title: Sorcerer (film)

text: In the opinion of several critics, the release of "Star Wars" marked a distinctive demographic shift among the audiences, as well as altering trends in the movie industry drastically, which at the same time contributed to "Sorcerer"s financial and critical fiasco. Sean Macaulay notes that "Star Wars" changed the movie-going demography, considerably "reset[ting] American cinema back to comforting fantasy". According to reviewer Pauline Kael, "Star Wars" contributed to "infantilizing the audience", as well as "obliterating irony, self-consciousness, and critical reflection", and to Tom Shone, who drew from Kael, was impossible to compete with by Friedkin and "Sorcerer". Biskind also thought the American movie-going demographic had changed considerably since "The French Connection", and "Sorcerer" was "too episodic, dark, and star-challenged" to achieve mainstream appreciation. RH Greene argues that "Star Wars", which in his opinion was "pure escapism", made intellectually demanding films like "Sorcerer" obsolete.


title: Sorcerer (film)

text: Bill Gibron marks the demise of unrestrained writer-director creative control in favor of studio-governed film-making with "Heaven's Gate", and adds that "Sorcerer" also significantly contributed to this trend. Sheldon Hall theorizes that success of films like "Jaws" and "Star Wars" set the trends in Hollywood cinema for the decades to come. This was, in contrast to the "subversive attitude" which then journalists heralded as the pinnacle of filmmaking. Hall observes that films such as "M*A*S*H", "Deliverance", "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", "Dog Day Afternoon" and "All the President's Men" "have few equivalents in Hollywood after the 1970s". Furthermore, he states that the last favorable year for New Hollywood was 1976, and "socially critical, stylistically adventurous cinema" would soon be substituted by "ideologically and formally conservative work" of directors like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. The critic holds the opinion that several financial fiascoes, including "Sorcerer", "New York, New York", "One From the Heart", and "Heaven's Gate", were auteur movies aspiring to achieve mainstream success but were panned by the movie-goers and critics alike. This belief is also held by J. Hoberman to whom the period immediately following 1975's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" marked the point when "experimental films became less and less able to recoup their costs".


title: Sorcerer (film)

text: Justin Wyatt concludes that the downfall of "the experimental period" was followed by a retreat to "large-scale grand filmmaking", a Hollywood staple from early to mid-1960s and adds that filmmakers such as Peter Bogdanovich, Friedkin, and Arthur Penn still continued their cinematic involvement but their most ambitious work had been produced during the peak of New Hollywood era, which was characterized by "financial experimentation". Nat Segaloff observes that cinematic trends presented in "Sorcerer" were later abandoned by the studio system, an opinion mirrored by Phil Mucci, who holds the opinion that "Sorcerer" stands for a cinematic style that is unlikely to be seen again". William Friedkin states in the 2003 documentary "A Decade Under the Influence" that cynicism was a ubiquitous attitude in the country during the 1970s, so the studios were receptive to it, which made "filmmakers and the studio heads be in sync" and added that artistic content was never questioned, only the costs. On the other hand, the director thinks this trend is impossible to return, because he feels that nowadays "a film has to serve the greater good of the corporation in order to get made and it cannot be subversive in nature. As well as, has to have the broadest possible appeal, so that it will help other divisions of the corporation".


title: Sorcerer (film)

text: Friedkin sat for an interview with the Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn in February 2015, in which they discussed the film at length. It was produced by the French distribution company La Rabbia.


title: Sorcerer (film)

text: The film was selected for screening as part of the Cannes Classics section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.


title: Sorcerer (film)

text: In April 2012, it was reported that Friedkin was suing Universal and Paramount over the domestic rights of "Sorcerer" for a share of the movie's profits. In a July 2012 interview, Friedkin said that the film's case was pending at the Ninth District Court of Appeals in California with a settlement to be announced by November 26. Had no settlement been reached by that time, the jury would have to set a trial date for March 2013. The director emphasized that his intent was not dictated by profits but by the desire to have it released on DVD and Blu-ray, and to have a film print for various outlets, such as film societies and universities. He also noted that if the case were to become precedential, he hoped it would help other pictures in a similar situation.


title: Sorcerer (film)

text: In a July 2012 interview, Friedkin said Universal and Paramount both claimed they did not own the film and did not know who did, a consequence of the bankruptcy of Cinema International Corporation, a company granted an ownership by Universal Studios and Paramount Pictures, and commissioned to release films in international markets. Friedkin said he believed any issues related to the matter were of bookkeeping nature.


title: Sorcerer (film)

text: In December 2012, Friedkin revealed that the film rights were in fact owned by Universal, as the Paramount lease had expired after 25 years. He also added he would meet Warner Bros., which wanted a sublease, and also announced that he would be meeting with the head of Universal Studios; if the outcome was negative, he would have to resort to a legal case. Friedkin also indicated that restoration of "Sorcerer" would require a considerable amount of work, stating that he did not, at the time, possess any prints of good quality. He added that Paramount was supposed to have created one between by the beginning of 2012, and he was trying to locate it, noting difficulties related to obtaining the print as the studio no longer possessed an adequate capacity to deal with the matter, and off-shore companies involved in the legal matters were now greatly reduced in staff. He said that was why acquiring the film's print was time-consuming.


title: Sorcerer (film)

text: On February 11, 2013, Friedkin announced that money had been budgeted to create a new, digital master copy of "Sorcerer". He also asserted that the original negative is in a good state. He followed this with a statement that The Criterion Collection would not be the film's publisher.


title: Sorcerer (film)

text: In March 2013, Friedkin revealed that he had dropped his lawsuit against Universal and Paramount, and that he and a "major studio" were involved in the creation of a new, recolored digital print of "Sorcerer", to be tentatively screened at the Venice Film Festival and to receive a Blu-ray release:


title: Sorcerer (film)

text: On April 14, 2013, the aforementioned 35 mm print of "Sorcerer" from the Paramount archives was screened at the Chicago Film Critics Association's first annual film festival, with Friedkin in attendance. He remarked that the film "hasn't dated... It's set in a kind of limbo and neither the haircuts nor the wardrobes nor the sets have aged poorly."


title: Sorcerer (film)

text: On May 2, 2013, the director announced the pending re-release, a new, digital print, and a premiere at the Venice Film Festival on August 29. where he would also receive a lifetime achievement award.


title: Sorcerer (film)

text: Restoration of the print is supervised by Friedkin himself, along with Ned Price and a colorist, Bryan McMahan, Friedkin's collaborator since 1994. In addition, Friedkin also confirmed there would be DVD and Blu-ray Disc releases. Friedkin also stated that Warner Bros. financed the restoration, and that the distribution rights would be split between Paramount for theatrical, Warner Bros. for home and streaming media, and Universal for television. According to Friedkin, making of the new print was to commence in June, 2013. The director described his efforts to restore and re-release "Sorcerer" as "a truly Lazarus moment" and said he was gratified that "it’s going to have a new life in cinema".


title: Sorcerer (film)

text: On June 4, 2013, the director declared that the color grading would commence on June 10, 2013, which said was completed by June 25. There was no distortion of original colors, he said, and a 5.1 surround sound transfer was planned for June 28, 2013. Moreover, he also revealed an audio commentary and extra features would be part of the Blu-ray release. On July 17, 2013, Friedkin announced that the film's soundtrack has been remastered. Two days before the Venice screening, Friedkin announced that a theatrical screening had been booked at Los Angeles' Cinefamily for spring 2014. On September 12, 2013, Friedkin revealed April 14, 2014 would be the release date of the film's Blu-ray home video version.


title: Noah Hathaway

text: Noah Leslie Hathaway (born November 13, 1971) is an American actor and a former teen idol. He is best known for his roles as Atreyu in the 1984 film "The NeverEnding Story" and for portraying Boxey on the original television series "Battlestar Galactica". His work in "The NeverEnding Story" made him particularly popular as a teen idol in Europe.


title: Noah Hathaway

text: Hathaway was born in Los Angeles, California. He began appearing in commercials at age three, and later starred in several TV films and series, including an episode of "Family Ties", episode 8 of season 4 called Designated Hitter. At the age of six he appeared in "Battlestar Galactica", portraying Boxey, for which he received a nomination in the first Young Artist Awards.


title: Noah Hathaway

text: He was cast as Atreyu in the 1984 film "The NeverEnding Story". He received his second Young Artist Awards nomination and won the award for Best Younger Actor in the 12th Annual Saturn Awards.


title: Noah Hathaway

text: For the role Hathaway performed his own stunts, leading to a few near-injuries; German director Wolfgang Petersen said:


title: Noah Hathaway

text: Hathaway has said that, during the time he worked as a tattoo artist, he could see for himself the film's on-going popularity, as clients regularly requested tattoos of the AURYN amulet his character wore, in the film. He claims to have given fifteen different clients AURYN amulet tattoos in a single week.


title: Noah Hathaway

text: In 1986, Hathaway starred in "Troll", as Harry Potter Jr. and in the television movie "Casebusters", as Jamie. Hathaway did not return to acting until 1994, in the film "To Die, to Sleep", in his first adult role. After a second hiatus as an actor, Hathaway returned in 2011 for the films "Mondo Holocausto!" as Ruggero Margheriti, and "Sushi Girl" as Fish.


title: Noah Hathaway

text: In 2016, Hathaway reprised his role from "The NeverEnding Story" for a Spotify commercial celebrating the 1980s.


title: Noah Hathaway

text: Hathaway attended school at Lycee Français de Los Angeles. He moved into dance instruction, teaching advanced jazz and street dance until an injury forced him to quit in 1989 at age eighteen. Trained in martial arts, Hathaway would later earn black belts in Tang Soo Do and Shotokan Karate, and also competed as a Muay Thai boxer, and learned American Kenpo from Dr. Jerry Erickson. Hathaway spent some of his time at the Willow Springs Raceway in Rosamond, California competing in supersport motorcycle racing, and designing and riding "chopper" motorcycles.


