to concentrate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nJohn Williams (in scene): <\/b>St\u200aand clear for bridge opening. Please stand clear for Park Street Bridge opening<\/span><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>First he drops the gates and barriers to keep cars and pedestrians off the bridge, and makes sure all the traffic is stopped. Then he walks out on a little catwalk extending out from the tower, and double checks that nobody is in harms way.<\/span><\/p>\nSounds of birds<\/span><\/i><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>Just then, recordings of birds play underneath the bridge, in an attempt to shoo nesting pigeons away.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>And then it gets pretty quiet. The hum of traffic stops, and the bridge begins to rise. You can hear the electrical motors whirring. For Damon, the second generation bridge worker, it\u2019s a special moment.<\/span><\/p>\nDamon Wallace:<\/b> It\u2019s these giant machines, and you don\u2019t realize they\u2019re machines until you\u2019re up in the tower the first time and you press that button and the your world starts to tilt sideways.<\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>He says there\u2019s something magical about it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nDamon Wallace:<\/b> For a minute you get to just sit there and watch this amazing, surreal thing happened right in front of you. And it\u2019s, it\u2019s, it\u2019s one of my favorite things, you know? It always has been.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>With the bridge sticking straight up in the air, John checks again before letting it down.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nJohn Williams:<\/b> Okay, you guys. All right?<\/span><\/p>\nVoices: <\/b>good!<\/span><\/p>\nJohn Williams: <\/b>Coming down.<\/span><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>And then, John guides the bridge slowly back down, metal locks click back together underneath the road deck, and the traffic starts again.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIt\u2019s clear the bridge tenders are essential. But in this world of technological innovation, especially artificial intelligence, I wonder, how much longer will these jobs be around? I put that question to John Medlock, he\u2019s the Deputy Director of Maintenance Operation for Alameda County, PublicWorks Agency.<\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\nJohn Medlock: <\/b>At some point in time, you know, maybe, maybe everything needs to be replaced. We\u2019ll probably find new technology or, or new way of spanning the, uh, the estuary. But right now that\u2019s what we have and love it or hate it. If that\u2019s what we have.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>He thinks the bridge tenders, will be around for the foreseeable future.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOlivia Allen-Price:<\/b> When we return \u2013 some history of these drawbridges. And the unique ways bridge tenders pass the time. Stay with us.<\/span><\/p>\nSPONSOR MESSAGE<\/b><\/p>\n
Olivia Allen-Price:<\/b> Nowadays Alameda\u2019s bridges are a reliable way to get on and off the island. But it wasn\u2019t always that way. Here\u2019s Azul again\u2026<\/span><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>Ever since early European settlers founded the city of Alameda, its residents have had to navigate getting across the strip of water and marshland \u2026 separating it from Oakland. And bridge tenders have been part of that history.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nDennis Evanosky: <\/b>The problem started in, in the, in the 1870s when people on the west end of Alameda complained, \u2018Boy Oakland\u2019s right over there. We\u2019d like to get over there.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>That\u2019s historian Dennis Evanosky. The first bridge to connect Alameda to what\u2019s now Oakland was the Webster Street bridge, built by Alameda County in 1871. It\u2019s now long gone. And pretty much from the get go, it had its fair share of tragedies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nDennis Evanosky: <\/b>The Webster Street Bridge was a disaster.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>It wasn\u2019t a drawbridge, but rather a swing bridge, that could turn 90 degrees, out of the way of ship traffic. This was the design of most early Alameda bridges. But Evanosky says it was hit by ships multiple times, and in 1900 was the site of a tragic train accident.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nDennis Evanosky: <\/b>They misunderstood a signal and, and the, the whole train dumped into the estuary.<\/span><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>Thirteen people were killed. The Webster Street bridge couldn\u2019t catch a break. It was destroyed and rebuilt 3 more times, and its successors were the site of more ship collisions, a fire, and an attempted bombing. The bridge was dismantled for the last time, shortly after the construction of the Webster Street Tube in 1928., the tube is an underwater tunnel connecting Oakland and Alameda.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAnd that\u2019s kind of the story of all of Alameda\u2019s bridges. Some don\u2019t exist anymore, but the ones that do have been rebuilt, at least once.<\/span><\/p>\nDennis Evanosky: <\/b>So each of the bridges has two lives.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>And it hasn\u2019t been all ship strikes and disasters. Alameda residents have had some fun along the way.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nDennis Evanosky: <\/b>And then the people, uh, who, who were really close by when they heard the boat toot for permission, they\u2019d all run down there and they\u2019d ride the bridge.<\/span><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>\u2026Climbing on the bridge as it swung open and taking it for a ride. People even did this on the current version of the park street bridge. Clinging on as the drawbridge raised open.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nDennis Evanosky: <\/b>That\u2019s pretty dangerous. So they, they, they put a stop to that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>The cities of Alameda and Oakland commemorated the opening of the latest Park Street Bridge in 1935, with a wedding between a woman from Alameda and a man from Oakland.<\/span><\/p>\nVoice over reading newspaper clip: <\/b>Miss Edith Bird of Alameda became Mrs. Edward M. Drotloff of Oakland yesterday afternoon. The ceremony that united them as they stood at the site of the newly-completed Park Street Bridge symbolized the uniting of the two cities by the huge structure.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>It was a huge party. There was a parade, marathon runners from oakland, and the mayors of the two towns clasped hands as hundreds came out to see the new bridge. The same one that stands today.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nToday, there are 14 bridge tenders that work the Alameda bridges, and they switch between all 6 of the bridges.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>When I go to visit the High Street Bridge, Vincent Cerletti is the bridge tender on duty. He\u2019s wearing orange alameda county coveralls, and a psychedelic trucker hat for a disc golf supply company. This bridge sees less traffic, so has a calmer vibe.. Across the water I can see houseboats bobbing up and down.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nVincent Cerletti:<\/b> There\u2019s a lot going on out there. It\u2019s peaceful. The birds. Oh man. When you get these huge flocks that come flying in here and settle into the estuary, it\u2019s like a, like a painting.<\/span><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>Vincent has been a bridge tender for more than ten years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nVincent Cerletti:<\/b>\u00a0It\u2019s the first regular thing that I got into that gave me a stability working for the county, which has been awesome.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>And he\u2019s seen some things.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nVincent Cerletti:<\/b> Like a guy with a couch once came down with a, a, you know, like the small little trolling motor on the back? I think he was floating on, on a piece of a dock with a couch on it. A little motor. He\u2019s fishing. He was having a good time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>He says that in order to be a bridge tender, you have to be ok with spending a lot of time by yourself.<\/span><\/p>\nVincent Cerletti:<\/b> Some guys paint, paint, little, uh, pictures, you know, watercolors of the boats and stuff.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAzul Dahlstrom-Eckman: <\/b>He says one bridge tender fixes electronics to pass the time. Vincent, likes to bring his Ukelele.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nVincent Cerletti:<\/b> Yeah. So I just, uh, yeah. Sit here and.<\/span><\/p>\n