"The Bridge So Far -- A Suspense Story" is an
entertaining one-hour documentary on the often outrageous and always
controversial history and status of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay
Bridge. Tragic, frustrating, comical, and historic, this entertaining
documentary/news special follows the Bridge from its original
construction through the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake up to the present
day. It recounts the progress, delays, setbacks, and politics during the
design and construction of a new, safe bridge to re-complete the
connection across the Bay between San Francisco and Oakland.
This was much more than a huge design and construction
project. It was local, regional, state, and even federal politics;
dollars and delays; finances and finger pointing; the U.S. Navy vs.
Caltrans; northern vs. southern alignments; skyway vs. suspension
bridge, with a bikeway; conceptual changes during construction; and
monumental cost increases caused by such far-flung factors as the
upcoming Olympics in China.
In other words, it was a doozy of a story, just waiting
to be told even while chapters were being added.
Award winning filmmaker David Brown filmed and produced
the entertaining story with all the drama, comedy, optimism, dashed
hopes, and plot reversals that can only happen in real life. Sponsored
by the Professional Engineers in California Government (PECG), Brown
filmed the story from the air, from the water, on land, with
computerized animation and perspectives, archival footage, original
music, and two dozen interviews with key players including former San
Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, State Senator Tom Torlakson, Caltrans
Director Will Kempton, former MTC Member Mary King, newspaper reporters
Lisa Vorderbrueggen and Sean Holstege, Bay Area satirist Will Durst,
bridge builder C.C. Myers, a seismologist, a White House lawyer, and
many of the engineers and architects who actually worked on the new
bridge.
In the end, it’s a story about rebuilding after a disaster, getting
the job done despite delays and wrong turns, and ultimately the very
human process of using steel and concrete to make a dream a reality.
"The Bridge So Far -- A Suspense Story" was sponsored by the
Professional Engineers in California Government (PECG).