title: Noah Hathaway

text: He was on tour with WizardWorld Conventions and appeared at the Chicago and Philadelphia shows in 2011. He appeared at the Supanova Pop Culture Expo in Sydney, Australia in June 2012.


title: Brandon deWilde

text: Andre Brandon deWilde (April 9, 1942 – July 6, 1972) was an American theater, film, and television actor. Born into a theatrical family in Brooklyn, he debuted on Broadway at the age of seven and became a national phenomenon by the time he completed his 492 performances for "The Member of the Wedding". He won a Donaldson Award for his performance, becoming the youngest actor to win one, and starred in the subsequent film adaptation for which he won a Golden Globe Award.


title: Brandon deWilde

text: DeWilde is best known for his performance as Joey Starrett in the film "Shane" (1953) for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He also starred in his own sitcom "Jamie" on ABC and became a household name making numerous radio and TV appearances before being featured on the cover of "Life" magazine on March 10, 1952, for his second Broadway outing, "Mrs. McThing".


title: Brandon deWilde

text: He continued acting in stage, film and television roles into adulthood before his death at age 30 in a car crash in Colorado on July 6, 1972.


title: Brandon deWilde

text: Andre Brandon deWilde was the son of Frederic A. "Fritz" deWilde and Eugenia (née Wilson) deWilde. Fritz deWilde was the only son of Dutch immigrants who changed their surname from Neitzel-de Wilde to "deWilde" when they emigrated to the United States. He was a descendant of the Dutch merchant and seigneur , who was married to Cornelia Henrica Neitzel.


title: Brandon deWilde

text: Fritz deWilde became an actor and Broadway production stage manager. Eugenia was a part-time stage actress.


title: Brandon deWilde

text: DeWilde made his much-acclaimed Broadway debut at the age of seven in "The Member of the Wedding". He was the first child actor to win the Donaldson Award, and his talent was praised by John Gielgud the following year. He also starred in the 1952 film version of the play, which was directed by Fred Zinnemann.


title: Brandon deWilde

text: In 1952 deWilde acted in the film "Shane" as Joey Starrett and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance, becoming the youngest nominee at the time in a competitive category. He starred in his own television series, "Jamie," which aired in 1953 and 1954. Although the series was popular, it was canceled because of a contract dispute. In 1956, he was featured with Walter Brennan, Phil Harris and Sidney Poitier in the coming-of-age Batjac film production of "Good-bye, My Lady", adapted from James Street's book.


title: Brandon deWilde

text: DeWilde's soft-spoken manner of speech in his early roles was more akin to a Southern drawl. In 1956, at the age of 14, deWilde narrated the classical music works "Peter and the Wolf" by Sergei Prokofiev and "The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra" by Benjamin Britten. He also recorded a reading of Huckleberry Finn on the album "The Stories of Mark Twain" along with his "Good-bye, My Lady" costar Brennan.


title: Brandon deWilde

text: DeWilde shared an onscreen camaraderie with both James Stewart and Audie Murphy in the 1957 Western "Night Passage". In 1958, deWilde starred in "The Missouri Traveler", sharing lead billing with Lee Marvin in another coming-of-age film, this one set in the early 1900s. At the age of 17, he played an adolescent father in the 1959 drama "Blue Denim". He guest-starred on many TV series, including "Alcoa Theatre" and the popular Western series "Wagon Train".


title: Brandon deWilde

text: In 1961, deWilde appeared in the "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" episode "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" as Hugo, a mentally impaired youth who cannot separate fact from fantasy. After seeing a magician saw a woman in half at a carnival, Hugo emulates the trick and kills a woman by sawing her in half. The episode never aired on NBC because the finale was deemed too gruesome by 1960s television standards.


title: Brandon deWilde

text: The following year, deWilde appeared in "All Fall Down", opposite Warren Beatty and Eva Marie Saint, and in Martin Ritt's "Hud" (1963), co-starring with Paul Newman, Patricia Neal and Melvyn Douglas. Although the only lead actor not to be Oscar-nominated for "Hud", deWilde accepted the Best Supporting Actor trophy on behalf of costar Melvyn Douglas (who was in Spain at the time). That same year, he appeared in Jack Palance's ABC circus drama "The Greatest Show on Earth".


title: Brandon deWilde

text: DeWilde signed a two-picture deal with Disney in 1964. He first starred in "The Tenderfoot", a three-part comedy Western for Walt Disney's "Wonderful World of Color" TV show with Brian Keith. The following year, he and Keith starred in "Those Calloways", reuniting deWilde with his "Good-bye, My Lady" star Walter Brennan. Also in 1965, deWilde played PT boat officer Jere Torry, serving under his admiral father played by John Wayne, in the Pacific theater World War II drama "In Harm's Way" (1965).


title: Brandon deWilde

text: After 1965, many of his roles were limited to television guest appearances. "Being small for his age and a bit too pretty ... in his favour as a child ... worked against him as an adult," wrote author Linda Ashcroft after talking with deWilde at a party, "He spoke of giving up movies until he could come back as a forty-year-old character actor." DeWilde's final western role was in Dino De Laurentiis' 1971 Spaghetti Western "The Deserter", one year before his death. He made his last screen appearance in "Wild in the Sky" (1972).


title: Brandon deWilde

text: DeWilde had hoped to embark on a music career. He asked his friend Gram Parsons (later of the Byrds and founder of the seminal country rock band the Flying Burrito Brothers) and his International Submarine Band to back him in a recording session. ISB guitarist John Nuese claimed that deWilde sang harmony with Parsons better than anyone except Emmylou Harris. Bassist Ian Dunlop wrote, "The lure of getting a record out was tugging hard at Brandon."


title: Brandon deWilde

text: Parsons and Harris later co-wrote a song titled "In My Hour of Darkness", the first verse of which refers to the car crash that killed deWilde.


title: Brandon deWilde

text: DeWilde was married twice and had one son. His first marriage was to writer Susan M. Maw, whom he wed in 1963. The couple had a son, Jesse, before divorcing in 1969. He married Janice Gero in April 1972, three months before his death.


title: Brandon deWilde

text: On July 6, 1972, while in Colorado for a Denver stage production of "Butterflies Are Free," deWilde was killed in a traffic accident in the Denver suburb of Lakewood. He was driving alone, not wearing a seatbelt, in a camper van that left the roadway before striking a guardrail and a parked truck. The van rolled onto its side and he was pinned in the wreckage. He was taken to St. Anthony Hospital, where he died at 7:20 p.m. of multiple injuries that included a broken back, neck and leg. He was 30 years old.


title: Brandon deWilde

text: DeWilde was originally buried in Hollywood, but his parents later moved his remains to Pinelawn Memorial Park in Farmingdale, New York to be closer to their home on Long Island.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, known locally as the Bay Bridge, is a complex of bridges spanning San Francisco Bay in California. As part of Interstate 80 and the direct road between San Francisco and Oakland, it carries about 260,000 vehicles a day on its two decks. It has one of the longest spans in the United States.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: The toll bridge was conceived as early as the California Gold Rush days, with "Emperor" Joshua Norton famously advocating for it, but construction did not begin until 1933. Designed by Charles H. Purcell, and built by American Bridge Company, it opened on Thursday, November 12, 1936, six months before the Golden Gate Bridge. It originally carried automobile traffic on its upper deck, with trucks, cars, buses and commuter trains on the lower, but after the Key System abandoned rail service on April 20, 1958, the lower deck was converted to all-road traffic as well. On October 12, 1963, traffic was reconfigured to one way traffic on each deck, westbound on the upper deck, and eastbound on the lower deck, with trucks and buses allowed on the upper deck.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: The bridge has two sections of roughly equal length; the older western section, officially known as the Willie L. Brown Jr. Bridge (after former San Francisco Mayor and California State Assembly Speaker Willie L. Brown Jr.), connects downtown San Francisco to Yerba Buena Island, and the newer unnamed eastern section connects the island to Oakland. The western section is a double suspension bridge with two decks, westbound traffic being carried on the upper deck while eastbound is carried on the lower one. The largest span of the original eastern section was a cantilever bridge.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: During the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, a portion of the eastern section's upper deck collapsed onto the lower deck and the bridge was closed for a month. Reconstruction of the eastern section of the bridge as a causeway connected to a self-anchored suspension bridge began in 2002; the new eastern section opened September 2, 2013, at a reported cost of over $6.5 billion; the original estimate of $250 million was for a seismic retrofit of the existing span. Unlike the western section and the original eastern section of the bridge, the new eastern section is a single deck carrying all eastbound and westbound lanes. Demolition of the old east span was completed on September 8, 2018.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: The bridge consists of two crossings, east and west of Yerba Buena Island, a natural mid-bay outcropping inside San Francisco city limits. The western crossing between Yerba Buena and downtown San Francisco has two complete suspension spans connected at a center anchorage. Rincon Hill is the western anchorage and touch-down for the San Francisco landing of the bridge connected by three shorter truss spans. The eastern crossing, between Yerba Buena Island and Oakland, was a cantilever bridge with a double-tower span, five medium truss spans, and a 14-section truss causeway. Due to earthquake concerns, the eastern crossing was replaced by a new crossing that opened on Labor Day 2013. On Yerba Buena Island, the double-decked crossing is a concrete viaduct east of the west span's cable anchorage, the Yerba Buena Tunnel through the island's rocky central hill, another concrete viaduct, and a longer curved high-level steel truss viaduct that spans the final to the cantilever bridge.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: The toll plaza on the Oakland side (since 1969 for westbound traffic only) has eighteen toll lanes, with all charges now made either through the FasTrak electronic toll collection system or through invoices mailed through the USPS, based on the license plate of the car per Department of Motor Vehicle records. Metering signals are about west of the toll plaza. Two full-time bus-only lanes bypass the toll booths and metering lights around the right (north) side of the toll plaza; other high occupancy vehicles can use these lanes during weekday morning and afternoon commute periods. The two far-left toll lanes are high-occupancy vehicle lanes during weekday commute periods. Radio and television traffic reports will often refer to congestion at the toll plaza, metering lights, or a parking lot in the median of the road for bridge employees; the parking lot is about long, stretching from about east of the toll plaza to about west of the metering lights.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: During the morning commute hours, traffic congestion on the westbound approach from Oakland stretches back through the MacArthur Maze interchange at the east end of the bridge onto the three feeder highways, Interstate 580, Interstate 880, and I-80 toward Richmond. Since the number of lanes on the eastbound approach from San Francisco is structurally restricted, eastbound backups are also frequent during evening commute hours.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: The western section of the Bay Bridge is currently restricted to motorized freeway traffic. Pedestrians, bicycles, and other non-freeway vehicles are not allowed to cross this section. A project to add bicycle/pedestrian lanes to the western section has been proposed but is not finalized. A Caltrans bicycle shuttle operates between Oakland and San Francisco during peak commute hours for $1.00 each way.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: Freeway ramps next to the tunnel provide access to Yerba Buena Island and Treasure Island. Because the toll plaza is on the Oakland side, the western span is a "de facto" non-tolled bridge; traffic between the island and the main part of San Francisco can freely cross back and forth. Those who only travel from Oakland to Yerba Buena Island, and not the entire length to the main part of San Francisco, must pay the full toll.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: San Francisco, at the entrance to the bay, was perfectly placed to prosper during the California Gold Rush. Almost all goods not produced locally arrived by ship. But after the first transcontinental railroad was completed in May 1869, San Francisco was on the wrong side of the Bay, separated from the new rail link. The fear of many San Franciscans was that the city would lose its position as the regional center of trade. The concept of a bridge spanning the San Francisco Bay had been considered since the Gold Rush days. Several newspaper articles during the early 1870s discussed the idea. In early 1872, a "Bay Bridge Committee" was hard at work on plans to construct a railroad bridge. The April 1872 issue of the "San Francisco Real Estate Circular" contained an item about the committee:


