construction of this bridge one of the greatest employment for our nation. the jobs this bridge provided during this time helped many families to get through the did the times. a bridge of this type of is one of the most dangerous of the construction folks. over 1 hundred million hours were worked with no loss of life. i would like to thank american bridge for for caring about our workers. caltrans for insuring that every procedure that would be deployed was put in during the process

but most of all i'd like to thank the workers from all the trades that worked hard, utilizing their you training and sack fixing time from their family. on this labor day we can find no finer contribute than to be standing here in the presence of this bridge with pride and dignity >> thank you. >> i'll read off some of the list the iron workers local 377 and 78 the operating engineering and the local 34 are the carpenter local 22. the labors 2 61 the cement

masonry and i b w locals. all right. brothers. with that i'd like to introduce want and ceo of american bridge joint venture and mike i do thank you for taking care of of our workers (clapping) >> this is a tiff act to fellow thank god i'm not last. good afternoon it's a pleasure to be here. the bridge is kind of like my little girl. before i started on this job i moved here from the east coast and it's changed my lifelike

many of you. the bridge itself build a lot of partnerships. the bridge facilitator the unique marriage of partners not only with reporter to those partnership certainly the design with t y listen and on the owner side with the partnership that involved the ct c and, of course, caltrans. the early days of the job the sas project we had a meeting here in oakland and the department oversight committee delivered the message to get the last key piece done as opposed to. and roar the san francisco bay

bridge to seismic safety before the economy could be devastated. the message became a singular focus for all the stakeholder that went on to forge a lot of no relationships. and through the strength of that common goal we have seen things insewer mountable. the finish line is in sight. in a matter of hours we'll win the race and open the new bridge. i'd like to thank the department for all it's support and partnership. the tall oversight committee for

its leadership and vision of this stunning new bridge. and believe me it's stunning. but no matter how great that vision and how complete that plan it still has to be executed by people, skilled craftsman and designers from all over the world literally many millions of man-hours to bring together the plans of the designers. to our key supplies who have traveled here from china, from south korea, from japan the japan steelworks and from the uk we welcome you to oakland. it's a privilege to share this

moment and we're grateful for our many contributions >> let us be mindful of several other contractors who are responsible for the skyway, the function foundation and such. flatiron west and manson construction and cc myers and california engineers and contractors, silver construction and west by a builders and granite construction and many, many more subcontractors who played a key role. i want to be a little bit selfish and thank you. the men

and women for their spiert and their pride of performance in executing this structure. you have set a new standard in bridge building and without question and i can say this with 40 years experience your the best team i've ever had the privilege to lead and i miss you all greatly. so as long last we can cross this bridge and marvel at the beauty. please remember the dedicated workers to whom the spotlight along these to honor the contributions of all. thank you

(clapping) >> thank you both mike and robby. i'd like to a nouns the arrival of the lieutenant governor you're welcome to join us in here and swelterer. he's a smart guy who will stand in the doorway. another sobering aspect is the time it took to complete it. babies born in 1989 are annoy adult. in the nearly 24 years since the shaking stopped we've lost people who worked on our bridge. at this time i'd like to acknowledge some of the people who helped with the design and the construction of this bridge

who we've lost. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪

♪ . the last name you saw on the screen was the single fatality that day in loma. i'm honored to introduce you to someone who helped rescue that young man's brother from that vehicle. he's retired since. doug can you stand and be recognized? right there

(clapping) . i now have the pleasure to introduce my chairperson so prepare for another truly set of remarks. amy become chair a little bit over a year ago and this was prebolts and i'm sure figured there might be more of a straight line but she's held up like a trooper and been a great leader through a difficult time in this project. loophole join me in welcoming my chair amy worth (clapping) >> thank you, very much. steve i'm honored to be here to welcome i all and to say what a great a day and congratulations to everyone. it really is a glorious day.

being around the eastern span one of the things you may have noticed it that construction is not an old boy's club anymore. it's something that video news man mark john noticed when he was documenting the bridge. so he's done more than 20 oral histories. and he comprised a short video precisely some of the women who have transcribed to the ante span. please join me >> i work in san francisco my mother worked on the new bridge and my brother. my mom worked on the first and second phase with me for another one of the contractors that were out here. and my grandfather worked on the original span but it's been fun.

>> it's one of those projects that's come in a lifetime. >> it's seeing it take a look take shape. when i finish our work you see something >> i work for the superintendent of the project. so no days even the same. it's interesting like i said in high school i'm going to work and build bridges (clapping) thank you mark for our outstanding work documenting the women who are breaking barriers in the infrastructure.

