Pursuing the Technological Sublime: How the Bay Bridge Became a Megaproject

The newly opened eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is a classic example of a megaproject at $6.4 billion and a textbook embodiment of what I have identified as the “six Cs” of a typical megaproject: colossal,captivating,costly,controversial,complex, and subject to issues ofcontrol. Here, I focus on how the “captivating” and “colossal” characteristics affected the bridge design process and implementation.