What the sign is telling you
One sign, one word. Here is every status this site can show, what it means for your drive, and how sure we are when we say it.
OPEN
Nothing is stopping you. Both official feeds show the bridge clear and the camera shows the span down.
This is the bridge's normal state most of the day.
SLOW
You can get across, but traffic is backed up — usually the tail of a lift that just finished, a collision, or roadwork on SR-12.
Typically clears within 10–20 minutes of the cause ending.
WAIT — confirmed
The span is up and traffic is stopped. This is confirmed: an official source or the operator has verified it.
A routine boat lift is usually a few minutes, and under ten start to finish. Occasionally longer, and nobody publishes when.
WAIT — unconfirmed report
Someone standing at the bridge told us the span is up, and nothing official has confirmed it yet. The dashed outline is the whole point: same warning, less certainty.
Either an official source confirms it within a few minutes, or the report ages out and the sign returns to its confirmed status.
SHUT
The bridge is closed to traffic — not a lift, a closure. A collision, a mechanical fault, police activity, or scheduled work.
No useful estimate. Plan another route and check back before you head out.
Last confirmed a while ago
Both primary sources have gone quiet, so we can't confirm anything right now. The sign is desaturated and shows the last status we could stand behind, with a bar saying when that was.
Usually a brief feed outage. If it persists, treat the status as unknown and trust your eyes.
Why is one of them dashed?
A solid outline means a status we can stand behind: it came from Caltrans, the Highway Patrol, or an operator who checked.
A dashed outline means a driver at the bridge reported a lift and nothing has confirmed it yet. Routine lifts aren't announced anywhere, so an unconfirmed report is often right — but it is a heads-up, not a verdict.
Community reports never set the status on their own. They can only add the dashed warning on top of an otherwise-OPEN sign; they can never overwrite a confirmed SLOW, WAIT or SHUT.
Where this comes from
Two primary sources decide the status: the Caltrans Lane Closure System and the CHP incident feed. Both are checked every few minutes, and more often while something is happening.
Two supporting sources add context but never set the status on their own: the Caltrans traffic camera at the bridge, which you can look at yourself on the home page, and drivers at the bridge sending reports.
If both primary sources go quiet, we say so rather than guessing — that's the stale treatment above.
Why lifts aren't announced in advance
The span opens for boat traffic on the river, on the boat's schedule. There is no published timetable for routine lifts, and no official real-time status for the bridge anywhere. That is the gap this site exists to fill.
Scheduled maintenance closures are different — when one is published, it shows on the home page under what's coming up.
Sitting at the bridge right now?
Tell the next driver. The report bar on the home page takes one tap — span is raised, traffic is backed up, or everything's moving. You can add a photo if you have a second.
Report what you see →