California 89: Proposed Bridge over Emerald Bay (Lake Tahoe)

[andy3175]

I never even realized this was proposed at one time (obviously not any more)...

http://moonshineink.com/news/imagine-bridge-over-mouth-emerald-bay%E2%80%A6

Imagine driving over the majestic waters of Emerald Bay on a bridge, then getting onto a four-lane freeway that navigates the circumference of Lake Tahoe. This was the plan for the Basin in the early 1960s, the threat of which prompted the formation of the League to Save Lake Tahoe.

Like the opposition to various developments today, developers in the '60s wanted to take the Basin's population from 12,000 to 200,000 by 1984. But local resisdents joined together, eventually convincing policymakers to drop the plans. The League to Save Lake Tahoe, which was founded in 1957, still has the same mission – to protect and restore environmental health, sustainability, and the scenic beauty of the Lake Tahoe Basin.

The fight over Emerald Bay would not be the last for the organization. After the development of the Tahoe Keys in 1959 and all the construction that preceeded and followed the 1960 Winter Olympics, Dr. Charles Goldman reported a decline in the lake's clarity. But the pressure was on to urbanize the area, which led to the formation of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency in 1969, whose goal was to create a plan to save Lake Tahoe.

http://www.laketahoenews.net/2013/08/then-and-not-now-public-say-no-to-emerald-bay-bridge/

In the late 1950s, Caltrans presented various plans for a bridge across the entrance to Emerald Bay and rerouting Highway 89. Strong public opposition prevailed, and that idea was dropped in the 1960s. This was prior to the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency's formation. In the same time period, film manufacturer and processor Eastman Kodak declared that Emerald Bay was one most-photographed location in the world, second only to the Taj Mahal in Agra, India.