Gerald Desmond Bridge

This FUC’r is falling apart. Yep… Falling apart. (Hence the bridge replacement project). It’s ridiculously overloaded with truck traffic, which has ultimately led to its premature demise. The sucker only opened in ’68!!! It just wasn’t made to handle the explosive growth of the Ports of LA and LB… It’s a speed trap for the Port and Long Beach Police Departments and not only do they know it, they thrive on the fact. (Revenue, revenue and more revenue).
The GDB has never been a beauty or even quasi pleasing to the eye, but functional it is. I remember when it replaced an even uglier pontoon bridge down below that used to cross the Cerritos channel for thru traffic between Terminal Island and Long Beach.
But since it’s construction, the beast has sure as he! shortened my drive from SP to the LBC and back, even in its current state of disrepair.
Concrete blocks /​chunks fall from from under the roadway of the bridge /​structure daily, creating the current hazard (s) to life, limb and the pursuit of happiness to anyone who happens to traverse beneath it. So the netting underneath it will stay at least until the new GDB is erected and fully operational.
Even still… I’ll miss the ugly FUC’r but look forward to the new bridge, which should be just a tad bit more aesthetically pleasing on the senses.

are those cameras to watch the construction or speed cameras? when coming down the gerald desmond bridge heading to san pedro on the left side of bridge?

In the mid-​1960s, construction began on the replacement of a (the) pontoon bridge, the Gerald Desmond Bridge. The roughly 1.5-mile span, named after a former city attorney and councilman of the city of Long Beach, was completed in 1968. The bridge has served the needs of the Port and the city for many years. Increasing traffic volumes and the ravages of time have taken a toll on the Gerald Desmond Bridge. Although it is safe for traffic, protective netting catches chunks of concrete that fall from the span.
Long Beach’s Bridge is falling down.
The new bridge will accommodate three lanes of traffic on each side, as opposed to the current Gerald Desmond’s two lanes. Safety lanes will be added to mitigate delays from breakdowns and accidents and give emergency vehicles better access. In addition, clearance over the channel will rise from the current 155 feet to 205 feet, allowing larger, greener post-​Panamax ships to enter the Port.
In July, 2015 the Long Beach Harbor Commission voted unanimously to accept a final cost of nearly $ 1.5 billion.
The Replacement project involves the construction of what’s known as a cable-​stayed bridge from Long Beach to Terminal Island. A cable stayed bridge is a structure in which the cables that support the main bridge span link directly to towers that rise above the rest of the structure.
The style is distinct from that of a suspension bridge, in which suspender ropes connecting to the main cables are themselves linked to the bridge towers to provide support.
The Gerald Desmond Bridge is the first cable-​stayed bridge being built in California.
It will also serve bicyclists and pedestrians with a dedicated lane. When completed, the Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement Project will be one of the tallest bridges of its kind in the United States, an icon for the City of Long Beach and Southern California.