Reactions

The bridge is dead, long live the bridge!

• New Bay Bridge span opens

  The first "recognized" driver, guided into the number one lane by Caltrans, was Christen Gray, of San Leandro. As she tried to explain her excitement over being among the first over the new span, her passenger, Anthony Thomas, blurted out, "It's shiny!"

• New Bay Bridge Opening Completes Decades-Long Dream

  “The story is ending well but the road to get here was far too long and far too winding,” said Metropolitan Transportation Commission executive director Steve Heminger, who has been involved in the $6.4 billion project to build the new span almost from the beginning because he was its project manager.

• S.F. Bay Bridge re-opens with new 'quakeproof' span

  Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the former mayor of San Francisco, cut a chain with a blow torch to mark the opening Monday afternoon after leading those who had gathered around the bridge's toll plaza in a countdown to the reopening. The old eastern span will eventually be demolished.

  "I hope this is more than just connecting two land masses," he said. "I hope that the progress that's being represented at this moment is for a generation to dream big dreams and to do big things."

• Spirit of victory prevails at opening of new Bay Bridge

  "We have overcome what at times seemed insurmountable," said CEO Michael Flowers of American Bridge Company, the lead contractor on the project, at the opening event at the Bridge Yard building, formerly a Caltrans warehouse. "The finish line is in sight."

  The new structure replaces an original span that cost $77 million and was built with the world's deepest marine foundation in just 3 1/2 years. Both were built during tough economic times: the Great Depression and the Great Recession.

• Bay Bridge opens as drivers compete for 'first' trips across new eastern span

  State Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) said legislators "will review and learn from our mistakes" to ensure that similar delays and cost overruns do not happen on other large infrastructure projects in the state.

• New Bay Bridge Opens Ahead of Schedule

  "It was incredible, man," Nhua Rodriguez told NBC Bay Area. "Nice, clear, no traffic. Very good, man."

  Omar Hassan also liked his ride: "I thought it was excellent. Spectacular. I was blown away."

• New Bay Bridge, same old traffic

  Traffic across the bridge is typical of a weekday, the California Highway Patrol reported Tuesday morning. Cars were bumper to bumper at the toll plaza early and the speed across the bridge was about 40 mph, the CHP said.

Who said "History is written by the victors"? It's interesting to see the different slants that people give: some see the decades of failures and cost overruns; some see the triumph that the new bridge was built at all.

Some want to remember, some want to forget.

For now, there is a new bridge, and: "It's shiny!"