The Golden Gate Bridge reopened to traffic Monday afternoon following a pro-Palestinian protest that closed the span in both directions for hours, according to the CHP.
The CHP reopened the bridge to southbound traffic shortly after 12:15 p.m., while northbound traffic was halted for several minutes as authorities cleared their staging area that occupied those lanes while police and troopers CHP officers arrested protesters. Both directions were reopened around 12:20 p.m.
CHP said drivers should expect residual delays.
The protest on the bridge was the second protest to impact traffic on Bay Area highways. It was first reported shortly after 8 a.m., a few hours after pro-Palestinian protest closed all lanes on I-880 in Oakland.
Southbound traffic on the span was at a standstill, with traffic backing up through the Robin Williams Tunnel and well beyond Sausalito on southbound 101, CHP said.
The CHP also said protesters were also attempting to block traffic on the north side, although vehicles appeared to be crossing the span in that direction.
Helicopter footage of the protest on the Golden Gate Bridge showed demonstrators holding a banner reading “WORLD STOP FOR GAZA” on the southbound lanes. In the video, no traffic was visible in the northbound lanes.
While protesters occupied only the southbound lanes on the bridge, the CHP may have closed the northbound lanes as authorities attempted to evacuate the protest.
Shortly before 10:30 a.m., helicopter video showed protesters being arrested, but the bridge remained closed. Drivers in the southbound emergency lane on Highway 101 were ordered by the CHP to turn around as authorities attempted to clear some traffic from the highway.
Around 11:45 a.m., the CHP confirmed that a total of 20 people had been arrested during the two protests. By midday, tow trucks began removing vehicles with which protesters had blocked the lanes from the bridge.
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The CHP later confirmed that it arrested 28 protesters at the Golden Gate Bridge protest.
A similar protest blocked traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge last February. However, this demonstration did not result in any arrests and only briefly closed the highway.
These actions were planned as part of an “economic blockade” coordinated with similar protests around the world, with disruptions in New York and Chicago. Protesters hope to target “the global economy for its complicity in the ongoing Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people,” organizers under the banner A15Action said.
According to Bay City News Service, an additional protest is planned at noon at UN Plaza and Market and Hyde streets in San Francisco, by the group Code Pink. Another demonstration by the A15Action group is also planned for 5:30 p.m. at the Tesla factory in Fremont.
