The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge project hit a major milestone this month when workers pulled into place the final strand of the cable that supports the bridge's self-anchored span. When complete, the span will be the world's largest self-anchored suspension bridge.
The cable is anchored to the bridge deck on the east side, travels up and over a saddle at the top of the bridge tower and then loops underneath the bridge deck before returning over the saddle to the bridge deck. A specially designed hauling system pulled each of the 4,500-ft cable's 137 strands along this path. Each strand is made up of 127 10-millimeter-dia steel wires.
Crews began hauling the first strand on Dec. 19, 2011, and started pulling the final strand on April 5.
The next step will be to wrap and compress the cable, a process Caltrans expects to begin in late April.
