Lefty O’Doul Drawbridge

Lefty O’Doul Drawbridge, also known as the Third Street Bridge, spans Mission Creek in San Francisco’s China Basin area, directly beside Oracle Park. The bascule bridge carries Third Street between China Basin and Mission Bay, and its steel structure, control house and movable span have made it a distinctive part of the city’s waterfront landscape.

The bridge has appeared in several San Francisco-set films, especially action and crime films that use the city’s streets, waterfront and bridges as part of the drama. It is connected to two Clint Eastwood films, “Magnum Force” (1973) and “The Enforcer” (1976), and later became part of the fire-truck chase in the James Bond film “A View to a Kill” (1985). The bridge also appears in the disaster film “San Andreas” (2015).

In “Magnum Force” (1973), the bridge appears during the car chase sequence. Although the moment is brief, the vehicles drive on the Lefty O’Doul Drawbridge, with the industrial China Basin waterfront clearly visible around them. One useful period detail is the old blue China Basin Building in the background, marked with large “China Basin” lettering. That building is no longer there, and the area has since been redeveloped with a more modern white building, making the scene a small visual record of how this part of San Francisco looked in the early 1970s.

In “The Enforcer” (1976), the bridge plays a more direct role in the plot. Wanda, a member of the People’s Revolutionary Strike Force, later forces the bridge operator at gunpoint to raise the drawbridge. The purpose is to detour the mayor’s car, allowing the group to abduct him. This makes the bridge more than a passing background location; its working mechanism becomes part of the film’s action.

In “A View to a Kill” (1985), James Bond and Stacey Sutton’s chaotic fire-truck escape reaches the Lefty O’Doul Drawbridge during the San Francisco chase sequence. The raised bridge becomes part of the stunt-driven action, turning a real piece of city infrastructure into one of the film’s most memorable local set pieces.

In “San Andreas” (2015), the bridge appears as part of the film’s San Francisco setting, where the city’s infrastructure becomes central to the disaster imagery.

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