The Golden Gate Bridge Authority issued a statement reassuring commuters of the safety of the iconic Bay Area bridge, saying it has the most robust ship collision protection of any bridge on the west coast.
The announcements came hours after a container ship lost power and rammed into a major bridge in Baltimore on Tuesday, destroying the span in a matter of seconds and plunging it into the river in a terrifying collapse that could disrupt a vital shipping port for months. Six people remained unaccounted for on Tuesday afternoon as the search for survivors continued.
Back in the Bay Area, Caltrans issued a similar statement to what the Golden Gate Bridge Authority released, saying bridge safety is a high priority.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
Local structural engineering experts said residents should be reassured about the integrity of bridges in the region.
"In the Bay Area we have several beautiful bridges that are strong enough to withstand any kind of reasonable situation," said Farzad Shahbodaghlou, an engineering professor at California State University East Bay.
Shahbodaghlou said Bay Area bridges are engineered to withstand massive earthquakes and even typhoons. But he admits you cannot design for every possibility, like a direct hit from a massive container ship.
However, Bay Area bridges may be less vulnerable to the collapse in Baltimore. According to civil engineers, one of the most protective features of Bay Area bridges in particular is the shallow depths of portions of the bay itself. That is because most of the supporting piers of many Bay Area bridges, including the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge, are built in shallow parts of the bay where massive cargo ships like the one in Baltimore would run aground before making a direct impact.
"The Dumbarton Bridge -- ships can't get to that place, it's so shallow," said Hassan Astaneh, a retired UC Berkeley engineering professor. "The Richmond-San Rafael Bridge is a little bit deeper, but it's shallow for this kind of ship."
Astaneh noted a collision has happened in the Bay Area. He studied the crash of the Cosco Busan container ship into the Bay Bridge in 2007. The ship sideswiped one of the Bay Bridge's support piers and caused a massive fuel spill.
In the 2007 incident, the protective bumper around the support pier was damaged, but the bridge itself was not harmed.
Since that crash, engineers have been designing massive circular structure called "dolphins" to protect bridge piers.
The Baltimore incident is still under investigation and it is not clear if those protective structures could have helped.