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: The self-proclaimed Emperor Norton saw fit to decree three times in 1872 that a suspension bridge be constructed to connect Oakland with San Francisco. In the third of these decrees, in September 1872, Norton, frustrated that nothing had happened, proclaimed:


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: Unlike most of Emperor Norton's eccentric ideas, his decree to build a bridge had wide public and political appeal. Yet the task was too much of an engineering and economic challenge, since the bay was too wide and too deep there. In 1921, over forty years after Norton's death, a tube was considered, but it became clear that one would be inadequate for vehicular traffic. Support for a trans-bay crossing finally grew in the 1920s with the increasing popularity and availability of the automobile.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: A law became effective in 1929 to establish the California Toll Bridge Authority (Stats. 1929, Chap 763) and to authorize it and the State Department of Public Works to build a bridge connecting San Francisco and Alameda County (Stats. 1929, Chap 762).


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: A commission was appointed to evaluate the idea and various designs for a bridge across the Bay, the Hoover-Young Commission. Its conclusions were made public in 1930.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: In January 1931, Charles H. Purcell, the State Highway Engineer of California, who had also served as the secretary of the Hoover-Young Commission, assumed the position of Chief Engineer for the Bay Bridge.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: To make the bridge feasible, a route was chosen via Yerba Buena Island, which would reduce both the material and the labor needed. Since Yerba Buena Island was a U.S. Navy base at the time, the approval of the U.S. Congress, which regulates the armed services and supervises all naval and military bases, was necessary for this island to be used. After a great deal of lobbying, California received Congressional approval to use the island on February 20, 1931, subject to the final approval of the Departments of War, Navy and Commerce. Permits were immediately applied for from the 3 federal departments as required. The permits were granted in January, 1932, and formally presented in a ceremony on Yerba Buena Island on February 24, 1932.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: On May 25, 1931, Governor James Rolph Jr. signed into law two acts: one providing for the financing of state bridges by revenue bonds, and another creating the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge Division of the State Department of Public Works. On September 15, 1931, this new division opened its offices at 500 Sansome Street in San Francisco.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: During 1931, a series of aerial photographs was taken of the chosen route for the bridge and its approaches.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: The final design concept for the western span between San Francisco and Yerba Buena Island was still undecided in 1931, although the idea of a double-span suspension bridge was already favored.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: In April 1932, the preliminary final plan and design of the bridge was presented by Chief Engineer Charles Purcell to Col. Walter E. Garrison, Director of the State Department of Public Works, and to Ralph Modjeski, head of the Board of Engineering Consultants. Both agencies approved and preparation of the final design proceeded. In 1932, Joseph R. Knowland, a former U.S. Congressman, traveled to Washington to help persuade President Herbert Hoover and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to advance $62 million for the building of the bridge.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: Before work got underway, 12 massive underwater telephone cables were moved 1,000 feet north of the proposed bridge route by crews of the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Co. during the summer of 1931.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: Construction began on July 9, 1933 after a groundbreaking ceremony attended by former president Herbert Hoover and local beauty queens. Ultimately, twenty-four men would die constructing the bridge.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: The western section of the bridge between San Francisco and Yerba Buena Island presented an enormous engineering challenge. The bay was up to deep in places and the soil required new foundation-laying techniques. A single main suspension span some in length was considered but rejected, as it would have required too much fill and reduced wharfage space at San Francisco, had less vertical clearance for shipping, and cost more than the design ultimately adopted. The solution was to construct a massive concrete anchorage halfway between San Francisco and the island, and to build a main suspension span on each side of this central anchorage.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: East of Yerba Buena Island, the bay to Oakland was spanned by a combination of double cantilever, five long-span through-trusses, and a truss causeway, forming the longest bridge of its kind at the time. The cantilever section was longest in the nation and third-longest anywhere.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: Much of the original eastern section was founded upon treated wood pilings. Because of the very deep mud on the bay bottom it was not practical to reach bedrock, although the lower levels of the mud are quite firm. Long wooden pilings were crafted from entire old-growth Douglas fir trees, which were driven through the soft mud to the firmer bottom layers.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: The original western approach to (and exit from) the upper deck of the bridge was a long ramp to Fifth Street, branching to Harrison St for westward traffic off the bridge and Bryant St for eastward traffic entering. There was also an on-ramp to the upper deck on Rincon Hill from Fremont Street (which later became an off-ramp) and an off-ramp to First Street (later extended over First St to Fremont St). The lower deck ended at Essex and Harrison St; just southwest of there, the tracks of the bridge railway left the lower deck and curved northward into the elevated loop through the Transbay Terminal that was paved for buses after rail service ended.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: The eastern approach to the bridge included a causeway landing for the "incline" section, and the construction of three feeder highways, interlinked by an extensive interchange, which in later years became known as "The MacArthur Maze". A massive landfill was emplaced, extending along the north edge of the existing Key System rail mole to the existing bayshore, and continuing northward along the shore to the foot of Ashby Avenue in Berkeley. The fill was continued northward to the foot of University Avenue as a causeway which enclosed an artificial lagoon, subsequently developed by the WPA as "Aquatic Park". The three feeder highways were U.S. Highway 40 (Eastshore Highway) which led north through Berkeley, U.S. Highway 50 (38th Street, later MacArthur Blvd.) which led through Oakland, and State Route 17 which ran parallel to U.S. 50, along the Oakland Estuary and through the industrial and port sections of the city.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: The Yerba Buena passage utilizes the Yerba Buena Tunnel, wide, high, and long. It is the largest diameter transportation bore tunnel in the world. The large amount of material that was excavated in boring the tunnel was used for a portion of the landfill over the shoals lying adjacent to Yerba Buena Island to its north, a project which created the artificial Treasure Island.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: Reminders of the long-gone bridge railway survive along the south side of the lower Yerba Buena Tunnel. These are the regularly spaced refuge bays ("deadman holes"), escape alcoves common in all railway tunnels, along the wall, into which track maintenance workers could safely retreat if a train came along. (The north side, which always carried only motor traffic, lacks these holes.)


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: The bridge opened on November 12, 1936, at 12:30 p.m. In attendance were the former US president Herbert Hoover, Senator William G. McAdoo, and the Governor of California, Frank Merriam. Governor Merriam opened the bridge by cutting gold chains across it with an acetylene cutting torch. The "San Francisco Chronicle" report of November 13, 1936, read:


