Bay Bridge closed indefinitely; transit agencies scramble to deal with Wednesday's commute

Bay Area commuters and local transit agencies were struggling Tuesday night to figure out how to deal with the emergency closure of Bay Bridge after a crossbar and rods from emergency Labor Day weekend repair work came loose and struck three vehicles.

Caltrans closed the bridge in both directions at around 7 p.m., and the San Francisco Chronicle and KTVU said officials could not estimate when the bridge would re-open. The pieces crashed across the westbound lanes of the bridge's eastern span, east of Yerba Buena Island, at about 5:30 p.m. Amazingly, only one person sustained minor injuries.

Inspecting the bridge and beginning the repairs was complicated by high winds Tuesday night.

Now, transit officials are trying to figure out how to deal with commute traffic across the region's busiest bridge.

BART would bring in extra operators to run trains, and the Golden Gate Ferry will have an extra high-speed ferry available. Plans for putting more ferries in operation was in the works.