The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 24

San Francisco Examiner SF Sunday Chronicle rt-i, bnco Sn FfsiKiiioo Bay LIFE From B-1 B-2 Sunday, August 17, 1986 TWm ZWM Bridge superintendent Dave Conci, above, explains how two 200-horsepower motors run the O'Doul. Still, the counterweights, right, do most of the work In pulling up the bridge daily all traffic mtM come to a it ad Mop as tin' Iuily Ikim-iiIc trunnion luidfje separates itself from tlie pavement, opens wide and allows a sailboat or fishing vessel to pass from San Francisco Iiay into the narrow, languid stream that is Mission Creek. Or out. To avoid a diversion to Fhysics 101, stiff lee to say a bascule is a fulcrum (like a seesaw, one end balances the oilier. A trunnion is a pivot-bearing apparatus; if you support something between two trunnions you up-and-down mobility- In this case, you up-and-down mobility of a 139-foot chunk of latticed steel roadw ay and a pair of tiarpantuaii concrete counterweights that help pull the bridge up.

How gargantuan? "About 500 tons each," said Dave Conci, city superintendent of bridges and tunnels. liuilt for $352,590 in 1M3. the O'Uoul is one of three drawbridges in San Francisco. The others are the ivtcr J. Maloney, down the block at Fourth Street, and the lslais Creek Fridge, just south of Army Street.

(Maloney was a San Francisco policeman and founder of the S'tuth-ol-Market Hoys association and may or may not have liked drawbridges. Same for O'Uoul, the legendary baseball hero whose name was given to the Third Street Hi idee in 1WS0, 11 years after his death.) According to Coast Guard rules, skippers are supposed to give The City's drawbridge operators an hour's notice before they appear at the mouth of Mission or lslais Creek and say, "Open sesame." "Hut most of them are sbort-no- tire calls," said Pat Petersen, one of five stationary engineers ho operate the drawbridges. "Sometimes they just pull up and blow their bonis." Although a barge may head tip lslais Creek now and then, the bulk of traffic through O'Doul and Maloney are small pleasure craft and (barter fishing boats. With a depth of only 42 feet, the channel is not meant for the big boys on the Hay. Hut if a one-masted bathtub needed passage, it would get it on demand as long as it required more clearance than the lowered Lefty O'Doul provides at mean high tide: 5' feet.

"The only thing that overrules a (boat's) right of way is an emergency vehicle such as an ambulance, fire truck or police car," said Conci. Speaking of police cars, the Lefty O'Doul Bridge crushed one not too long ago on purpose for the James Bond movie "A View to a Kill." The chances of something like that happening in real life, however, are pretty slim as The City's drawbridge system has more backups than the Waldo Grade during the morning commute. Examiner phoios by Fran Ortiz die and turns it to the right. Brob-dingnagian gears that comprise the bridge's guts revolve and the giant grated roadway begins its smooth, almost silent ascent. When the boat has passed, Petersen pushes the control handle to the left and, very soon, Third Street is again Intact.

Thanks to the counterweights, which do much of the work, the awesome operation eats up only about $2 worth of electricity. If a boat needs to travel on up the creek and through the Peter J. Maloney, the bridge operator must lower the Lefty O'Doul, jump in a truck and drive clown to Fourth Street to repeat the process. Although the total time elapsed in an average lift of the O'Doul is 3 to 3'2 minutes, the wait is often too long for antsy drivers and pedestrians whose appreciation of remarkable machines Is minimal. "See, they don't even wail for Petersen prepares for a lift by electronically activating a big black control panel at the window of the little operator's house on the edge of Mission Creek.

Checking out traffic flow, he rings a loud electronic bell, then changes the traffic signals at the intersections of Third and Channel and Third and China Basin to red. With the help of four mounted TV monitors trained on different views of the area, he scans the bridge for lingering cars, trucks and cheeky joggers who don't want to interrupt their run. Next he sounds a bone-chilling siren several times and lowers the red-and-white traffic gates on either side. "It's best to make a lot of noise," said Petersen. "It tells people something is going to happen." With one last look for any wise guys, Petersen then grasps the liail'-century-old brass control han- me to turn the lights to green," said Petersen, as a two-way wave of traffic charged across the just-lowered bridge.

As might be expected, Petersen and the other engineers who occupy the one-room operator's house get their share of visitors. "Oh, yeah. We're a real service organization," said Petersen. "People are always knocking on the door. Lots of lost drivers wanting to know how to get back on the free- way.

And since they opened that Esprit place down near Mission Hock, it's doubled. Mostly women shoppers looking for the store." Naturally, there is the occasional bridge buff who wants to know how the O'Doul works, how long it's been there and what life is like raising and lowering 139 feet of roadway. "We always tell them the bridge business is like most jobs," said Petersen. "It has its tips and downs." Make The Pacific Basin Your Business 'Super Savings 258 tx HONOLULU 86 CLOSEOUTr-A MAUI, KAUAI, or KONA $319 tx Dominican College Master of Arts Degree ALL MODELS vJ PACKAGE SPECIAL! 8 days7 nights WAIKIKI $369 BANYAN J34W CONDO $329 Quad All departures must be tiy St Aug. Returns no Inter than 7 Sept.

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