The Richmond–San Rafael Bridge (officially renamed the John F. McCarthy Memorial Bridge in 19812013 Named Freeways, Highways, Structures and Other Appurtenances in California, California Department of Transportation, 2021) is the northernmost east–west crossing of California's San Francisco Bay. Carrying Interstate 580, it connects Richmond on the east shore to San Rafael on the west. The bridge opened on September 1, 1956, replacing service previously provided by the Richmond–San Rafael Ferry Company. It was the last bridge built across the bay that replaced a ferry service, and the state legislature later renamed it to honor Senator John F. McCarthy, who championed its funding.
Measuring including approaches, the structure ranked as the world's second-longest bridge when completed, trailing only the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. The double-decked span rests on 79 reinforced concrete piers anchored by steel H-piles and crosses two distinct navigation channels using twin cantilever structures. The roadway rises to clear each cantilever span and dips between them — Raab built the two cantilevers identically as a cost-saving measure, forcing the same grade profile on both sides and producing the distinctive "roller coaster" vertical undulation. Structural engineers later criticized this sagging center profile for violating the aesthetic principle that a bridge should soar. The non-parallel alignment of the two navigation channels also forces the bridge into a gentle S-shaped horizontal curve. Frank Lloyd Wright was particularly harsh, reportedly calling it "the most awful thing I've ever seen" while it was under construction in 1953.
The state launched a comprehensive seismic retrofit in 2001, finishing the $778 million project in September 2005. Engineers designed the reinforcements to withstand a 7.4 magnitude earthquake on the nearby Hayward Fault. A protected bicycle and pedestrian path was later added to the upper deck in November 2019. Beginning in October 2025, regional authorities placed the path on a restricted weekend-heavy schedule, converting the lane into a westbound vehicle shoulder on weekdays to alleviate traffic.
The Bay Area Toll Authority collects tolls exclusively from westbound traffic. The plaza shifted to all-electronic tolling in March 2020, and standard auto tolls are scheduled to rise from $8.50 in early 2026 to $10.50 by 2030. Following a 2025 National Transportation Safety Board report noting the bridge lacked a modern vessel-strike vulnerability assessment, local officials have called for a full replacement. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission estimates a new bridge would cost between $16 billion and $22 billion, while a structural retrofit would run approximately $4 billion.
History
The Richmond–San Rafael Ferry Company, incorporated in 1913, began running auto ferries across San Pablo Bay on May 1, 1915. The vessels connected Castro Point in Richmond to San Quentin Point in Marin County. The company eventually operated a fleet of double-ended boats, including the City of Richmond and City of San Rafael, on roughly half-hourly schedules, completing the trip in about 20 minutes. The ferries ran continuously until the night of August 31, 1956, shutting down just as the new bridge opened.
Early proposals Proposals for a fixed bay crossing emerged in the 1920s, well before the Golden Gate Bridge opened. In 1927, Roy O. Long applied for a franchise to construct a private steel suspension bridge spanning from Point Orient to McNear's Point, estimating the cost at . Charles Van Damme, representing the ferry company, quickly countered with a competing proposal carrying an identical price tag. His version mapped a route from Castro Point to Point San Quentin, the alignment the state would eventually use decades later.
Long won the initial franchise in February 1928, prompting Van Damme to petition the decision. The rivals opted to merge their interests that September. Oscar Klatt took over the combined project and managed to secure a War Department construction permit by 1930. However, the Great Depression halted the project's funding. The plans lay dormant for nearly ten years, seeing only brief flickers of revived interest in 1939 and 1947 before state-led efforts finally took over.
Tomasini's San Francisco–Alameda–Marin crossings T.A. Tomasini submitted a third proposal in late 1927, one far more ambitious than either prior plan.Thomas A. Tomasini, resident in San Francisco, is also noted as the inventor of the 1916 as well as being a participant in the 1915 automobile Vanderbilt Cup Race, where he did not start due to crashing in practice. He initially envisioned a combined rail-and-automobile bridge running over five miles from San Pedro Hill to San Pablo. A year later, he revised the route to stretch from Albany to Tiburon. The Albany–Tiburon bridge would have been the longest of the early proposals, using a high-level western section with 1,000-foot navigation spans that transitioned into a low-level eastern causeway. Shipping interests immediately pushed back, arguing that the navigation spans were dangerously narrow.
Tomasini continued to scale up his vision. He proposed an additional bridge across Richardson Bay linking Sausalito to Belvedere, and drew up plans for a massive bridge-and-tunnel system tying San Francisco to the Albany-Tiburon span via Goat Island. He estimated the total cost for the three interconnected structures at .
San Francisco supervisors ultimately rejected the tunnel connection. Tomasini brought on prominent engineer Ralph Modjeski as a consultant and managed to secure War Department approval for the $35 million Albany-Tiburon segment in 1932. He filed numerous extensions over the next decade to keep the project alive but repeatedly failed to secure bond funding. He lost the franchise rights in October 1941, though he continued promoting variations of the plan as late as 1948.
