Public often ignores officially designated names

Lawmakers may vote to rename the Yerba Buena to San Francisco stretch of the Bay Bridge to honor Willie Brown, but that doesn't mean a new name will actually catch on with commuters. Lawmakers may vote to rename the Yerba Buena to San Francisco stretch of the Bay Bridge to honor Willie Brown, but that doesn't mean a new name will actually catch on with commuters. Photo: Lacy Atkins, The Chronicle Photo: Lacy Atkins, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Public often ignores officially designated names 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

The Bay Bridge, in its nearly 77 years, has achieved a distinction that many Bay Area bridges, interchanges, highways and even rest areas have not: It has avoided being officially tagged with the name of a politician, law enforcement officer, engineer or do-gooder.

But the bridge's remarkable resistance to being legislatively dubbed appears ready to end - at least for the west span. While campaigns to name it officially for Emperor Norton or Mayor Sunny James Rolph failed, the effort to name it after former mayor and Assembly speaker and current Chronicle columnist Willie Brown has already passed the Assembly 68-0, and could be voted on by the Senate as soon as Wednesday.

The Willie Brown Bridge would join dozens of other Bay Area bridges, highways, overpasses and rest areas bearing people's names. They stretch from A to Z: the Jeffrey Lynn Azuar Freeway in Vallejo to the Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge that's part of Interstate 80's Carquinez Bridge.

There's the Sen. John A. Nejedly Bridge (also known as the Antioch Bridge), the Caldecott Tunnel, the Posey Tube between Oakland and Alameda, the John F. McCarthy Bridge between Richmond and San Rafael, and the George Miller Bridge - which is actually two spans named after two different Georges, and more commonly called the Benicia-Martinez Bridge.

Will it stick?

In fact, while lawmakers like to name things, it's up to the public whether the name becomes commonly used.

John Goodwin, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, said he thinks many drivers don't pay attention to official names, which are usually marked with green-and-white signs that are paid for by donors.

"Probably very few people traveling over the new Benicia-Martinez Bridge think of it as the George Miller Bridge and the other direction as the George Miller Jr. Bridge," he said. "I think it's like the corporate naming of stadiums. Some of them stick, some don't."

In the Bay Area, plenty of transportation infrastructure bears someone's name - often those of people who are no longer household names, if they ever were.

Nejedly, for instance, was a Republican state senator representing Contra Costa County from 1969-1980. Caldecott, a name now associated with frequent gridlock, at least until a fourth bore opens in a couple of months, was Thomas Caldecott, an Alameda County supervisor and president of the joint highway district that built the first two bores of the modern tunnel beneath the Oakland hills.

Not named for Buster

The Posey Tube, which carries Oakland-bound traffic beneath the Oakland Estuary from Alameda, is named for George Posey, who planned and served as chief engineer on the project, which opened in 1928. John F. McCarthy, a Republican, served in the state Assembly from 1950-1970 and wrote the bill that created the BART district.

One of the two George Millers is the congressman representing part of Contra Costa County. The newer northbound bridge bears his name. His father, George Miller Jr., was a state senator and liberal Democratic leader representing the area for more than two decades. He's the namesake for the original bridge.

Jeffrey Lynn Azuar was a Vallejo police officer killed in the line of duty in 2000 after 21 years on the force and many years of involvement in the community. A stretch of I-80 through the city bears his name. Not far away is the Alfred Zampa Bridge, part of the Carquinez Bridge complex. The Zampa, a simple suspension span with clean lines and concrete towers, honors a union ironworker from Crockett who helped build the Golden Gate, Bay and first two Carquinez bridges.

Another unusual dedication is to Richard "Fresh Air" Janson, known as the premier waterfowl decoy carver in the Western United States. Janson, who died in 1951, lived on an ark moored near the Highway 37 bridge over Sonoma Creek that bears his name.

Infamous names

While many of the names assigned to highways and bridges never stick, some do. Although it was named for a famous military leader, rarely is anything good said of the MacArthur Maze, part of the MacArthur Freeway, which took on the name of Gen. Douglas MacArthur. Chances are Admiral Chester Nimitz wouldn't appreciate the stretch of Interstate 880 that bears his name being referred to by traffic reporters as "the Nasty Nimitz."

For years, California had no guidelines for naming highways. But during the 2009-2010 legislative session, the state Senate and Assembly transportation committees adopted the following policies:

-- The person being honored should "have provided extraordinary public service or some exemplary contribution to the public good and have a connection" to the community in which the highway or structure is located.

-- The legislator proposing the naming, or a co-author, must represent the district in which the highway or structure is situated.

-- The designation "must reflect a community consensus and be without local opposition."

-- The proposed naming must not replace a prior naming unless there's overwhelming support for the name change.

-- A person being honored with a naming must be deceased, "except in the instance of elected officials, in which case they must be out of office."

-- The stretch of highway being named must be longer than 5 miles.

While naming the west span of the bridge would break some of those rules, Caltrans spokesman Bob Haus said it's up to the Legislature to set the policies as well as to choose the names.

"The Legislature approves all that," he said. "We don't have anything to do with it."