LA Executive Director Gene Seroka speaks before the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to evaluate long-term options for replacing or modifying the Vincent Thomas Bridge aboard the Battleship Iowa in San Pedro on Thursday, July 30, 2026. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
From left, LA Mayor Karen Bass, Port of LA Executive Director Gene Seroka, California Secretary of Transportation Toks Omishakin and Caltrans District 7 Director Gloria Roberts sign a Memorandum of Understanding to evaluate long-term options for replacing or modifying the Vincent Thomas Bridge aboard the Battleship Iowa in San Pedro on Thursday, July 30, 2026. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
The two main towers of the Vincent Thomas Bridge have been completed in this 1962 photo looking west from Terminal Island towards San Pedro. The bridge opened to traffic in 1963. (Long Beach Public Library Digital Archive)
A single semi truck is seen at the closed Vincent Thomas Bridge after another truck carrying lithium ion batteries overturned and caught fire on the 47 Freeway in the Port of Los Angeles on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (Photo by Raphael Richardson, Contributing Photographer)
California Gov. Pat Brown, left, and Assemblyman Vincent Thomas, far right, wield shovels at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro as State Senator Richard Richards, second from left, and Lt. Gov. Glenn M. Anderson, second from right, look on. May 28, 1960. (Photo courtesy of USC Digital Library)
Traffic makes its way across the Vincent Thomas Bridge on Wednesday Feb. 21, 2024, as high clouds cover the mountains following Tuesday night’s rain. (Contributing photographer Chuck Bennett)
The Vincent Thomas Bridge spans across from Terminal Island to San pedro March 14,2024 (Contributing photographer Chuck Bennett)
The Norwegian Encore cruise ship is tied up inn San Pedro Thursday November 2, 2023 before heading to Cabo San Lucas. The Vincent Thomas Bridge carries car and trucks in the background.
(Photo by contributing photographer Chuck Bennett)
The contestants of the 14th Annual Conquer the Bridge Race cross the halfway point on the Vincent Thomas bridge in San Pedro, CA on September 4th, 2023. (Photo by Gil Castro-Petres, Contributing Photographer)
A runner stops to take a photo of the harbor during her trek up the Vincent Thomas Bridge on Monday, Sept. 5, 2022, at the annual Labor Day Conquer the Bridge race in San Pedro. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Runners and walkers traverse the Vincent Thomas Bridge as the sun rises on Monday, Sept. 5, 2022, during the annual Labor Day Conquer the Bridge run in San Pedro to raise money for the L.A.P.D. Harbor Area Cadet Program. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Cars & Stripes Forever kicks off the Fourth of July weekend festivities on Friday, July 1, 2022, featuring live music, classic cars and a fireworks show at the foot of the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
More than 2,600 people ventured to San Pedro for the 12th annual Conquer the Bridge race over the Vincent Thomas Bridge Monday, Sept 6, 2021. The 5.3-mile route led runners through the downtown waterfront, across the city’s iconic bridge and back to the finish line at the corner of Harbor Boulevard and 6th Street. (Hunter Lee, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
With the help of the moon, four large container cranes being delivered to the port barely pass under the Vincent Thomas Bridge early Tuesday morning June 23, 2009, as traffic overhead on both sides of the bridge was closed for safety reasons. The ship containing the cranes waited outside the port until low tide which occurred at 4:43 a.m. to give the cranes maximum room to pass under the bridge. Photo by Steven Georges/Press-Telegram
A ship passes under the Vincent Thomas Bridge as the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles are seeing ship cancellations in San Pedro due to the coronavirus on Thursday, March 5, 2020. Money for impacted port workers wasn’t included in the new federal relief package, but could be addressed in a future bill. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
Trucks cross the International Gateway Bridge on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in eye-shot of the Port of Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Trucks transporting containers undergo X-ray scanning at entry gates at the Long Beach Container Terminal (LBCT), one of the most advanced, fully automated container terminals in the U.S., with the Long Beach International Gateway Bridge in the background at the Port of Long Beach, Calif., Thursday, July 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
The Long Beach International Gateway Bridge central support towers and cables frame the sunset recently. (Photo by Chuck Bennett, Contributing Photographer)
The Long Beach International Gateway, originally known as the Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement, is a cable-stayed bridge that carries six lanes of Interstate 710 and a bicycle/pedestrian path in Long Beach, California, west across the Back Channel to Terminal Island. (Contributing photographer Chuck Bennett)
People turn out to ride, walk and jog on the Mark Bixby Memorial Bicycle-Pedestrian Path, which travels across the International Gateway Bridge, on Saturday, May 20, 2023, in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Cyclists and pedestrians coexist with cars and trucks on Saturday, May 20, 2023, as they cross the International Gateway Bridge in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Tom Smith speaking on behalf of American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), at a ‘Cyber Monday’ press conference at Long Beach International Gateway Bridge to recognize successful public infrastructure projects in Long Beach on Monday, November 28, 2022. The event served as the first stop for the national “Engineering and Public Works Roadshow,” highlighting how successful public infrastructure investments can benefit the nation’s economy, jobs and the environment. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
The old Gerald Desmond Bridge sits waiting to be torn down next to the new Long Beach International Gateway Bridge connecting the city of Long Beach and a portion of its port with Terminal Island in Long Beach, CA, on Monday, November 15, 2021. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The Long Beach International Gateway bridge is lit up blue and yellow to show support for Ukraine in Long Beach, CA, on Tuesday, March 1, 2022. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
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LA Executive Director Gene Seroka speaks before the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to evaluate long-term options for replacing or modifying the Vincent Thomas Bridge aboard the Battleship Iowa in San Pedro on Thursday, July 30, 2026. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
When the idea for the Vincent Thomas Bridge was first floated, it was seen by some as pointless — dubbed a “bridge to nowhere.”