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: The total cost was US$77 million. Before opening the bridge was blessed by Cardinal Secretary of State Eugene Cardinal Pacelli, later Pope Pius XII. Because it was in effect two bridges strung together, the western spans were ranked the second and third largest suspension bridges. Only the George Washington Bridge had a longer span between towers.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: As part of the celebration a United States commemorative coin was produced by the San Francisco Mint. A half dollar, the obverse portrays California's symbol, the grizzly bear, while the reverse presents a picture of the bridge spanning the bay. A total of 71,369 coins were sold, some from the bridge's tollbooths.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: Until the 1960s, the upper deck ( wide between curbs) carried three lanes of traffic in each direction and was restricted to automobiles only. The lower deck carried three lanes of truck and bus traffic, with autos allowed, on the north side of the bridge. In the 1950s traffic lights were added to set the direction of travel in the middle lane, but there still remained no divider. Two interurban railroad tracks on the south half of the lower deck carried the electric commuter trains. In 1958 the tracks were replaced with pavement, but the reconfiguration to what the traffic eventually became did not take place until 1963.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: The Federal highway on the bridge was originally a concurrency of U.S. Highway 40 and U.S. Highway 50. The bridge was re-designated as Interstate 80 in 1964, and the western ends of U.S. 40 and U.S. 50 are now in Silver Summit, Utah, and West Sacramento, California, respectively.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: The off-ramp for Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island is unusual in that it is on the left-hand side in the eastbound direction. This off ramp presents an unusual hazard – drivers must slow within the normal traffic flow and move into a very short off-ramp that ends in a short radius turn left turn; accordingly, a 15 MPH advisory is posted there. The turn has been further narrowed from its original design by the installation of crash pads on the island side. Eastbound and westbound on-ramps are on the usual right-hand side, but these do not have dedicated merge lanes, forcing drivers to await gaps in traffic and then accelerate from a stop sign to traffic speeds in a short distance. In 2016, a new on-ramp and off-ramp to Treasure Island were opened in the western direction on the right-hand side of the roadway, replacing the left-hand side off-ramp in that direction.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: Construction of the Bridge Railway began on November 29, 1937, with the laying of the first ties. The first train was run across the Bay Bridge on September 23, 1938, a test run utilizing a Key System train consisting of two articulated units with California Governor Frank Merriam at the controls. On January 14, 1939, the San Francisco Transbay Terminal was dedicated. The following morning, January 15, 1939, the electric commuter trains started in revenue service, running along the south side of the lower deck of the bridge. The terminal originally was supposed to open at the same time as the Bay Bridge, but was delayed. The trains were operated by the Sacramento Northern Railroad (Western Pacific), the Interurban Electric Railway (Southern Pacific) and the Key System. Freight trains never used the bridge. The tracks left the lower deck in San Francisco just southwest of the end of 1st St. They then went along an elevated viaduct above city streets, looping around and into the terminal on its east end. Departing trains exited on the loop back onto the bridge. The loop continued to be used by buses until the terminal's closure in 2010. The tracks left the lower deck in Oakland. The Interurban Electric Railway tracks ran along Engineer Road and over the Southern Pacific yard on trestles (some of it is still standing and visible from nearby roadways) onto the streets and dedicated right-of-ways in Berkeley, Albany, Oakland and Alameda. The Sacramento Northern and Key System tracks went under the SP tracks through a tunnel (which still exists and is in use as an access to the EBMUD treatment plant) and onto 40th St. Due to falling ridership, Sacramento Northern and IER service ended in 1941. After World War II Key System ridership began to fall as well. Despite the vital role the railroad played, the last train went over the bridge in April 1958. The tracks were removed and replaced with pavement on the Transbay Terminal ramps and Bay Bridge. The Key System handled buses over the bridge until 1960 when its successor, AC Transit, took over operations. It still handles service today, running to a new transbay terminal located in the same vicinity in San Francisco, the Transbay Transit Center. There have been several attempts to restore rail service on the bridge, but none have been successful.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: Automobile traffic increased dramatically in the ensuing decades while the Key System declined, and in October 1963, the Bay Bridge was reconfigured with five lanes of westbound traffic on the upper deck and five lanes of eastbound traffic on the lower deck. The Key System originally planned to end train operations in 1948 when it replaced its streetcars with buses, but Caltrans did not approve of this. Trucks were allowed on both decks and the railroad was removed. Owing to a lack of clearance for trucks through the upper-deck portion of the Yerba Buena tunnel, it was necessary to lower the elevation of the upper deck where it passes through the tunnel, and to correspondingly excavate to lower the elevation of the lower portion. Additionally, the upper deck was retrofitted to handle the increased loads due to trucks, with understringers added and prestressing added to the bottom of the floor beams. This retrofit is still in place and is visible to Eastbound traffic.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: On February 11, 1968, a U.S. Navy training aircraft crashed into the cantilever span of the bridge, killing both reserve officers aboard. The T2V SeaStar, based at NAS Los Alamitos in southern California, was on a routine weekend mission and had just taken off in the fog from nearby NAS Alameda. The plane struck the bridge about above the upper deck roadway and then sank in the bay north of the bridge. There were no injuries among the motorists on the bridge. One of the truss sections of the bridges was replaced due to damage from the impact.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: The series of lights adorning the suspension cables was added in 1986 as part of the bridge's 50th-anniversary celebration.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: On November 2, 2001, governor Gray Davis announced a threat of a rush hour attack against a West Coast suspension bridge (a group which includes the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge) some time between November 2 and 7, resulting in increased armed law enforcement patrols.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: A small fraction of drivers shifted to ferries and BART. It was later revealed that crews had secretly been working under armed guard for several weeks to harden the suspension cable attachment points, which were vulnerable to cutting with common tools. An anchor room was filled with concrete, doors welded shut, and a razor wire fence added. A blast wall was also added to defend against a truck bomb. In the end, no attack occurred.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: In 2007, a container ship then named the "Cosco Busan," and subsequently renamed the "Hanjin Venezia," allided with the Delta Tower fender, resulting in the "Cosco Busan" oil spill.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: On March 5, 2013, a public art installation called "The Bay Lights" was activated on the western span's vertical cables. The installation was designed by artist Leo Villareal and consists of 25,000 LED lights originally scheduled to be on nightly display until March 2015. However, on December 17, 2014, the non-profit Illuminate The Arts announced that it had raised the $4 million needed to make the lights permanent; the display was temporarily turned off starting in March 2015 in order to perform maintenance and install sturdier bulbs and then re-lit on January 30, 2016.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: In order to reduce driver distractions, the privately funded display is not visible to users of the bridge, only to distant observers. This lighting effort is intended to form part of a larger project to "light the bay". Villareal used various algorithms to generate patterns such as rainfall, reflections on water, bird flight, expanding rings, and others. Villareal's patterns and transitions will be sequenced and their duration determined by computerized random number generator to make each viewing experience unique. Owing to the efficiency of the LED system employed, the estimated operating cost is only US$15.00 per night.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: In January 2020, the AC Transit and BART boards of directors supported the establishment of dedicated bus lanes on the bridge. In February 2020, Rob Bonta introduced state legislation to begin planning bus lanes.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: On the evening of October 17, 1989 during the Loma Prieta earthquake, which measured 6.9 on the moment magnitude scale, a section of the upper deck of the eastern truss portion of the bridge at Pier E9 collapsed onto the deck below, indirectly causing one death. The bridge was closed for just over a month as construction crews repaired the section. That same year, the bridge reopened to traffic on November 18.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: The western section has undergone extensive seismic retrofitting. During the retrofit, much of the structural steel supporting the bridge deck was replaced while the bridge remained open to traffic. Engineers accomplished this by using methods similar to those employed on the Chicago Skyway reconstruction project.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: The entire bridge was fabricated using hot steel rivets, which are impossible to heat treat and so remain relatively soft. Analysis showed that these could fail by shearing under extreme stress. Therefore, at most locations each given rivet was removed by breaking off the head with a jackhammer [rivet buster] and punching out the old rivet, the hole precision reamed and the old rivets replaced with heat-treated high-strength tension-control [TC] bolts and nuts. Most bolts had domed heads placed facing traffic so they looked similar to the rivets that were removed.[Caltrans contract 04-0435U4, 1999–2004]. This work had to be performed with great care as the steel of the structure had for many years been painted with lead based paint, which had to be carefully removed and contained by workers with extensive protective gear.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: Most of the beams were originally constructed of two plate -beams joined with lattices of flat strip or angle stock, depending upon structural requirements. These have all been reconstructed by replacing the riveted lattice elements with bolted steel plate and so converting the lattice beams into box beams. This replacement included adding face plates to the large diagonal beams joining the faces of the main towers, which now have an improved appearance when viewed from certain angles.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: Diagonal box beams have been added to each bay of the upper and lower decks of the western spans. These add stiffness to reduce side-to-side motion during an earthquake and reduce the probability of damage to the decking surfaces.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: Analysis showed that some massive concrete supports could burst and crumble under likely stresses. In particular the western supports were extensively modified. First, the location of existing reinforcing bar is determined using magnetic techniques. In areas between bars holes are drilled. Into these holes is inserted and glued an L-shaped bar that protrudes 15 to 25 centimeters (6 to 10 inches). This bar is retained in the hole with a high-strength epoxy adhesive. The entire surface of the structure is thus covered with closely spaced protrusions. A network of horizontal and vertical reinforcing bars is then attached to these protrusions. Mold surface plates are then positioned to retain high-strength concrete, which is then pumped into the void. After removal of the formwork the surface appears similar to the original concrete. This technique has been applied elsewhere throughout California to improve freeway overpass abutments and some overpass central supports that have unconventional shapes. (Other techniques such as "jacket and grout" are applied to simple vertical posts; see the seismic retrofit article.)


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: The western approaches have also been retrofitted in part, but mostly these have been replaced with new construction of reinforced concrete.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: For various reasons, the eastern section would have been too expensive to retrofit compared to replacing it, so the decision was made to replace it.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: The replacement section underwent a series of design changes, both progressive and regressive, with increasing cost estimates and contractor bids. The final design included a single-towered self-anchored suspension span starting at Yerba Buena island, leading to a long inclined


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: Separated and protected bicycle lanes are a visually prominent feature on the south side of the new eastern section. The bikeway and pedestrian path across the eastern span opened in October 2016 and carries recreational and commuter cyclists between Oakland and Yerba Buena Island. The original eastern cantilever span had firefighting dry standpipes installed. No firefighting dry or wet standpipes were designed for the eastern section replacement, although, the firefighting wet standpipes do exist on the original western section visible on both the north-side upper and lower decks.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: The original eastern section closed permanently to traffic on August 28, 2013, and the replacement span opened for traffic five days later. The old original eastern section was dismantled between January 2014 and November 2017.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: During the 2009 Labor Day weekend closure for a portion of the replacement, a major crack was found in an eyebar, significant enough to warrant bridge closure. Working in parallel with the retrofit, California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), and its contractors and subcontractors, were able to design, engineer, fabricate, and install the pieces required to repair the bridge, delaying its planned opening by only hours. The repair was not inspected by the Federal Highway Administration, which relied on state inspection reports to ensure safety guidelines were met.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: On October 27, 2009, during the evening commute, the steel crossbeam and two steel tie rods repaired over Labor Day weekend snapped off the Bay Bridge's eastern section and fell to the upper deck. This may have been due to metal-on-metal vibration from bridge traffic and wind gusts of up to , which resulted in one of the rods breaking off and caused one of the metal sections to come crashing down. Three vehicles were either struck by or hit the fallen debris, though there were no injuries. On November 1, Caltrans announced that the bridge would probably stay closed at least through the morning commute of Monday, November 2 after repairs performed during the weekend failed a stress test on Sunday. BART and the Golden Gate Ferry systems added supplemental service to accommodate the increased passenger load during the bridge closure. The bridge reopened to traffic on November 2, 2009.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: The bridge was unofficially "dedicated" to James B. "Sunny Jim" Rolph, Jr., but this was not widely recognized until the bridge's 50th-anniversary celebrations in 1986. The official name of the bridge for all functional purposes has always been the "San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge", and, by most local people, it is referred to simply as "the Bay Bridge".


