Effort made to protect smelt when SF Bay Bridge was detonated
The largest pier of the old San Francisco Bay Bridge was detonated in a controlled explosion saturday. Caltrans imploded the upper portion of the pier with 22,000 pounds of dynamite at 7:17am, a time when officials hoped to take advantage of light traffic, slack tide and limited smelt. That’s right, a concerted effort was made to protect the endangered longfin smelt.