As we documented in our Apirl Fool’s issue, we find the raise-the-bridge-for-the-pleasure-cruisers policy quite maddening; after all, should a local freeway, an interstate, and an arterial or two be choked up just so a leisure-sailor can see if the water’s really bluer on the other side of the bridge? The skipper of Market Forces thinks so. Nevertheless, as SDOT reminds us today (via the P-I), it’s not a city policy but a federal one. Boats get priority because they were around first. With the exception of the designated no-opening periods (7-9 AM, 4-6 PM), the city can delay a boat’s path across the bridge by no more than ten minutes, per Coast Guard rules. As SDOT roadway structures manager John Buswell tells the P-I, “we are bound by federal law to give vessels the right-of-way; the reason being that marine travel and transport was ‘first in time’ before the automobile.” But doesn’t that bridge carry pedestrians as well? Methinks they preceded the floaties, Coast Guard.