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: Rolph, a Mayor of San Francisco from 1912 to 1931, was the Governor of California at the time construction of the bridge began. He died in office on June 2, 1934, two years before the bridge opened, leaving the bridge to be named for him out of respect.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: In 1872, the San Francisco entrepreneur and eccentric Emperor Norton issued three proclamations calling for the design and construction of a suspension bridge between San Francisco and Oakland via Yerba Buena Island (formerly Goat Island).


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: A 1939 plaque honoring Emperor Norton for the original idea for the Bay Bridge was dedicated by the fraternal society E Clampus Vitus and was installed at The Cliff House in February 1955. In November 1986, in connection with the bridge's 50th anniversary, the plaque was moved to the Transbay Terminal, the public transit and Greyhound bus depot at the west end of the bridge in downtown San Francisco. When the terminal was closed in 2010, the plaque was placed in storage.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: In November 2004, after a campaign by "San Francisco Chronicle" cartoonist Phil Frank, then-San Francisco District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin introduced a resolution to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors calling for the entire two-bridge system, from San Francisco to Oakland, to be named for Emperor Norton.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: On December 14, 2004, the Board approved a modified version of this resolution, calling for only "new additions" — i.e., the new eastern crossing — to be named "The Emperor Norton Bridge". Neither the City of Oakland nor Alameda County passed any similar resolution, so the effort went no further.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: In June 2013, nine state assemblymen, joined by two state senators, introduced Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 65 (ACR 65) to name the western crossing of the bridge for former California Assembly Speaker and former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown. Six weeks later, a grassroots petition was launched seeking to name the entire two-bridge system for Emperor Norton. In September 2013, the petition's author launched a nonprofit, The Emperor's Bridge Campaign — now known as The Emperor Norton Trust — that advocates for adding "Emperor Norton Bridge" as an honorary name (rather than "renaming" the bridge) and that undertakes other efforts to advance Norton's legacy.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: The state legislative resolution naming the western section of the Bay Bridge the "Willie L. Brown, Jr., Bridge" passed the Assembly in August 2013 and the Senate in September 2013. A ceremony was held on February 11, 2014, marking the resolution and the installation of signs on either end of the section.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: The larger entity of which the western section is a part retains the separate and independent designation "San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge".


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: The pedestrian and bicycle route on the eastern section opened on September 3, 2013, and is named after Alexander Zuckermann, founding chair of the East Bay Bicycle Coalition. This forms a transbay route for the San Francisco Bay Trail. Until October 2016, the path did not connect to Yerba Buena and Treasure Island sidewalks, due to the need to demolish more of the old eastern section before final construction. As of December 2016, the path is open only on weekends and holidays from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. "to ensure public safety during torch cutting and other old Bay Bridge demolition activities". On May 2, 2017, public access was extended to seven days a week, 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., with occasional closure days for continued demolition of the old bridge foundations. This work was completed on November 11, 2017. Current facilities, maps and restrictions are published by Metropolitan Transportation Commission.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: On October 21, 2020, the Judge John Sutter Regional Shoreline park opened to the public. Located at the foot of the bridge, the opening of the park has led to easier access to the bike and pedestrian path due to improved parking and pedestrian access.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: Tolls are only collected from westbound traffic at the toll plaza on the Oakland side of the bridge. Those just traveling between Yerba Buena Island and the main part of San Francisco are not tolled. All-electronic tolling has been in effect since 2020, and drivers may either pay using the FasTrak electronic toll collection device, using the license plate tolling program, or via a one time payment online. Effective , the regular toll rate for passenger cars on weekends is $7. Under a congestion pricing scheme on weekdays, the rate increases to $8 during peak traffic hours and decreases to $6 during non-peak hours. Also during peak traffic hours, carpool vehicles carrying three or more people, clean air vehicles, or motorcycles may pay a discounted toll of $3.50 if they have FasTrak and use the designated carpool lane. Drivers must pay within 48 hours after crossing the bridge or they will be sent a toll violation invoice. No additional fees will be added to the toll violation if it is paid within 21 days.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: When the Bay Bridge opened in 1936, the toll was 65 cents (), collected in each direction by men in booths fronting each lane of traffic. Within months, the toll was lowered to 50 cents in order to compete with the ferry system, and finally to 25 cents since this was shown sufficient to pay off the original revenue bonds on schedule (equivalent to $ and $ in respectively). In 1951 there were eighty collectors working various shifts.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: On Monday, September 1, 1969, (Labor Day) a change of policy resulted in the toll being collected thereafter only from westbound traffic, at twice the previous rate; eastbound vehicles were toll-exempt.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: Tolls were subsequently raised to finance improvements to the bridge approaches, required to connect with new freeways, and to subsidize public transit in order to reduce the traffic over the bridge. The toll was increased by a quarter dollar to 75 cents in 1978 (equivalent to $ in ), where it remained for a decade.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: Caltrans, the state highway transportation agency, maintains seven of the eight San Francisco Bay Area bridges. (The Golden Gate Bridge is owned and maintained by the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District.)


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: The basic toll (for automobiles) on the seven state bridges was raised to $1 by Regional Measure 1, approved by Bay Area voters in 1988.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: A $1 seismic retrofit surcharge was added in 1998 by the state legislature, originally for eight years, but since then extended to December 2037 (AB1171, October 2001). On March 2, 2004, voters approved Regional Measure 2, raising the toll by another dollar to a total of three dollars (equivalent to $ in ). An additional dollar was added to the toll starting January 1, 2007, to cover cost overruns concerning the replacement of the eastern span.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: The Metropolitan Transportation Commission, a regional transportation agency, in its capacity as the Bay Area Toll Authority, administers RM1 and RM2 funds, a significant portion of which are allocated to public transit capital improvements and operating subsidies in the transportation corridors served by the bridges. Caltrans administers the "second dollar" seismic surcharge, and receives some of the MTC-administered funds to perform other maintenance work on the bridges. The Bay Area Toll Authority is made up of appointed officials put in place by various city and county governments, and is not subject to direct voter oversight.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: Due to further funding shortages for seismic retrofit projects, the Bay Area Toll Authority again raised tolls on all Bay Area bridges in its control (this excludes the Golden Gate Bridge) in July 2010. The toll rate for autos on other Bay Area bridges was increased to five dollars, but in the Bay Bridge a variable pricing tolling scheme based on congestion was implemented. The Bay Bridge congestion pricing scheme charged a $6 toll from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday. During weekends cars paid $5. Carpools before the implementation were exempted but began to pay $2.50, and the carpool toll discount became available only to drivers with FasTrak electronic toll devices. The toll remained at the previous toll of $4 at all other times on weekdays. The Bay Area Toll Authority reported that by October 2010 fewer users are driving during the peak hours and more vehicles are crossing the Bay Bridge before and after the 5–10 a.m. period in which the congestion toll goes into effect. Commute delays in the first six months dropped by an average of 15% compared with 2009. For vehicles with at least 3 axles, the toll rate was $5 per axle.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: In June 2018, Bay Area voters approved Regional Measure 3 to further raise the tolls on all seven of the state-owned bridges to fund $4.5 billion worth of transportation improvements in the area. Under the passed measure, the tolls on the Bay Bridge will be raised by $1 on January 1, 2019, then again on January 1, 2022, and again on January 1, 2025. Thus under the congestion pricing scheme, the tolls for autos during the peak weekday rush hours will be $7 in 2019, $8 in 2022, and $9 in 2025; for the non-rush periods, $5 in 2019, $6 in 2022, and $7 in 2025; and on weekends, $6 in 2019, $7 in 2022, and $8 in 2025.


title: San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

text: In September 2019, the MTC approved a $4 million plan to eliminate toll takers and convert all seven of the state-owned bridges to all-electronic tolling, citing that 80 percent of drivers are now using Fastrak and the change would improve traffic flow. On March 20, 2020, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, all-electronic tolling was placed in effect for all seven state-owned toll bridges. The MTC then installed new systems at all seven bridges to make them permanently cashless by the start of 2021. In April 2022, the Bay Area Toll Authority announced plans to remove all remaining unused toll booths and create an open-road tolling system which functions at highway speeds.


title: Laxative

text: Laxatives, purgatives, or aperients are substances that loosen stools and increase bowel movements. They are used to treat and prevent constipation.


title: Laxative

text: Laxatives vary as to how they work and the side effects they may have. Certain stimulant, lubricant and saline laxatives are used to evacuate the colon for rectal and bowel examinations, and may be supplemented by enemas under certain circumstances. Sufficiently high doses of laxatives may cause diarrhea.


title: Laxative

text: Bulk-forming laxatives, also known as roughage, are substances, such as fiber in food and hydrophilic agents in over-the-counter drugs, that add bulk and water to stools so that they can pass more easily through the intestines (lower part of the digestive tract).


title: Laxative

text: Bulk-forming agents generally have the gentlest of effects among laxatives, making them ideal for long-term maintenance of regular bowel movements.


title: Laxative

text: Foods that help with laxation include fiber-rich foods. Dietary fiber includes insoluble fiber and soluble fiber, such as:


title: Laxative

text: Emollient laxatives, also known as stool softeners, are anionic surfactants that enable additional water and fats to be incorporated in the stool, making it easier for them to move through the gastrointestinal tract.


title: Laxative

text: Lubricant laxatives are substances that coat the stool with slippery lipids and decrease colonic absorption of water so that the stool slides through the colon more easily. Lubricant laxatives also increase the weight of stool and decrease intestinal transit time.


title: Laxative

text: Mineral oil is the only nonprescription lubricant. Mineral oil may decrease the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins and some minerals.


