Gaza protest shuts down Golden Gate Bridge for hours, causing gridlock on both sides of span

The Golden Gate Bridge reopened to site visitors early Monday afternoon following a pro-Palestinian protest that shut down the span in each instructions for hours, in accordance with CHP.

CHP reopened the bridge to southbound site visitors shortly after 12:15 p.m., whereas northbound site visitors was held for a number of minutes as authorities cleared their staging space that occupied these lanes as police and CHP officer arrested protesters. Each instructions had been reopened by round 12:20 p.m.

This concludes the Golden Gate Bridge protest pic.twitter.com/rP0KoRwOeM

— Wilson Walker (@WilsonKPIX) April 15, 2024

CHP mentioned drivers ought to count on residual delays.

The bridge protest was the second demonstration to affect site visitors on Bay Space freeways. It was first reported shortly after 8 a.m., hours after a pro-Palestinian protest closed all lanes on I-880 in Oakland.

Southbound site visitors on the span was at a standstill with site visitors backing up via the Robin Williams Tunnel and effectively previous Sausalito on southbound 101, CHP mentioned.

There was additionally phrase from CHP that protesters had been additionally attempting to dam site visitors on the northbound facet, although autos initially appeared to be getting throughout the span in that path.

Chopper footage of the protest on the Golden Gate Bridge confirmed protesters with a banner that learn “STOP THE WORLD FOR GAZA” throughout the southbound lanes. There was no site visitors seen within the video shifting within the northbound lanes. 

Whereas the protesters had been solely occupying southbound lanes on the bridge, CHP might have closed the northbound lanes as authorities try and clear the protest.

Shortly earlier than 10:30 a.m., video from chopper confirmed protesters being detained, however the bridge remained closed. Drivers within the southbound back-up on Freeway 101 had been being instructed by CHP to show round as authorities tried to clear among the site visitors from the freeway.

At round 11:45 a.m., CHP confirmed that 20 folks had been arrested whole within the two protests. By midday, tow vehicles had been starting to take away the autos that protesters had blocked lanes with from the bridge.

CHP later confirmed they arrested 26 protesters on the Golden Gate Bridge protest. The protesters used chains hid in pipes to attach themselves to one another, slowing the method of clearing the demonstration. A complete of 4 autos had been impounded, CHP mentioned.

The protesters arrested are dealing with quite a lot of costs, together with illegal meeting, remaining at an illegal meeting, refusing to adjust to a lawful order, illegal stopping on a bridge, unlawfully being a pedestrian on a freeway, impeding an officer, conspiracy to commit against the law and false imprisonment.  

An analogous protest blocked site visitors on the Golden Gate Bridge final February. Nonetheless that protest didn’t lead to any arrests and solely closed the freeway briefly.  

The actions had been deliberate as a part of an “financial blockade” coordinated with comparable protests around the globe with disruptions taking place in New York and Chicago. Protesters are hoping to focus on “the worldwide financial system for its complicity in Israel’s ongoing genocide in opposition to the Palestinian folks,” organizers beneath the banner A15Action mentioned.

In accordance with Bay Metropolis Information Service, a further protest is deliberate for midday at UN Plaza and Market and Hyde streets in San Francisco, by the Group Code Pink. One other demonstration by the A15Action group can be deliberate at 5:30 p.m. on the Tesla manufacturing facility in Fremont.