Last of the old Bay Bridge east span comes down

The last chunk of the old eastern half of the Bay Bridge, which over the years carried 3 billion motorists on their starry-eyed odysseys to San Francisco, got hauled off to the junkyard Tuesday.

There it will fetch 10 cents a pound. It’s a bad time to be an old bridge.

“The market for recycled steel is low right now,” said Brian Maroney, chief Bay Bridge engineer for Caltrans. “We could have waited for the price to go up, but we wanted to get the job done.”

The job of doing away with the last remaining section of the bridge — a 288-foot-long truss section at the eastern end — was the stuff of high drama. Dozens of demolition workers, two rusty barges, three tugboats and a tall red crane worked together on a sparkling spring morning in an exquisitely choreographed dance of death.

The plan called for the 850-ton chunk, after being cut free of its concrete pilings, to ride off to its fate on two barges. The barges would be lifted into position beneath the truss by the rising tide, which lifts all boats, barges included. It was something like jacking up a car for a tire change, with nature playing the role of the jack.

Port of Oakland shipping cranes are seen in the background as the final steel truss span of the Old Bay Bridge is floated away on barges, in Oakland, CA, on Tuesday March 28, 2017. Port of Oakland shipping cranes are seen in the background as the final steel truss span of the Old Bay Bridge is floated away on barges, in Oakland, CA, on Tuesday March 28, 2017. Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 30 Caption Close Last of the old Bay Bridge east span comes down 1 / 30 Back to Gallery

Workers in orange vests were everywhere, and their Caltrans supervisors, who wore neckties under their orange vests, were supervising. There was nothing to do but wait, which everyone did for about five hours, while the moon and Earth got themselves lined up into their high tide arrangement.

And then, shortly after 11 a.m., the water level crept high enough to lift the barges into contact with the truss and free it from its concrete pier. Shoved by three tugs and pulled by a winch, the entire hodgepodge inched into the open bay and began its half-mile journey to Pier 7, where the dismantlers with the blowtorches were waiting to administer their unkindest cuts of all.

Maroney was sad to see the last of the old bridge go, but he was a realist all the same. If old bridges don’t come down, new ones can’t go up, and bridge engineers are more about the next bridge than the last one.

“It served its purpose well,” Maroney said. “It was put up by engineers using slide rules who drafted plans with pen and ink on linen. It was from another time.”

Maroney, in a charitable mood, did not mention the old cantilever bridge’s darkest hour — the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake — when a 50-foot section of the upper bridge deck collapsed, leading to the death of a 23-year-old woman. Making the bridge earthquake safe was the primary reason for building the new $6.5 billion eastern half.

Building the spectacular self-anchored suspension span took 11 years. Knocking down the old one has taken two years. Perhaps that’s because, as any kid knows, it’s a lot more fun to wreck things.

The job of knocking down the old bridge is more than a year ahead of schedule, Maroney said. The next things to go are the concrete piers, pilings and foundations. They’re expected to be gone by the end of the year.

Maroney said the recycled steel will probably cross the Pacific on freighters, get melted down and made into brand-new things and then be brought back to the U.S. on freighters, to be sold all over again, for more than 10 cents a pound.

“We’re very happy the bridge lasted 77 years,” said Dan McElhinney, chief deputy director for Caltrans. “At the same time, it’s nice to have it gone.”

Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com