title: Laxative

text: Hyperosmotic laxatives are substances that cause the intestines to hold more water within and create an osmotic effect that stimulates a bowel movement.


title: Laxative

text: Lactulose works by the osmotic effect, which retains water in the colon; lowering the pH through bacterial fermentation to lactic, formic and acetic acid; and increasing colonic peristalsis. Lactulose is also indicated in portal-systemic encephalopathy. Glycerin suppositories work mostly by hyperosmotic action, but the sodium stearate in the preparation also causes local irritation to the colon.


title: Laxative

text: Solutions of polyethylene glycol and electrolytes (sodium chloride, sodium bicarbonate, potassium chloride, and sometimes sodium sulfate) are used for whole bowel irrigation, a process designed to prepare the bowel for surgery or colonoscopy and to treat certain types of poisoning. Brand names for these solutions include GoLytely, GlycoLax, Cosmocol, CoLyte, Miralax, Movicol, NuLytely, Suprep, and Fortrans. Solutions of sorbitol (SoftLax) have similar effects.


title: Laxative

text: Saline laxatives are non-absorbable osmotically active substances that attract and retain water in the intestinal lumen, increasing intraluminal pressure that mechanically stimulates evacuation of the bowel. Magnesium-containing agents also cause the release of cholecystokinin, which increases intestinal motility and fluid secretion. Saline laxatives may alter a patient's fluid and electrolyte balance.


title: Laxative

text: Stimulant laxatives are substances that act on the intestinal mucosa or nerve plexus, altering water and electrolyte secretion. They also stimulate peristaltic action and can be dangerous under certain circumstances.


title: Laxative

text: Prolonged use of stimulant laxatives can create drug dependence by damaging the colon's haustral folds, making a user less able to move feces through the colon on their own. A study of patients with chronic constipation found that 28% of chronic stimulant laxative users lost haustral folds over the course of one year, while none of the control group did.


title: Laxative

text: Castor oil is a glyceride that is hydrolyzed by pancreatic lipase to ricinoleic acid, which produces laxative action by an unknown mechanism.


title: Laxative

text: These are motility stimulants that work through activation of 5-HT receptors of the enteric nervous system in the gastrointestinal tract. However, some have been discontinued or restricted due to potentially harmful cardiovascular side-effects.


title: Laxative

text: Tegaserod (brand name Zelnorm) was removed from the general U.S. and Canadian markets in 2007, due to reports of increased risks of heart attack or stroke. It is still available to physicians for patients in emergency situations that are life-threatening or require hospitalization.


title: Laxative

text: drug approved for use in the EU since October 15, 2009, in Canada (brand name Resotran) since December 7, 2011, and in the United States since December 2018.


title: Laxative

text: Lubiprostone is used in the management of chronic idiopathic constipation and irritable bowel syndrome. It causes the intestines to produce a chloride-rich fluid secretion that softens the stool, increases motility, and promotes spontaneous bowel movements (SBM).


title: Laxative

text: For adults, a randomized controlled trial found PEG (MiraLax or GlycoLax) 17 grams once per day to be superior to tegaserod at 6 mg twice per day. A randomized controlled trial found greater improvement from two sachets (26 grams) of PEG versus two sachets (20 grams) of lactulose. 17 grams per day of PEG has been effective and safe in a randomized controlled trial for six months. Another randomized controlled trial found no difference between sorbitol and lactulose.


title: Laxative

text: Some of the less significant adverse effects of laxative abuse include dehydration (which causes tremors, weakness, fainting, blurred vision, kidney damage), low blood pressure, fast heart rate, postural dizziness and fainting; however, laxative abuse can lead to potentially fatal acid-base and electrolyte imbalances. For example, severe hypokalaemia has been associated with distal renal tubular acidosis from laxative abuse. Metabolic alkalosis is the most common acid-base imbalance observed. Other significant adverse effects include rhabdomyolysis, steatorrhoea, inflammation and ulceration of colonic mucosa, pancreatitis, kidney failure, factitious diarrhea and other problems. The colon will need more quantities of laxatives to keep functioning, this will result in a lazy colon, infections, irritable bowel syndrome, and potential liver damages.


title: Laxative

text: Although some patients with eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa abuse laxatives in an attempt to lose weight, laxatives act to speed up the transit of feces through the large intestine, which occurs after the absorption of nutrients in the small intestine is already complete. Thus, studies of laxative abuse have found that effects on body weight reflect primarily temporary losses of body water rather than energy (calorie) loss.


title: Laxative

text: Physicians warn against the chronic use of stimulant laxatives due to concern that chronic use could cause the colonic tissues to get worn out over time and not be able to expel feces due to long-term overstimulation. A common finding in patients having used stimulant laxatives is a brown pigment deposited in the intestinal tissue, known as melanosis coli.


title: Laxative

text: Laxatives, once called "physicks" or "purgatives", were used extensively in pre-modern medicine to treat many conditions for which they are now generally regarded as ineffective in evidence-based medicine. Likewise, laxatives (often termed colon cleanses) may be promoted in alternative medicine for various conditions of quackery, such as "mucoid plaque".


title: Lloyds Bank

text: Lloyds Bank plc is a British retail and commercial bank with branches across England and Wales. It has traditionally been considered one of the "Big Four" clearing banks. Lloyds Bank is the largest retail bank in Britain, and has an extensive network of branches and ATMs in England and Wales (as well as an arrangement for its customers to be serviced by Bank of Scotland branches in Scotland, Halifax branches in Northern Ireland and vice versa) and offers 24-hour telephone and online banking services. it had 16 million personal customers and small business accounts.


title: Lloyds Bank

text: Founded in Birmingham in 1765, it expanded during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and took over a number of smaller banking companies. In 1995 it merged with the Trustee Savings Bank and traded as Lloyds TSB Bank plc between 1999 and 2013. In January 2009, it became the principal subsidiary of Lloyds Banking Group, which was formed by the acquisition of HBOS by the then-Lloyds TSB Group. It has its operational headquarters in London and other offices in Wales and Scotland. It also operates a number of office complex, brand headquarters and data centres in Birmingham, Yorkshire including Leeds, Sheffield, Halifax and Wolverhampton.


title: Lloyds Bank

text: The origins of Lloyds Bank date from 1765, when button maker John Taylor and Quaker iron producer and dealer Sampson Lloyd set up a private banking business in Dale End, Birmingham. The first branch office opened in Oldbury, some six miles (10 km) west of Birmingham, in 1864.


title: Lloyds Bank

text: The symbol adopted by Taylors and Lloyds was the beehive, representing industry and hard work. The black horse regardant device dates from 1677, when Humphrey Stokes adopted it as sign for his shop. Stokes was a goldsmith and "keeper of the running cashes" (an early term for banker) and the business became part of Barnett, Hoares & Co. When Lloyds took over that bank in 1884, it continued to trade "at the sign of the black horse".


title: Lloyds Bank

text: The association with the Taylor family ended in 1852 and, in 1865, Lloyds & Co. converted into a joint-stock company known as Lloyds Banking Company Ltd. The first report of the company in 1865 stated:LLOYDS BANKING COMPANY LIMITED – Authorized Capital £2,000,000. FOUNDED ON The Private Banks of Messrs. Lloyds & Co. and Messrs. Moilliet and Sons, with-which have subsequently been amalgamated the Banks of Messrs. P. H. Williams, Wednesbury, and Messrs.Stevenson, Salt, & Co., Stafford and Lichfield. [They had an office at 20 Lombard St., London] Your Directors have the satisfaction to report that they have concluded an agreement with the well-known and old-established firm of Messrs. Stevenson, Salt & Company for the amalgamation with this Company of their Banking Business at Stafford, Lichfield, Rugeley, and Eccleshall, and that this agreement has had the unanimous approval of the Extraordinary General Meeting held on 31st January last. It will be again submitted to you for final confirmation after the close of the Ordinary General Meeting. TIMOTHY KENRICK, Chairman. BIRMINGHAM, 9th February 1866Two sons of the original partners followed in their footsteps by joining the established merchant bank Barnett, Hoares & Co. which later became Barnetts, Hoares, Hanbury and Lloyd— based in Lombard Street, London. Eventually, this became absorbed into the original Lloyds Banking Company, which became Lloyds, Barnetts and Bosanquets Bank Ltd. in 1884. and, finally, Lloyds Bank Limited in 1889.


title: Lloyds Bank

text: Through a series of mergers, including Cunliffe, Brooks in 1900, the Wilts. and Dorset Bank in 1914 and, by far the largest, the Capital and Counties Bank in 1918, Lloyds emerged to become one of the "Big Four" clearing banks in the United Kingdom. By 1923, Lloyds Bank had made some 50 takeovers, one of which was the last private firm to issue its own banknotes—Fox, Fowler and Company of Wellington, Somerset. Today, the Bank of England has a monopoly of banknote issue in England and Wales. In 2011, the company founded SGH Martineau LLP.


title: Lloyds Bank

text: Eleven banks bought by Lloyds Bank between 1865 and 1923 had been involved in slavery to some degree. One of these, the London and Brazilian Bank, financed coffee plantations in Brazil which operated on slave labour, and mortgages on these plantations were sometimes secured using the monetary value of the enslaved people as collateral.


title: Lloyds Bank

text: In 1968, a failed attempt at merger with Barclays and Martins Bank was deemed to be against the public interest by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission. Barclays finally acquired Martins the following year. In 1972, Lloyds Bank was a founding member of the Joint Credit Card Company (with National Westminster Bank, Midland Bank and the National and Commercial Banking Group) which launched the Access credit card (now MasterCard). That same year it introduced "Cashpoint", the first online cash machine to use plastic cards with a magnetic stripe. In popular use, the "Cashpoint" trademark has become a generic term for an ATM in the United Kingdom.


