[11] The site, wholly contained within the city of Oakland, was chosen because it was where major approaches to the Bay bridge were to come together and where tracks from the Southern Pacific, Santa Fe, and Key System railroads intersected.

[12] Film footage of the early Maze can be seen in the 1941 movie Shadow of the Thin Man, as Nick and Nora Charles drive off the Bay Bridge on their way to Golden Gate Fields in Albany.

[13] The enlargement to the Maze was consonant with plans already underway to build the double-deck Cypress Viaduct (which was later incorporated into the Nimitz Freeway, then-signed as SR 17 and later as I-880).

The Cypress Street Viaduct was demolished soon after the earthquake, but a replacement freeway wasn't opened until July 1997, due to lawsuits by environmentalists and local residents.

The truck driver involved suffered second degree burns on his hands but was nonetheless able to walk 1.5 miles (2.4 km) to a gas station, where he found a taxi and was given a ride to Oakland Kaiser Medical Center.

The California Highway Patrol (CHP) initially reported that they suspected that the tanker had been speeding and bounced off a guard rail, leading to the overturn.

[18] The collapse of this bridge cut off the return route from San Francisco for many East Bay commuters (primarily those whose destinations are Walnut Creek and southeastern Oakland).

[20] This was possibly due to commuters switching to alternate transit options, indicated by BART posting record ridership numbers during that time.

[20] Caltrans spokespersons estimated immediately after the accident that it would take weeks to clear the debris from the scene and months to rebuild the affected sections.

However, due to the urgency to reopen such a vital highway link the project was expedited,[21] and most demolition work and debris removal was completed by the Tuesday following the accident.

[17] For a historic comparison, Caltrans did replace a single damaged upper deck panel of the Bay Bridge (after the Loma Prieta earthquake) and the collapsed portion of the I-10 Santa Monica Freeway in Los Angeles (after the Northridge earthquake) in roughly one month by expediting its internal approval process and offering an incentive program for the contractors.