fritz Klinke Wrote:
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> Since these are my photos, I can expand on what
> you all have been discussing. The Dumbarton Bridge
> had a bridge tender 24/7 as there was substantial
> rail traffic, both directions, in the late 1960s.
> Lyman Fancher was who we knew, and in those days,
> Bruce MacGregor was also a friend. Lyman was going
> to school at Cal State Hayward and this job with
> the SP paid his way. Lyman runs a guest ranch
> these days in the Steamboat Springs area in
> Colorado. Lyman used a speeder that was kept at
> the Newark section houses that were inside the
> wye. Rarely did they drive out to the bridge. We
> often rode with Lyman, and that meant spending an
> entire shift on the bridge. We would drive out on
> the Levee that separated the Leslie salt ponds
> from the Bay, and then there was a walk way around
> the Hetch Hechy water facility with a stairway up
> to the trestle. We watched the year-long rebuild
> of a portion of that trestle when they brought in
> a steam pile driver mounted on a barge that drove
> all those concrete pilings.
>
> The bridge was almost always kept aligned for rail
> traffic. There was a telephone out there that
> connected with the dispatcher, and once in a long
> while, Lyman would have to copy orders to a
> passing train. There is a set protocol for boat
> traffic to signal for the bridge to be opened and
> on summer weekends, the bridge was sometimes like
> a merry-go-round. Night traffic on the Bay
> included fuel barges that supplied Moffat Field
> which at that time was a very busy Navy facility.
> The bridge tender had his hands full, and then
> there were hours when nothing happened. There was
> a nightly "rock" train that brought aggregates for
> the cement plants located along the line into the
> city and that train really shook that bridge.
>
> We often had dinner parties out there and would
> invite select friends to attend. One memorable
> night Dick Steinheimer brought out a date and
> entertained her with a steak dinner, and I don't
> recall her being amused about it, but I got Stein
> to autograph one of his books. He later visited me
> in Colorado and he also knew my brother as the two
> of them worked at Fairchiild Semiconductor. The
> fellow who often joined me in visits to see Lyman
> is Terry Barnes, who recently retired from the UP
> as a signal maintainer and we still visit with
> each other.
>
> The 3 cylinder Fairbanks Morse engine was operable
> and we often ran it just for the hell of it
> opening the bridge just to see it work. That all
> came to a crashing halt when the m-o-w foreman
> told Lyman that he was tired of hoofing gasoline
> up the long stairway to refuel the engine. Water
> for the radiator was collected off the roof and
> stored in a large tank for the radiators. There
> was no electricity. All the bridge lights for
> navigation were kerosene. Night lighting was by
> kerosene lamps, all SP issue stuff. I was working
> for Lockheed on the Polaris missile program at the
> time, so I would leave my high tech work and
> within a half hour, be right back in a time
> capsule from another day. Neat place in the middle
> of a mass of humanity, beautiful views, and our
> own private rail traffic.
>
> I left the Bay Area in 1970 and moved to
> Silverton, Colorado where I have lived ever since.
> When Lyman finally graduated, he too moved on and
> left that job. It paid him and gave him a place to
> study, except when we would clutter up his life. I
> understand that the center ring casting that the
> bridge pivots on was damaged in the Loma Prieta
> earthquake and that was the primary reason the
> fire damaged western trestle approach was never
> rebuilt. I have some pictures of them flosting the
> swing portion out to the bridge when it was built
> and it was quite an operation. Bruce MacGregor
> found those and passed on copies.


WOW thanks for you reply fritz. I have been infatuated with that bridge since I was a little boy. And more recently have been slowly gathering information for a possible book someday. I would Love to see the pictures of the center span being floated on barges. From what I gather it was built in S.F.