title: Lloyds Bank

text: In 1982 Lloyds decided to follow Provident Financial Group plc in entering the estate agency market with the acquisition of the Norfolk firm of Charles Hawkins and Son in May of that year to form Black Horse Agencies. The firm had been first established in 1869 in Downham Market by Charles Hawkins who was land agent for the Pratt estate at Ryston. The firm merged in 1875 with that of Cruso and Son forming Cruso and Hawkins, later becoming Charles Hawkins and Son in 1908.


title: Lloyds Bank

text: Under the leadership of Sir Brian Pitman between 1984 and 1997, the bank became an early adopter of shareholder value creation as a governing corporate objective. The bank's business focus was narrowed and it reacted to disastrous lending to South American states by trimming its overseas businesses and seeking growth through mergers with other UK banks. During this period, Pitman tried unsuccessfully to acquire The Royal Bank of Scotland in 1984, Standard Chartered in 1986, and Midland Bank in 1992. Lloyds Bank International merged into Lloyds Bank in 1986, since there was no longer an advantage in operating separately. In 1988, Lloyds merged five of its businesses with the Abbey Life Insurance Company to create Lloyds Abbey Life.


title: Lloyds Bank

text: The bank merged first with the newly demutualised Cheltenham & Gloucester Building Society (C&G), then with the TSB Group in 1995. The C&G acquisition gave Lloyds a large stake in the UK mortgage lending market. The TSB merger was structured as a reverse takeover; Lloyds Bank Plc was delisted from the London Stock Exchange and TSB Group plc was renamed Lloyds TSB Group plc on 28 December, with former Lloyds Bank shareholders owning a 70% equity interest in the share capital, effected through a scheme of arrangement. The new bank commenced trading in 1999, after the statutory process of integration was completed. On 28 June, TSB Bank plc transferred engagements to Lloyds Bank Plc which then changed its name to Lloyds TSB Bank plc; at the same time, TSB Bank Scotland plc absorbed Lloyds' three Scottish branches becoming Lloyds TSB Scotland plc. The combined business formed the largest bank in the UK by market share and the second-largest to Midland Bank (now HSBC) by market capitalisation. Lloyds' iconic black horse device was retained and modified to reflect the TSB merger.


title: Lloyds Bank

text: Lloyds Abbey Life became a wholly owned subsidiary of the group in 1996, absorbing Hill Samuel in 1997, before closing to new business in 2000. In 2007, Abbey Life was sold to Deutsche Bank for £977 million.


title: Lloyds Bank

text: In 1999, the group agreed to buy the Scottish Widows Fund and Life Assurance Society for £7 billion. The society demutualised in 2000, shortly before the acquisition was completed. In 2001, Lloyds TSB made a bid to acquire Abbey National; however, the bid was blocked by the Competition Commission, who ruled that a merger would be against the public interest.


title: Lloyds Bank

text: In October 2011, Lloyds TSB's credit rating was reduced by Moody's from Aa3 to A1. The action was taken in the light of a shift in government policy to move risk from taxpayers to creditors by reducing the level of support offered to financial institutions.


title: Lloyds Bank

text: After the 2008 rescue of HBOS, Lloyds TSB Group was renamed Lloyds Banking Group. In 2009, following the liquidity crisis, HM Government took a 43.4% stake in Lloyds Banking Group. The European Commission ruled that the group must sell a portion of its business by November 2013, as it categorised the stake purchase as state aid.


title: Lloyds Bank

text: On 24 April 2013, it was confirmed that a number of Lloyds TSB branches in England and Wales would be combined with the branches of Cheltenham & Gloucester and the business of Lloyds TSB Scotland to form a new bank operating under the TSB brand and divested by the group. The selected Lloyds TSB branches and those of Cheltenham & Gloucester were transferred to Lloyds TSB Scotland plc, which was renamed TSB Bank plc. The new bank began operating on 9 September 2013 as a separate division within Lloyds Banking Group. TSB was floated on the London Stock Exchange on 20 June 2014, and was acquired by Banco Sabadell one year later and subsequently delisted. The remaining business of Lloyds TSB returned to the Lloyds Bank name on 23 September 2013.


title: Lloyds Bank

text: In October 2014, the bank announced that it planned to cut 9,000 jobs and close some branches in light of an increase in the number of customers using online banking services.


title: Lloyds Bank

text: In July 2016, the bank announced it would cut 3,000 jobs because of the economic downturn as a result of United Kingdom European Union membership referendum.


title: Lloyds Bank

text: In January 2017, the bank suffered interruptions to its online services originally blamed on "unspecified technical glitches". A hacker reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack, demanding around £75,000 from the bank in a "consultation fee". On 17 March 2017, the British Government confirmed its remaining shares in Lloyds Banking Group had been sold.


title: Lloyds Bank

text: The bank offers a full range of banking and financial services, through a network of 1,300 branches in England and Wales. Branches in Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man are operated by Lloyds Bank International Limited, while Lloyds Bank (Gibraltar) Limited operates in Gibraltar; both are wholly owned subsidiaries and trade under the Lloyds Bank brand. Lloyds Bank is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by both the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. It is a member of the Financial Ombudsman Service, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, UK Payments Administration, the British Bankers' Association and subscribes to the Lending Code. The bank uses the following series of sort codes:—


title: Lloyds Bank

text: The Lloyds Bank Foundation funds local, regional and national charities working to tackle disadvantage across England and Wales. There are separate foundations covering Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands.


title: Lloyds Bank

text: The bank's overseas expansion began in 1911 and, by 1985, it had banking and representative offices in 45 countries, from Argentina to the United States of America.


title: Lloyds Bank

text: Lloyds Bank International was absorbed into the main business of Lloyds Bank in 1986. Since 2010, the name has been used to refer to the bank's offshore banking operations.


title: Lloyds Bank

text: The following list indicates the Chairmen and Chief Executive's from the incorporation of Lloyds Banking Corporation in 1865, and the creation of the Chief Executive position in 1945. The Chairman and Chief Executive of Lloyds Bank is held "ex-officio" by the Chairman and Chief Executive of Lloyds Banking Group.


title: Lloyds Bank

text: In November 2005 an investigation by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) highlighted a lack of compliance controls surrounding payment protection insurance (PPI). A second investigation in October 2006 identified further evidence of poor compliance and major PPI providers including Lloyds were fined for not treating customers fairly. In January 2011 a High Court case began which in the following April ruled against the banks, on 5 May 2011 Lloyds withdrew from the legal challenge. In 2012, Lloyds announced that they had set aside £3.6 billion to cover the cost of compensating customers who were mis-sold PPI.


title: Lloyds Bank

text: In March 2014 it was reported that Lloyds had been reducing the compensation they offered by using a regulatory provision called "alternative redress" to assume that customers wrongly sold single-premium PPI policies would have bought a cheaper, regular premium PPI policy instead.


title: Lloyds Bank

text: In June 2015 the Lloyds Banking Group was fined £117m for mishandling payment protection insurance claims including many claims being "unfairly rejected".


title: Lloyds Bank

text: In December 2008 the British anti-poverty charity War on Want released a report documenting the extent to which the UK high street banks invest in, provide banking services for and lend to arms companies. The report stated that Lloyds TSB is the only high street bank whose corporate social responsibility policy does not mention the arms industry, yet is that industry's second largest shareholder among high street banks.


title: Lloyds Bank

text: In 2009, the BBC's "Panorama" alleged that Lloyds TSB Offshore in Jersey, Channel Islands was encouraging wealthy customers to evade tax. An employee of Lloyds was filmed telling a customer how several mechanisms could be used to make their transactions invisible to the UK tax authorities. This action is also in breach of money laundering regulations in Jersey.


title: Lloyds Bank

text: In December 2013, Lloyds Banking Group had been fined £28m for "serious failings" in relation to bonus schemes for sales staff. The Financial Conduct Authority said it was the largest fine that it or the former Financial Services Authority had imposed for retail conduct failings. The bonus scheme pressured staff to hit sales targets or risk being demoted and have their pay cut, the FCA said. Lloyds Bank has accepted the regulator's findings and apologised to its customers.


title: Lloyds Bank

text: Based on figures from the National Audit Office, George Osborne's sale of a 6% tranche of Lloyds shares in autumn 2013—despite his claims that the sale had netted a profit—worked out at a loss of at least £230m for UK taxpayers. However, after the British Government confirmed all its remaining shares had been sold on 17 May 2017, Lloyds Bank said the government had seen a return of £21.2bil on its investment, an approximately £900m profit.


title: Lloyds Bank

text: In July 2014, US and UK regulators imposed a combined £218 million ($370 million) in fines on Lloyds and a number of subsidiaries over the bank's part in the global Libor rate fixing scandal, and other rate manipulations and false reporting.


title: Lloyds Bank

text: A number of phishing email scams have been engineered in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 into making the recipient believe that they are receiving an email from Lloyds Bank or Lloyds TSB. Though these emails have had nothing to do with the bank per se, they often are sent by official looking email ids with the bank's domain name. Typically, they contain an authentication code which is sent as a distractor. The linked pages usually allow the recipient to enter their personal information related to the bank, leading to their bank accounts being hacked.


title: Khaki

text: Khaki has been used by many armies around the world for uniforms and equipment, particularly in arid or desert regions, where it provides camouflage relative to sandy or dusty terrain. It has been used as a color name in English since 1848 when it was first introduced as a military uniform. In Western fashion, it is a standard color for smart casual dress trousers for civilians, which are also often called "khakis".


title: Khaki

text: In British English and some other Commonwealth usage, "khaki" may also refer to a shade of green known in the US as olive drab.


title: Khaki

text: "Khaki" is a loanword from Urdu خاکی 'soil-colored', which in turn comes from Persian خاک "khâk" 'soil' + ی (adjectival ending); it came into English via the British Indian Army.


title: Khaki

text: Khaki was first worn as a uniform in the Corps of Guides that was raised in December 1846 by Henry Lawrence (1806–1857), agent to the Governor-General for the North-West Frontier and stationed in Lahore. Initially the border troops were dressed in their native costume, which consisted of a smock and white pajama trousers made of a coarse home-spun cotton, and a cotton turban, supplemented by a leather or padded cotton jacket for cold weather. In 1848, a khaki uniform was introduced. Subsequently, all regiments, whether British or Indian, serving in the region had adopted khaki uniforms for active service and summer dress. The original khaki fabric was a closely twilled cloth of linen or cotton.


