After nearly 10 years in the making, the new Port of Long Beach bridge is finally complete. The bridge has not been name as of yet, but it is the replacement for the 52-year-old Gerald Desmond Bridge. The Port of Long Beach is known to be the most “advanced and competitive” port in the world. In order to live up to this title, and maintain that status, large steps needed to be taken. While the Gerald Desmond bridge served us for so many years, it was simply too narrow and too low to keep up with the times. In order to accommodate the ever-increasing high-traffic demands of today and the larger cargo ships, a new bridge was crucial.

The Port of Long Beach launched an official post with all of the information you’ll want to know about this new historic monument. Check out their blog post to see some more information. This bridge is not only “THE signature bridge of Southern California,” it was also built incredibly strong, and built for the dreaded Southern California seismic activity. The article states, “the new bridge is designed to last 100 years with minimal maintenance and considered one of the most seismically advanced structures in the country. The bridge includes German-design joints at each end of the main span that move up to six feet in three directions during a very strong earthquake. These joints, large dampers, and other features are designed to provide flexibility and elastic points of isolation that enable bridge segments to move independently without casing significant damage to the bridge’s primary superstructure.”

It’s safe to say that we’re all quite grateful there won’t be any more construction traffic, but it was worth the wait. We’re looking forward to the next 100 years with this new beautiful bridge.