Construction: 1953–1957
In 1949, Marin County and the City of Richmond commissioned a preliminary engineering report from Earl and Wright of San Francisco, officially concluding that bridging the corridor was feasible. A state-funded follow-up study in 1950 determined the project could proceed under the California Toll Bridge Authority Act. The preliminary design was approved in 1951, and the California Toll Bridge Authority authorized a bond issue the following year. In early 1953, the state sold in bonds to construct a single-deck structure, keeping the remainder in reserve. Governor Goodwin Knight soon intervened, arguing that delaying the second deck ran counter to the public interest. A loan from the State School Land Fund allowed crews to complete both decks at once, and the project ultimately finished $4 million under budget.
The state incorporated the bridge into State Route 17, though it would later become part of Interstate 580. Planners had briefly considered building an earth and rock-fill causeway with lock structures, but opted for a high-level span because the navigation locks proved cost-prohibitive.
Two contracts covered the vast majority of the construction costs. The Ben C. Gerwick, Inc. — Peter Kiewit Sons' Co. Joint Venture secured the substructure contract with a low bid of , while a joint venture led by Kiewit, Soda, and Judson Pacific Murphy Corp handled the superstructure for . Crews drove the substructure work forward rapidly, completing nearly half of the massive concrete piers within the first year.
The upper deck opened to traffic on September 1, 1956, following a dedication ceremony the previous day. The lower deck was completed and opened on August 20, 1957, bringing the bridge up to three lanes in each direction. Its completion marked the last time a Bay Area bridge replaced an existing ferry service. The only auto ferry left operating on the bay was the Benicia–Martinez Ferry in the Carquinez Strait, which a new bridge replaced in 1962.
Description
Spanning 5.5 miles (8.9 km) from end to end, the bridge crosses two major ship channels using separate cantilever spans. Because these spans sit high above the water to let ships pass, the long center section between them creates a deep visual dip. Norman Raab engineered the two cantilevers to be perfectly symmetrical to cut steel fabrication costs. This forced the "uphill" approach grade to be mirrored exactly on the "downhill" side of the span, resulting in the depressed center truss. The two navigation channels also cross the bay at different angles, so the bridge cannot follow a straight line and instead bends into a gentle S-curve.Interview with Chuck Seim (2013), p. 8 & 30. "Now, the twin spans, they were spanned by what we call a steel cantilever span. But the interesting thing is that these shipping channels were not parallel to one another. They angled." Locals and critics have frequently compared its silhouette to a roller coaster or a "bent coat hanger."
The severe utilitarian look drew sharp criticism from the architectural community, contrasting heavily with the celebrated designs of the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge.Interview with Chuck Seim (2013), p. 20. "Of course, everybody criticized the truss bridge on the Richmond-San Rafael, that Raab designed and they said, 'We don't want an ugly truss here.' [...] Well, if you had to award the ugliest bridge in the world, I think the Richmond-San Rafael would certainly be in the running. If not the first one, then top three. It is an ugly bridge. But that's a story that maybe we shouldn't get into. It was driven by economics, and it was driven by the obstinance of this one engineer that I referred to. He wouldn't change. He then proposed a truss for the Hayward area, and everybody said, 'No, we don't want that. It's an ugly bridge.' He said, 'Well, it's the most economical.'" Frank Lloyd Wright argued it should be demolished, famously telling reporters in 1953 that it was the most awful thing he had ever seen. Yet many of the senior engineers who worked on the project were veterans of the Bay Bridge construction, and they deliberately applied the structural lessons they had learned from that earlier crossing.Interview with Chuck Seim (2013), p. 30. "In 1956, the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge was opened. An interesting thing about that is that most of the senior engineers that worked on the Bay Bridge stayed over in San Francisco and worked on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, because they both used the same technology, with some minor variations."
Moving west to east from Point San Quentin to Castro Point, the structure consists of: A trestle structure resting on fifty-seven bents. The lower deck here runs slightly longer than the upper, reaching . of girder spans spanning nineteen segments. of truss spans, split across fourteen trusses averaging each. The western cantilever structure. This is the primary navigation channel, offering a opening and of vertical clearance for deep-draft vessels. A run of ten center truss spans. The eastern cantilever structure. This handles the secondary shipping channel, mirroring the width but with a lower vertical clearance of . of eastern truss spans over twelve segments. A final stretch of girder spans landing in Richmond.
The steel portions of the bridge extend on the upper deck and on the lower. Despite the heavy undulations, the roadway grade never exceeds 3%. The western channel's generous clearance easily accommodates the large oil tankers and container ships heading to ports in Richmond, Martinez, Benicia, and Sacramento. The lower eastern cantilever generally serves smaller commercial traffic.
Westbound traffic travels on the upper deck, which houses two vehicle lanes alongside the separated bicycle and pedestrian path. Eastbound traffic uses the lower deck, which features two full-time vehicle lanes and a third shoulder lane that activates with overhead signals during the evening commute.