Most experts agree that a stronger quake, most likely along the San Andreas or the Hayward fault, in the East Bay, could cause a total collapse of the old span.
"As you would expect, a 75-year-old span needs to be maintained," said Judie Glave, a spokeswoman at the transportation authority.
The third structure, a rail bridge completed in 1997, was built adjacent to the first bridge and replaced the old span.
By the spring of 2004, a new bridge will replace the 61-year-old span, which first opened on Sept. 2, 1940 to formally complete the construction of the Merritt Parkway.
Not so long ago they enjoyed a 20-year-old span of domination in which they did not so much gloat over their huge edge but beseeched England to find a few players of sufficient talent and competitive character to give back the series at least a little of its old meaning.
The 40-year-old span, one of the busiest in the state, had been deemed in "poor" condition during regular inspections over 17 consecutive years, they found, before it fell into the Mississippi River on Aug. 1, killing 13 people and injuring 145.
It is integral to why the planned replacement for the decrepit 56-year-old span that connects Westchester and Rockland Counties is expected to cost more than $4 billion and why visionary state officials are now stuck with what may seem like a short-sighted political decision made a half century ago.
And out from the murky depths of that gloomy quagmire rose a bridge — a CEO's bridge — an old span of planks once home to all manner of creepy crawlies, now traversed by the bipedal creepy crawlies of Wall Street.
The artist would like to see his troll remain in its protective role on the old span until the dangerous work of demolition is done, and then be moved to the new bridge.
