The largest and most-traveled bridge in the US, the
Bay Bridge
heads east from San Francisco, part graceful suspension bridge and part heavy-duty steel truss. Now recovered from its partial collapse during the 1989 earthquake, the Bay Bridge works a lot harder for a lot less respect than the more famous (and better-loved) Golden Gate: a hundred million vehicles cross it each year. The heart of the East Bay is
Oakland
, a blue-collar city that was badly scarred by the firestorm of October 1991. Just north is the image-conscious, progressive university town of
Berkeley
; the two communities all but merge into one city, with the hills above them topped by a twenty-mile string of forested
regional parks
.
Copyright Rough Guides Ltd as trustee for its authors. Published by Rough Guides. All rights reserved. The Rough Guides name is a trademark of Rough Guides Ltd.
Copyright © 2006 United States.biz
