In an ocean of uncertainty as deep as the waters surrounding the Bay Bridge, only two things are for sure: Repair work on steel parts that failed earlier in the week and fell to the bridge deck moved slowly Friday, and no one could say when the structure would open.

The bridge was closed for Friday's commute and transportation officials said it would remain empty at least through this morning. There were no estimates for an opening day and time, instead Caltrans advised motorists concerned about Monday's commute to check www.511.org over the weekend for updates.

Many of the 280,000 drivers who cross the bridge daily jumped out of their cars and onto BART trains Thursday,

occasioning an all-time high of 442,000 riders and breaking Wednesday's record ridership of 437,200.

Motorists are not the only ones missing the main link between the East Bay and San Francisco. State coffers are also feeling the pain.

Toll revenues from the area's seven state bridges plunged $335,000 on Wednesday compared with the previous Wednesday, according to John Goodwin of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.

The seven bridges took in a total of $453,533 on Wednesday.

"The Bay Bridge accounts for one-third of all toll revenue among the area's seven state bridges," Goodwin said.

There may be a small silver lining for trick-or-treaters and Halloween partyers in the Bay Area as their transit options

for the weekend just got better; if Caltrans does not reopen the bridge by 3 p.m. today, BART will run all-night trains. The hourly trains will run between midnight and 6 a.m. today and midnight and 8 a.m. Sunday at 14 stations. For details, visit www.bart.gov.

On Thursday night and all day Friday, crews custom fit the rods to resist the vibrations that weakened parts installed to fix a brace that failed during a Labor Day weekend closure. The bridge was closed then to install a detour segment.

Several steps must be taken before the bridge reopens.

The four steel rods must be properly aligned. Next, the rods will be tested. Once the tests are passed, enhancements calculated to prevent a future failure will be put in place.

Independent inspectors, including the Federal Highway Administration and Seismic Safety Peer Review, will examine the repairs. Next is cleanup and the long-awaited disappearance of those all-too-familiar orange cones blocking entry to Bay Bridge feeder streets.

In the meantime, Bay Area drivers must party — or, rather, suffer — like it's 1989, when the Loma Prieta earthquake closed the bridge for a month.

Motorists on Friday packed

alternate routes such as Interstate 880 to use the San Mateo and Dumbarton bridges that connect the East Bay to the Peninsula and San Francisco.

In the third day of the closure, drivers either stayed home or changed their travel times to avoid the traffic jams.

Josh Esparza might well be the only Bay Area commuter happy about the closure.

"I take the water taxi to work now," said Esparza, a Coast Guard operations specialist who works on Yerba Buena Island.

"It sure beats driving in traffic." Esparza usually takes the Bay Bridge from Oakland to the island.

Pennsylvania-based American Bridge and Texas-based Fluor Corporation are working on the bridge's self-anchoring suspension span and are allowing Coast Guard personnel to ride on their boats to Yerba Buena Island.

Roman Gokhman contributed to this story.