Time Lapse: Bay Bridge New East Span, 2009 -- 2012

This time-lapse video shows the erection of the suspension portion of the new Bay Bridge East Span, compressing the complex, labor-intensive, round-the-clock three-year effort into a fast-paced 2.5 minutes. The sun rises and sets more than 1,000 times as crews and equipment race against the clock and endure all types of weather to assemble the self-anchored suspension span (SAS), with its soaring tower and graceful canopy of cables. The video shows the process step by step, including the installation of the steel deck pieces, the construction of a roadway connection to Yerba Buena Island, the erection of the tower piece by piece, the hanging of the catwalks from the top of the tower and the stringing of the main cable soon thereafter, the hanging of the vertical cables, and finally, the transferring of the bridge's load to the cable system - all while a steady stream of cars zip along the old East Span just to the south of the construction zone. Set to an original score, the time lapse provides a window into the intense activity involved in building this engineering masterpiece, which is set to open in the late summer of 2013.