The raised UP/Amtrak drawabridge over the Carquinez Straits between Martinez, CA, and Benicia, CA, is seen here from the deck of the passing S.S. Jeremiah O'Brien, a WWII "LIberty" ship which has just steamed into Suisun Bay under the drawn up section of the span. Visible behind the raised railroad span is the parallel highway bridge which carries I-80 over the same waterway. In addition to the UP's freight operations, the bridge is used daily by Amtrak's "Coast Starlight" and "California Zephyer" runs as well as Amrtrak California's many daily San Jose-Sacramento and other "Capitol Corridor" trains. Construction was begun by the SP on the 5,603-foot double-track Martinez-Benicia bridge across Suisun Bay, 35 miles from San Francisco, in May, 1929. Then the longest and heaviest railroad bridge west of the Mississippi, the first SP trains were operated across the $10,900,000 span on October 15, 1930. Its completion made possible the abandonment of the world's two largest car-transfer ferry steamers, the "Solano" and "Contra Costa," which for many years had carried freight cars and entire passenger trains across Carquinez Straits between Port Costa and Benicia.

Based in San Francisco, the S.S. Jeremiah O'Brien is one of only two remaining operational WWII "Liberty" ships afloat of the almost incredible 2,751 built during the war. Launched at the New England Shipbuilding Co. in South Portland, ME, on June 19, 1943, this class EC2-S-CI vessel not only crossed the Atlantic several times and served at Normandy on D-Day, she also sailed throughout the South Pacific during the war. (The O'Brien had the distinction of being the ONLY ship from the vast D-Day armada to return to Normandy in June, 1994, for the 50th Anniversary of that historic event after having been sailed there from San Francisco by a volunteer crew of veteran WWII-era sailors!) Almost 1,000 passengers and crew sailed on the O'Brien from San Francisco's Pier 45 on this beautiful Saturday through both the San Francisco and San Pablo Bays to make a visitto the "Ghost Fleet" (which includes the battleship USS Iowa) anchored at Suisun Bay. The O'Brien herself spent 33 years there before being broken out in 1979 to be restored as a floating museum by the National Liberty Ship Memorial.

Photographed by Bruce C. Cooper (DigitalImageServices.com), August 27, 2005.
Added to the photo archive by Bruce Cooper, August 27, 2005.
Railroad: Union Pacific.

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