CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

MacArthur Maze

interchange in California

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 21, 2026
Entity authorityQ806049
Source-derived summary

The MacArthur Maze (or more simply the Maze; formally, the East Bay Distribution Structure) is a large freeway interchange in Oakland, California. It splits traffic coming off the east end of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge into three freeways: the Eastshore (I-80/I-580), MacArthur (I-580) and Nimitz (I-880).

Description

San Francisco Bay Area traffic funnels across the few bridges spanning the bay, so the Maze's central location near the east end of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge makes it a hub for east–west and north–south traffic to and from San Francisco and Oakland. It sits next to the Port of Oakland, the fourth-busiest container port in the United States.

Four freeways intersect at this interchange:

I-80 west (Bay Bridge)

Interstate 80 from the Maze heads west onto the Bay Bridge across the bay toward San Francisco, where it joins US 101.

I-80 east / I-580 west (Eastshore Freeway) – Berkeley, Sacramento, San Rafael

The Interstate 80/Interstate 580 wrong-way concurrency from the Maze heads north through Berkeley and western Contra Costa County. Just north of the Berkeley-Albany border, about 4 miles (6.4 km) north of the Maze, the concurrency splits. Interstate 80 heads northeast towards Sacramento. Interstate 580 heads northwest towards the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge and eventually to Marin County, where it joins U.S. 101 in San Rafael.

I-580 east (MacArthur Freeway) to SR 24 / I-980 – Downtown Oakland, Walnut Creek, Hayward, Stockton

Interstate 580 from the Maze heads southeast through Oakland.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “MacArthur Maze” as interchange in California. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current 241-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where MacArthur, Maze and interchange can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as interchange in California. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q806049.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “MacArthur Maze”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow MacArthur Maze primary sources, MacArthur Maze archive and MacArthur research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “MacArthur Maze”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from MacArthur Maze” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.