There was a lot of teeth gnashing Wednesday.

Everyone did it: the guy stuck in that 10-mile long back-up trying to get across the Golden Gate Bridge, the woman crammed into a packed BART train next to the kid with bad B.O., and the folks at Caltrans wondering just how a brace installed over the Labor Day weekend to repair a cracked eyebar simply fell apart.

The Bay Area limped along without the Bay Bridge.

Thirty minute commutes turned into 3-hour traffic nightmares, and BART trains, running at maximum length all day , carried tens of thousands more riders than it would on any normal weekday.

Drivers who tried using alternate routes, like the Golden Gate, the Richmond-San Rafael, and the Hayward-San Mateo Bridges were greeted with back-ups that stretched for miles. Traffic in both directions of the Golden Gate Bridge, from the San Francisco approach to the Highway 101-580 interchange was stop and go for more than 5 hours in the afternoon and evening hours.

On the Peninsula, traffic was jammed at the Highway 101-92 interchange for miles, too.

• BAY BRIDGE CLOSURE TWITTER UPDATES: Follow @californiabeat for up-to-the-minute updates on the repair and when the bridge might reopen.
• PLAN YOUR COMMUTE: 511.org Bay Bridge closure page
• RELATED: Bay Bridge closure creates commute nightmare
• RELATED: Bay Bridge to remain closed, reopening date unknown
• RELATED: PHOTOS: Crack in structure may delay Bay Bridge reopening

At the Embarcadero BART station, a steady stream of passengers packed trains and crowded the platform during the afternoon commute. Many decided to head home early to beat the rush of passengers hoping to avoid the crush of people boarding at the 5 o’clock hour.

Apparently, a lot of people had the same idea.

At the peak of the evening rush, all transbay trains were standing room only. Passengers crowded onto already packed trains and squeezed aboard 10-car trains that were filled to the brim, including the first and last cars of the trainset.

BART reported a ridership spike of 50 percent during this morning’s commute.

Transit parking lots were full by 7 a.m. leaving late commuters circling the station looking for an open spot.

Early observations show that the transit agency could very well shatter ridership records because of the Bridge closure.

At San Francisco’s Ferry Building, there was also a steady stream of riders hopping on-board beefed up Ferry service across the Bay. Lines for the Oakland/Alameda and Harbor Bay Ferries built up at the height of the afternoon rush hour.

Others avoided the mess on Highway 101 in Marin County by opting to board Golden Gate Ferry vessels to Larkspur and Sausalito.

Worth noting were the stretches of traditionally busy roadways that were completely free of traffic today. For much of the day, the Embarcadero saw very light traffic. Streets in busy SOMA — especially those that funnel cars onto the Bay Bridge — were generally auto-free and strangely quiet today.

Bicyclists had free reign over Bryant and Harrison Sts., and jaywalking pedestrians dodged fewer cars that normal on the typical weekday.

So, while portions of the Bay Area suffered through today’s closure of the Bay Bridge, it did bring some calm to the frenetic streets of San Francisco by removing some auto traffic from the downtown area.

The bottom-line: we survived. Let’s see if we can do it again Thursday.

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