The Golden Gate Bridge reopened to traffic early Monday afternoon after pro-Palestinian protests closed the bridge in both directions for several hours, the CHP said.
The CHP reopened the bridge to southbound traffic shortly after 12:15 p.m., but northbound traffic continued as authorities cleared a holding area that had occupied lanes while police and CHP officers arrested protesters. Traffic was stopped for several minutes.Traffic in both directions resumed by around 12:20 p.m.
The CHP said drivers should expect delays to remain.
The bridge protest was the second demonstration to impact traffic on Bay Area freeways. It was first reported several hours later, just after 8 a.m. All lanes of Interstate 880 in Oakland are closed due to pro-Palestinian protests..
Southbound traffic on this section is backed up through the Robin Williams Tunnel and is backed up well past Sausalito on southbound 101, the CHP said.
The CHP also said protesters were attempting to block traffic on the northbound side, and vehicles appeared to be driving over the bridge in that direction.
Helicopter footage of protests on the Golden Gate Bridge showed protesters crossing southbound lanes holding banners that read “Stop the World for Gaza.” No traffic was seen moving in the northbound lanes in the video.
The demonstrators were only occupying the southbound lanes of the bridge, but the CHP may have closed the northbound lanes as authorities tried to clear the protesters.
Just before 10:30 a.m., footage from a helicopter showed protesters being detained, but the bridge remained closed. Drivers who were backing southbound on Highway 101 were told by the CHP to turn around as authorities tried to clear some traffic from the highway.
At approximately 11:45 a.m., CHP confirmed that a total of 20 people had been arrested in the two protests. By noon, tow trucks had begun removing vehicles from the bridge where demonstrators had blocked lanes.
CBS
similar protests It shut down traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge in February of last year. However, the protests resulted in no arrests and only temporary highway closures.
The action was planned as part of an “economic blockade” in conjunction with similar protests around the world. Organizers under the banner A15 Action said the protesters wanted to target “the global economy as complicit in Israel's ongoing genocide of Palestinians.”
Additional protests by the group Code Pink are planned for midday at San Francisco's United Nations Plaza and Market and Hyde Streets, Bay City News Service reported. Another demonstration by the A15Action group is also scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at the Tesla factory in Fremont.
