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San Mateo-Hayward Bridge
23 reviews
Foster City, CA
Category: Local Flavor
Dumbarton Bridge
Rating Details »
11 reviews for Dumbarton Bridge
Dumbarton Bridge, you are so confusing to get onto. There is no single clear way to get on like the Golden Gate, Bay, or San Mateo. You are also sinfully ugly. But you do save some time and well, quick franky, you're the only bridge outside of Golden Gate with a pedestrian/bike path.
Yes that's right, there's a protected path about 5-6' wide for pedestrians and bicycles. Once I found this, it opened everything up for me. 13 miles from my place in Sunnyvale to the Dumbarton Bridge, I could now get to Fremont to Milpitas and complete an awesome 60-mile South Bay Bike Loop. For this reason alone, you rock.
Also, I see people fishing off of this bridge. So um, thanks for that.
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No, I am not running out of things to review. I was surprised to stumble upon Dumbarton bridge on yelp and decided I would chime in. I love Dumbarton Bridge. There was a time around 1997-1998 when crossing this bridge was a nightmare. Since then with the economic slowdown and Fasttrak, getting across the bridge is a breeze. Talking about breeze, it is very windy though and I have trouble on my motorbike especially in the evenings. This is actually my favorite bridge among the others in the area. It is easy to get on to and for most part, traffic flows pretty smoothly. My car broke down once when it was raining on top of the bridge and the bridge maintenance folks came to help quickly towed my car. Nice job guys.
Perhaps you've stumbled-upon this review because you were interested in biking across this bridge. I've done it a few times, so here are some pointers:
1) It's windy.
2) The bike lane is narrow and foot/bike traffic goes both ways. Stick to the right side and slow down when you pass someone going the opposite direction.
3) Don't get discouraged when you go significantly slower than usual on the level pavement. It's the wind.
4) It's windy.
5) Watch out for the man.
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I'm actually driven across this bridge many times, strangely enough. I won't tell you exactly why because someone might be on Yelp and that would be bad.
Anyway, it's a cool little bridge for what it is. I'm not exactly sure why they sited it where they did or why they made the approaches so odd. Theoretically, this was all open land when they built this guy, so they could have done a better job and made it longer.
In any case, I actually prefer it to the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge. And the toll collectors on this bridge are always really nice.
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I like this bridge! It's convenient and brings me to where I want to go. Boo for the $4 toll though.
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When I think of the Dumbarton I usually gag, sort like and doing now as I am writing this review. The smell of sulfur and what ever else you got brewing up over in them pink, green, and lets just say "multicolored" salt pounds.... ewww!!! What they hell is that? I mean come the freak on!
Lets see...you get screwed by having to pay a 4 dollar toll to enter East Palo Alto where you might get shot at a stop light. Everytime I drive on the Dumbarton bridge I get the feeling its gonna collapse. When you get to the low lying marsh area you think you are in a sink hole. All this is when you are driving in good weather. If it starts to rain you are gonna die.
An Ode to the Dumbarton:
The Northern brethren bridges
enjoy many Yelp reviews
and much traffic.
But love?
Ha!
Southbayers streaking,
zooming,
whizzing
across the bay.
Oops!
In toll lane with carpool.
"Let Us Go, Mister Tolltaker.
Excuse us for our moronic ways."
NO!!!
Sigh...
Incredibly responsible employee
especially for high occupational suicide rate.
One Dollar, two, three dollar, four.
Streaking,
zooming,
whizzing.
Shhh,
sustain said secret,
silent,
stay away San Mateo scavnegers.
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I take this bridge every day now to get to and from Menlo Park. The traffic is not too bad, and I get to my workplace from my home in Union City in about 20 minutes. At the beginning part with the marsh area, it is smelly, so I try to make sure my car is circulating inside air during that part of the commute. It's not a scenic drive, but gets me from point A to point B.
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The traffic on this bridge has improved significantly since they fixed the Willow and University Avenue entrances/exits. Before it used to be like pulling teeth to get across to the other side, regardless of your direction. I would suggest you get fast track and speed your way through. I often get on to dumbo from the last exit so I don't have enough time to cross over 4 traffic lanes to get into fastrak. Luckily the lines are so short on the right hand side that I can breeze through the regular cash lanes with out much difficulty.
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After getting super lost in the East Bay, I drove over this bridge about 3 in the morning for the first time and it was so SciFi - almost like Escape From New York without all the other cars...