title: Khaki

text: The impracticality of traditional bright colors such as the red coat, especially for skirmishing, was recognised early in the 19th century. A response to improved technologies such as aerial surveillance and smokeless powder, khaki could camouflage soldiers in the field of battle.


title: Khaki

text: Khaki-colored uniforms were used officially by British troops for the first time during the 1868 Expedition to Abyssinia, when Indian troops traveled to Ethiopia. Subsequently, the British Army adopted khaki for colonial campaign dress and it was used in the Mahdist War (1884–89) and Second Boer War (1899–1902). These uniforms became known as khaki drill, versions of which are still part of the uniforms of the British Army.


title: Khaki

text: During the Second Boer War, the British forces became known as Khakis because of their uniforms. After victory in the war, the government called an election, which became known as the khaki election, a term used subsequently for elections called to exploit public approval of governments immediately after military victories.


title: Khaki

text: The United States Army adopted khaki during the Spanish–American War (1898), replacing their traditional blue field uniforms. The United States Navy and United States Marine Corps followed suit, authorizing khaki field and work uniforms.


title: Khaki

text: When khaki was adopted for the continental British Service Dress in 1902, the shade chosen had a clearly darker and more green hue (see photo). This color was adopted with minor variations by all the British Empire armies. The 1902 US Army uniform regulations also adopted a similar shade for soldiers' winter service uniforms under the name olive drab. This shade of brown-green remained in use by many countries throughout the two World Wars.


title: Khaki

text: The trousers known as "khakis", which became popular following World War II, were initially military-issue khaki-colored chino cloth twill, used in uniforms and invariably khaki in color. Today, the term is sometimes used to refer to the style of trousers based on these trousers, properly called chinos, regardless of their color.


title: Khaki

text: The color shown at right matches the color designated as "khaki" in the 1930 book "A Dictionary of Color", the standard for color nomenclature before the introduction of computers.


title: Khaki

text: At right is displayed the color khaki green, sometimes called simply "khaki" in Commonwealth countries. It is more commonly called olive green or olive drab.


title: Temple menorah

text: The menorah (; , ) is a seven-branched candelabrum that is described in the Hebrew Bible as having been used in the Tabernacle and in the Temple in Jerusalem. Since antiquity, it has served as a symbol of the Jewish people and Judaism in both the Land of Israel and the Diaspora; it is depicted on the Israeli national emblem.


title: Temple menorah

text: According to the Hebrew Bible, the menorah was made out of pure gold, and the only source of fuel that was allowed to be used to light the lamps was fresh olive oil. Biblical tradition holds that Solomon's Temple was home to ten menorahs, which were later plundered by the Babylonians; the Second Jewish Temple is also said to have been home to a menorah. Following the Roman besiegement of Jerusalem in 70 CE, the menorah was taken to Rome; the Arch of Titus, which still stands today, famously depicts the menorah being carried away by the triumphant Romans along with other spoils of the destroyed Second Jewish Temple. Traces of the temple menorah have been lost since late antiquity.


title: Temple menorah

text: Representations of the temple menorah have been discovered on Jewish tombs and monuments dating from the first century. As a symbol, the menorah has been used since then to distinguish synagogues and Jewish cemeteries from the places of worship and cemeteries of Christians and pagans. The Hanukkah menorah, a nine-branched variant, is closely associated with the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.


title: Temple menorah

text: The Hebrew Bible states that God revealed the design for the menorah to Moses and describes the construction of the menorah as follows:


title: Temple menorah

text: Make a lampstand of pure gold. Hammer out its base and shaft, and make its flowerlike cups, buds and blossoms of one piece with them.


title: Temple menorah

text: Three cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms are to be on one branch, three on the next branch, and the same for all six branches extending from the lampstand.


title: Temple menorah

text: One bud shall be under the first pair of branches extending from the lampstand, a second bud under the second pair, and a third bud under the third pair—six branches in all.


title: Temple menorah

text: The Book of Numbers (Chapter 8) adds that the seven lamps are to give light in front of the lampstand and reiterates that the lampstand was made in accordance with the pattern shown to Moses on the mountain.


title: Temple menorah

text: Rabbinic sources teach that the menorah stood 18 handbreadths/palms (three common cubits) high, or approximately . Although the menorah was placed in the antechamber of the Temple sanctuary, over against its southernmost wall, the Talmud ("Menahot" 98b) brings down a dispute between two scholars on whether or not the menorah was situated north to south, or east to west. The branches are often artistically depicted as semicircular, but Rashi, (according to some contemporary readings) and Maimonides (in a sketch commented on by his son Avraham), held that they were straight; all other Jewish authorities, both classical (e.g. Philo and Josephus) and medieval (e.g. Ibn Ezra) who express an opinion on the subject state that the arms were round.


title: Temple menorah

text: The Roman-Jewish historian Josephus, who witnessed the Temple's destruction, says that the menorah was actually situated obliquely, to the east and south.


title: Temple menorah

text: The most famous preserved representation of the menorah of the Second Temple was depicted in a frieze on the Arch of Titus, commemorating his triumphal parade in Rome following the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70 CE. In that frieze, the menorah is shown resting upon a hexagonal base, which in turn rests upon a slightly larger but concentric and identically shaped base; a stepwise appearance on all sides is thus produced. Each facet of the hexagonal base was made with two vertical stiles and two horizontal rails, a top rail and a bottom rail, resembling a protruding frame set against a sunken panel. These panels have some relief design set or sculpted within them.


title: Temple menorah

text: In 2009, the ruins of a synagogue in Magdala with pottery dating from before the destruction of the Second Temple were discovered under land owned by the "Legionaries of Christ", who had intended to construct a center for women's studies. Inside that synagogue's ruins, a carved stone block was discovered, which had on its surface, among other ornate carvings, a depiction of the seven-lamp menorah differing markedly from the depiction on the Arch of Titus, which could possibly have been carved by an eyewitness to the actual menorah present at the time in the Temple at Jerusalem. This menorah has arms which are polygonal, not rounded, and the base is not graduated but triangular. It is notable, however, that this artifact was found a significant distance from Jerusalem and the Arch of Titus has often been interpreted as an eyewitness account of the original menorah being looted from the temple in Jerusalem.


title: Temple menorah

text: According to the Book of Exodus, the lamps of the menorah were lit daily from fresh, consecrated olive oil and burned from evening until morning.


title: Temple menorah

text: Josephus states that three of the seven lamps were allowed to burn during the day also; however, according to one opinion in the Talmud, only the center lamp was left burning all day, into which as much oil was put as into the others. Although all the other lights were extinguished, that light continued burning oil, in spite of the fact that it had been kindled first. This miracle, according to the Talmud, was taken as a sign that the Shechinah rested among Israel. It was called the "ner hama'aravi" (Western lamp) because of the direction of its wick. This lamp was also referred to as the "ner Elohim" (lamp of God), mentioned in I Samuel 3:3. According to the Talmud, the miracle of the "ner hama'aravi" ended after the High Priesthood of Simon the Just in the 3rd or 4th century BC.


title: Temple menorah

text: Contrary to some modern designs, the ancient menorah burned oil and did not contain anything resembling candles, which were unknown in the Middle East until about 400 CE.


title: Temple menorah

text: The original menorah was made for the tabernacle, and the Bible records it as being present until the Israelites crossed the Jordan River. When the tabernacle tent was pitched in Shiloh, it is assumed that the menorah was also present. However, no mention is made of it during the years that the Ark of the Covenant was moved in the times of Samuel and Saul.


title: Temple menorah

text: According to 2 Kings and the Books of Chronicles, Solomon created ten lampstands ("menorahs"), that were put in the "heikal," Solomon's Temple main chamber. The weight of the lampstands forms part of the detailed instructions given to Solomon by David. According to the Book of Jeremiah, the lampstands were taken away by the Babylonian general Nebuzaradan following the destruction of Jerusalem.


title: Temple menorah

text: During the construction of the Second Temple following the Return to Zion, no mention is made of the return of the menorah but only of "vessels." The book of Maccabees records that Antiochus IV took away the lampstands (plural) when he pillaged the Temple. The later record of the making of "new holy vessels" may refer to the manufacture of new lampstands.


title: Temple menorah

text: The menorah from the Second Temple was carried to Rome after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE at the height of the First Jewish–Roman War. Its fate is recorded by Josephus, who states that it was brought to Rome and carried along during the triumph of Vespasian and Titus. The bas relief on the Arch of Titus in Rome depicts a scene of Roman soldiers carrying away the spoils of the Second Temple, including the menorah.


title: Temple menorah

text: For centuries, the menorah and the other temple treasures were displayed as war trophies either at the Temple of Peace in Rome, or in the Imperial Palace. It was still there when the city was sacked by Vandals in 455 CE.


title: Temple menorah

text: Carried off by the Vandals during the Sack of Rome in 455 CE, the Menorah and other assorted treasures of the Temple in Jerusalem were taken to Carthage, the capital of the Vandal Kingdom. They were still there when a Byzantine army under General Belisarius captured the city and defeated the Vandals in 533. Belisarius removed the Menorah and the other treasures and brought them to Constantinople as trophies of war. According to Procopius, the Menorah was carried through the streets of Constantinople during Belisarius' triumphal procession. Procopius adds that Justinian, prompted by superstitious fear that the treasures had been unlucky for Rome and Carthage, sent them back to Jerusalem and the "sanctuaries of the Christians" there. No record however exists of their arrival there, and there are no indications of pilgrimages to a shrine for the Menorah there. If the Menorah arrived in Jerusalem, it may have been destroyed when Jerusalem was pillaged by the Persians in 614, though legend suggests that it was secreted away by holy men, much as tradition purports the original Menorah was hidden before Nebuchadnezzar's invasion.