Coronado Bridge Turns 40 Today!

When the San Diego-Coronado Bridge opened in 1969, it became an instant landmark that forever changed the small city nearly surrounded by the Pacific.

Coronado officials had looked at proposals to make the city more accessible since the 1920s, but it wasn't until former Hotel del Coronado owner John Alessio and then-owner M. Larry Lawrence began lobbying Gov. Edmund G. “Pat” Brown that a bridge plan gained traction. It was approved by state officials in 1965, with funding to come from state toll revenue bonds.

Forty years ago tomorrow, the bridge opened, ascending at a 4.67 percent grade from Coronado before curving 90 degrees toward San Diego. The curve makes the span long enough so it can rise to a height of 200 feet, allowing even the Navy's tallest ships to sail under.

The bridge's opening turned a sleepy town filled mostly with Navy employees in time-worn homes into a modern, traffic-filled city that has attracted millions of tourists and scores of developers and wealthy new homeowners.

The city's population hasn't grown much since the bridge opened – 19,550 in 1965, compared with 22,845 today – but it's a denser community.

Since 1969, 254 people have jumped off the bridge, which is 240 feet high at its apex. Nine survived.

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