But that was 60 years ago.
Now, that 1,500 foot-long, four-lane emerald green suspension bridge is critical for the Port of Los Angeles and motorists in general. The bridge is beyond busy, with steady traffic generated by trucks hauling shipping containers, port union workers traveling in cars to and from work day and night, and by many residents who rely on the span to connect them conveniently between San Pedro and Long Beach, as well as the northbound 710 Freeway to the east.
And with that increasing traffic, the bridge now faces a different problem from when it was first conceived: It has become too small for its time and the needs of the port– and deemed not sufficient for the anticipated growing need. The port has seen 10 million containers processed now in three separate years, record numbers, putting it first among cargo ports throughout the Western Hemisphere. Simply put, the bridge is too small to accommodate all the trucks going to and from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach — and it sits too low for the larger and cleaner contemporary ships to pass under the span.
Today, some 40% of the Port of L.A.’s terminals are located on the north side.
And so, as port officials formally announced on Thursday, July 30, the bridge is in line for a possible replacement, a project that would be a massive undertaking both in its cost and engineering scope.
Port and state officials gathered aboard the Battleship Iowa on Thursday afternoon to sign a partnership that will kick-start the effort. It will involve raising many billions of dollars — early port projections range from $3 to $5 billion.
Also lying ahead will be deep-dive studies on whether a “modification” of the existing span could suffice, months after port Executive Director Gene Seroka floated a proposal to raise the existing bridge. But looking more likely, the port and state will pursue building a new bridge parallel to — and ultimately replacing — the Vincent Thomas Bridge.
“The (memorandum of understanding) gives us a path forward to have conversations about what modification or replacement could look like, whether it’s raising the bridge or expanding it to include more lanes of traffic and a shoulder on each side,” the port said in a Friday, July 31, statement. “The Port envisions a completely new bridge to meet future requirements to be built after re-decking of the current bridge is complete. Community is top of mind here, as we want to minimize the current closure time. It’s important for us to collaborate with our transportation partners, engineering experts and others to get a full picture of what is feasible.”
A new bridge would have the advantage of not only being taller so the larger container vessels (and newer cruise ships) could pass underneath, but it would also be wider, providing a much larger vehicle roadway, six lanes with emergency shoulders on both sides. The Vincent Thomas, comparatively, has four lanes, two in each direction — and nowhere to pull over during an emergency or breakdown.
Some motorists wary of heights have been known to refuse driving on the bridge, which looks straight down from each side to the water far below.
Building a new bridge, however, will be a herculean task. The entire process, including planning, fundraising and construction, is expected to take maybe 10 years. But that’s just the estimate and the actually timing will be determined as the planning process gets underway.
One San Pedro neighborhood council activist has already suggested that a decade might be optimistic.
“That would be lightning speed,” said Doug Epperhart, president of the Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council. “The one thing I’ve heard from everybody is, ‘I wonder if it’s going to happen in my lifetime.’”
That and where is the money coming from, he added.
San Pedro business owner and downtown revitalization board member Yolanda Regalado, however, said she thinks it could move faster than anticipated if everything aligns.
“If they do it right, maybe they can get it up earlier,” said Regalado, who is also an L.A. city fire commissioner.
Most of the comments she’s heard in the community following the announcement have been positive, Regalado said, with many saying it’s simply needed. Traffic is likely to grow with the new L.A. waterfront, which is gradually opening up this summer.
Still, the project for now appears daunting in many ways: It will require, a port spokesperson said, “extensive research,” which will launch now that POLA and the California Department of Transportation has signed the MOU.
The port, Seroka said, has already set aside $5 million to kickstart the research process.
In addition to port, state and private funding that will be sought, the federal government could also provide assistance.
Seroka raised that possibility in June when U.S. Department of Transportation Sean Duffy toured the port and had private conversations about the federal government having a role in the project. At the time, Duffy said he asked Seroka to come up with some more details and indicated that a well-planned project could be something the department would take a look at.
“As you know,” Seroka said in public remarks on the day of Duffy’s visit, “this bridge is 63 years old. I was looking to the secretary for advice” on the federal government’s ability to partner in the collaboration to make the upgrade.
“I’d like to see a new bridge built,” Seroka added that day. “I’d like to see it wider and taller and have safety lanes. But there’s a lot between ‘here and there.’”
Duffy, an attorney and former television personality before becoming the U.S. secretary of transportation in January 2025, indicated an openness to the idea of some assistance in the effort.