and also for for or against a pathway for our daughters and our granddaughter's interest thank you (clapping) >> as m t c and commissioner and as commission chair it's been a privilege to have the opportunity over the years to get so close to the bridge project even in the last 6 months and now to know the men and women who have brought this bridge to life. i'd like to thank my colleagues into past and present who's vision led to this magnificent bridge and to a our independent panel of folks. i'd like to extend a special thanks to our highway

administration and to thank all the toll payers who made this possible. i'd like to a thank all the people to tell this story through their words and photographs and videos and personal stories from engineers to administrative staff, xarptsd and painters and iron rngz and boat captains and project managers and every other job there is. the people on this project have been truly exceptional not just professional and hardworking but happy to be doing the work they do and happy to talk about it and to share their problematic on this incredible project. i remember coming out to the

island in the previous day labor day closing and being fascinate by carrying out staff. the whole island was abuzz. it was the buzz of commitment. i'll never forgot the dynamic as watching the engineers that evening as we watched the crew at the time sit out the hypocritical jacks and they move forward the 3 hundred and 50 foot new bridge pass by inch by inch. there was only two inches even if space on that 3 hundred and 50 innovate section. this bridge is made of a lot more of cement and steel it's

made of pride. pride in the creation and pride in the prevention and the achievement and the challenges faced and overcome and pride in making a splendid location not just that's beautiful today but truly spectacular for generations to come. some will look at the bridge and see a road and other will see art and other will see science. all of those is true yet i will effort look at this beautiful span and see the people together who bridged road, art and science and made them soar >> thank you (clapping)

and now in keeping of the theme of the great people who have contributed to this bridge i'll introduce my great friend chair of the california transportation commission (clapping). >> thank you amy as chairman of the transportation commission it's a real honor to be here today. i'll to take this moment to recognize and honor all my fellow commissioner who are present today starting with bob bob bobby. commissioner lucy and fran, commissioner joe (clapping) >> i'd like to honor two of our past commissioners x

commissioner jerry, and ex-commissioner phil. (clapping). >> i'd like to acknowledge our current and past directors and their staff in keeping this project moving forward. the ct c has plated a big role as established be by the legislature in july 2005. we've been roeptd by four of our executive directors. my colleague on the podium and john who's in the audience. i specifically want to recognize my colleague for this important transportation department.

she's represented here by her husband vernon. (clapping) >> he's out there somewhere and the brothers. thank you for attending (clapping) >> other key staff members who worked tirelessly were steven millioner and dean a. they labored hard overseeing the project. as you know there were several delays. in the 90s it was the u.s. navy to get them to do the basic soil testing. for four years the navy was a road black block and along came in an attorney who summoned a team of lawyers out to california for a meeting and greeted them with a line of

questions that devastated the navy's position. within weeks caltrans was granted the go head. help me to join in recognizing jerry. jerry would i stand up (clapping) >> in closing my father worked on this bridge as carpeters 22. my parents were here to celebrate the opening in 1936. the bridge cost 77 million the program was $0.25. in the program you'll find some interesting statistics by one strange point is when the bookends war paid off the bridge was supposed to be free so i'm assuming it has not been paid

off. the earthquake in 1939 is it shouldn't have taken that long to go forward on projects. let's be more coffin responsive to the public's needs as in 1936. thank you and enjoy your new bridge (clapping) >> don't worry we're in the home stretch only 27 speakers to go. i want to acknowledge more folks in the audience. there are 3 that former chairs who still you serve on the commission. (calling names). we picked the design (clapping) >> i'm going to ask you all to

stand up later. we picked the design when jim was chair and i don't think he's going to forgive me. two former or 3 folks deserve special recognize. (calling names). (clapping) 345r was the chair and both john and jerry served on the design task force. i can't thank them enough for sitting through the meetings and sticking with this project to get it done. can i ask all the current and former t c members to stand up so we can recognize you. (clapping) >> that includes you

now the first thing we the when we created the bay bridge task forced force we created the advisory panel because what did we know about picking a bridge design second year their chairman couldn't be here because he had a hip surgery and in an e-mail joe described the project as a long hard fight. i would like to acknowledge the members of e adopt member please stand if you're a member and accept our appreciation. i want to thank 3 former members of the legislature. (calling names)

they authored 2 of the 3 finding projects that paid for the bridge (clapping) >> senator hancock authored the other one. the bay area owes is great debt to all of those legislative leaders because they provided the leadership and the i guess i would call it the steering capacity as we've made our way through it is your belligerent seas. i'd like to acknowledge the former mayor of san francisco willie brown who's here (clapping) >> it's not often you have clinton, cop in the same paragraph. they have the same initially a which stands for adorable.

someone who you unfortunately saw in our list david and ron deducting men are here to represent their father. david and ron where you are? are they here. oh, their way in the back. wow. we shove gotten you guys better seats. alex had a rare combination of empathy and he was the quiet it. the bike path is named in his honor and we'll open it tomorrow in his memory. there are also on a lighter note four other folks who deserve a moment of recognition. their unstoppable advocates for the east span.

they've plated different roles by all four confusing for the rest of us share the first name ryan. so without further ado the lives of ryan ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ so our first brian is brian patterson. he's the first one all in his glory (clapping) you know, brian was always the most nerve i didn't say guy on the job you think he would be worried about the steel but he was worried about our visits to the job site. and he knew us well, so i development this compact of

showing up of us showing up in seconds on the bridge. he muster post a lookout on the tower. now much has been said about the ungodly time of constructing this bridge. he was younger here. i think brian the second brian is named ma iron (clapping) . as a