Coronado Bridge opened on August 3, 1969, during San Diego's bicentennial celebration, spanning 2.12 miles of orthotropic steel and box-girder construction across San Diego Bay on 30 reinforced-concrete piers designed by architect Robert Mosher of the firm Mosher Drew. The five-lane structure curves 80 degrees to achieve enough length for a gradual incline to 200 feet of vertical clearance — the height required for aircraft carriers transiting between the naval shipyard and the Pacific — and the approach delivers vehicles via State Route 75 directly to Third Street, minutes from Hotel del Coronado and Orange Avenue. Mosher, who studied under Frank Lloyd Wright, overruled the standard red-paint specification in favor of a custom "San Diego Blue" pigment selected to blend with the bay and sky, a design choice that contributed to the 1970 American Institute of Steel Construction Most Beautiful Bridge Award of Merit. Construction began in February 1967 at a final cost near $48 million, and westbound tolls were collected from opening day until the bridge became toll-free in 2002. The annual Navy Bay Bridge Run/Walk temporarily closes a lane for thousands of participants raising funds for Morale, Welfare, and Recreation programs, and Peohe's at the Coronado Ferry Landing offers direct patio sightlines of the full span. The bridge's moveable-barrier system, installed in 1993, manages a reversible center lane across five travel lanes to accommodate directional traffic flow, processing the daily vehicle crossings that connect Coronado Island's 92118 ZIP code to Interstate 5 on the San Diego mainland.