“Sometimes communities come to me — and I get it — they say this is a great project, I have a great vision,” he said, but then they ask the federal government fund 100% of it.
While the federal government will sometimes agree to those requests, he said, projects that are already partly self-funded and are seeking additional partnerships will likely find a door in Washington that’s more open.
As for building a new bridge, the neighboring Port of Long Beach has already traveled that arduous road.
The new Long Beach International Bridge opened in 2020 after 10 years of planning. It replaced the smaller, aging Gerald Desmond Bridge, which was in such bad shape that “diapers” had to be installed beneath it to catch falling pieces.
When that bridge was first approved in 2010, it was estimated to cost $950 million. But it ultimately cost $1.46 billion — a 57.9% increase over the initial estimate.
Long Beach harbor Commissioner Bonnie Lowenthal — who also has served in the state Assembly and on the Long Beach City Council — said the bridge planning was lengthy and challenging. She wondered why the Port of Los Angeles didn’t embark on its bridge replacement effort sooner.
Seroka, who addressed that issue on Thursday, said the port had the need on its radar. But first — in order to keep the bridge functioning — the port had to set aside a 16-month period for Caltrans to replace the damaged roadway. That project, which couldn’t be delayed or skipped, has been in the works and planning stages for the past few years and is now ready to launch on Nov. 1.
During Thursday’s signing ceremony aboard the Iowa, Los Angeles Councilmember Tim McOsker said he’s been asked by many residents why the port isn’t moving straight into replacing the bridge rather than waiting for the Caltrans work to be finished. (Seroka did press for Caltrans to consider adding a project that would raise the bridge higher as part of it’s work schedule, but the state rejected that idea.)
He also stressed that the repairs were urgently needed. That way the Vincent Thomas Bridge can remain open during the construction of the larger bridge, which would go up parallel to the current span, Seroka said.
Long Beach, meanwhile, provides a hint about what could be in store for Long Beach.
The initial challenges that faced Long Beach in its bridge replacement process, Lowenthal said, were the basics — finding the money and the engineers.
The rapid growth of port-related traffic and cargo, along with the aging Gerald Desmond Bridge’s deteriorating condition, provided the impetus on the Long Beach side, she recalled in a Friday phone interview.
Once the decision was made, Lowenthal said, “then we moved on to where does the money come from, who were the engineers who could develop it. There were a lot of challenges after (the process) started.”
There was also tons of back-and-forth planning with various agencies, engineers and work crews to execute those plans, all of which also added to the expense.
Unexpected issues will almost certainly come up as work moves forward, Lowenthal said, everything from utility lines and transformer complications to the need for materials that may not be readily available.
The bridge replacement now being discussed at the Port of Los Angeles, she added, will ultimately be “in everyone’s best interest” as both ports continue to grow their cargo capacity.
Epperhart, however, said the Vincent Thomas Bridge, which connects to the 110 Freeway, generally tends to see more car traffic than large trucks hauling cargo containers.
The Long Beach bridge, perhaps because it feeds so directly onto the northbound 710 Freeway, appears to draw more of the heavier port-related traffic, especially since the new and much wider, more substantial Long Beach International Bridge has opened.
The Port of L.A., a spokesperson said in a written response to follow-up questions, will “collaborate with our transportation partners, engineering experts and others to get a full picture of what is feasible.”
The Vincent Thomas Bridge, though, is also unique to the community in many ways, port officials have said. The distinctive green bridge has often appeared in movies and television shows, and commonly has been used as a symbol of San Pedro that is readily recognized. Decorative blue LED lights were added and turned on for the first time in January 2005, a project that took a 17-year community fundraising effort.
“It is a unique landmark with a singular identity here in our port,” the port spokesperson wrote. “Naturally, the discussion around conceptualizing its modernization, raising or replacement includes its own unique set of challenges. There will be no shortage of valuable advice to consider as we move forward with fresh perspective. There are plenty of lessons to be learned from projects around the world and right here at home.
“We’ll balance what we learn with a laser focus on the future of the Port of Los Angeles,” the spokesperson added, “our work force and those who rely on this bridge every single day.”
Probably no one could have envisioned back when the Vincent Thomas Bridge opened how much of a key transit thoroughfare it would ultimately become.
Then-Assemblyman Vincent Thomas, however, had a glimmer of that future.
It was Thomas, first elected in 1940 and anticipating the future growth of the Port of Los Angeles, who made building the bridge from San Pedro to Terminal Island one of his causes. It took 16 pieces of legislation to get the bridge — the first welded suspension bridge in the United States — constructed.
Before that, a harbor ferry took cannery and port workers across the Main Channel to their workplaces on Terminal Island several times a day.
Many mocked the idea of building a vehicular bridge, according to a news article about the bridge’s 50th birthday celebration, saying it would never be used. But as the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach expanded in the 1970s, it began to look like Thomas was right.
Caltrans designed the bridge, which was dedicated on Sept. 28, 1963. It was initially called the “San Pedro-Terminal Island Bridge” but was officially named after the Thomas with a motion by the California Legislature in 1961.
What any new bridge connecting San Pedro to Terminal Island would be named is a question that will probably have to wait — perhaps for a decade or even longer.