Sausalito, CA

Sausalito, CA, is a small town on San Francisco Bay just north of the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County. We wanted to avoid the city of San Francisco during the week because of the traffic, so we approached Sausalito from the north. The distance was a little farther than going through the city, but the time was about the same, especially with the potential for heavy traffic in the city.

Just north of Sausalito in Kappas Marina and Waldo Point Harbor is a floating community of about 400 houseboats, some of which are shown in the photo below.

The houseboat community got its start in the late 1940s at the end of WWII. During the war, a large portion of the Sausalito waterfront was turned into shipyards to build Liberty Ships (more about the shipyards later). After the war, portions of the waterfront were sold off, primarily for the purposes of salvaging equipment and material.

In the 1950s, "beatniks" began to occupy abandoned barges and buildings. San Francisco was a favorite destination of hippies in the '60s and '70s, so the inhabitants of the houseboat community grew even more rapidly during that time. There was no zoning on the waterfront, so they built whatever they wanted from whatever materials they could round up.

By the '70s, the alternative community began to clash the wealthy residents who lived on the hill above the bay and with with governmental regulations primarily brought about by environmental concerns around the bay. In the '70s and '80s, the houseboat area underwent a rebuilding and transformation that led to the eclectic mix of styles that exist there today.

The houseboats range from luxurious to marginally habitable. There are a few like the one in the photo below. It's hard to see in the photo, but the barge it's sitting on is all rusted out. It probably won't be floating very much longer.

 

A little farther south of the houseboats is a model of the San Francisco Bay built by the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1950s to test a plan to dam the bay. The model covers one and one half acres, holds 180,000 gallons of water, and mimics the tides and currents of the bay. The idea for the dam died, but the model was subsequently used to study oil spills, pollution, the mixing of salt and fresh water, and various dredging and filling projects. Although computers are used for these types of studies today, the physical model has been maintained as an educational and teaching tool.

On the way to the viewing area for the model, there are displays about the ecology of the bay. These include a display of how the water from snow melt in the Sierra Nevada Mountains flows down to the bay. The water that flows from the mountains is carried to the bay by the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. Approximately 40% of the area of California drains into San Francisco Bay. In the photo below, Margery is pointing out the San Joaquin river.

 

There is a high overlook area where you can see the main part of the model from a height equivalent to flying in a plane at 12,000 feet. You can also walk down and stand at the edge of the water. The photo below shows a portion of the bay model from the water's edge.

San Francisco Bay is actually a series of interconnected bays. The Sacramento and San Jaoquin Rivers flow into Suisun Bay to the east. Honker and Grizzly Bays branch off Suisun Bay. San Pablo Bay lies to the north of the Golden Gate, and South Bay is obviously to the south.

The main part of the San Francisco Bay is 3 to 12 miles wide east to west and between 48 and 60 miles long north to south and covers about 400 square miles. Various other estuaries, river deltas, and wetlands associated with the bay cover even more area. Consequently, the model is huge. You can't see all of it from one location. It has a horizontal scale of 1 foot equals 1,000 feet, but the vertical scale is exaggerated at 1 foot equals 100 feet to better see differences in depth. The model goes through a complete tide cycle every 14.9 minutes.

San Francisco Bay has an average depth of less than 18 feet, although there are many deeper channels. The deepest part of the bay is right at the Golden Gate Bridge where the depth is 300 feet. An average of 390 billion gallons of seawater flows through the Golden Gate with each outgoing and incoming tide. There are two high and two low tides a day.

The bay used to be navigable as far south as San Jose, but hydraulic mining for gold in the 1850s brought tons of sediment down from the mountains. Much of the sediment settled in the South Bay where there is little current.

There are also areas around the model where you can go down so the water is at about waist level. Paul is standing at such a location and pointing out the Golden Gate Bridge in the photo below.

 

The model of San Francisco Bay is built on a site that was part of the shipyards we mentioned earlier. There is a museum in a corner of the building that houses the bay model dedicated to shipbuilding during WWII along the shore of the bay in this area. A company called Marinship was formed to bid on government contracts to build Liberty Ships, which were cargo ships, and tankers. In the photo below, Margery is checking out one of the displays in the shipyard museum.

 

The keel of the first ship was laid only 91 days after the start of construction of the shipyard. In a newsreel-type film shown at the museum, one ship was sliding into the water being launched as a crane simultaneously swung the first steel into place for the keel of the next ship. At the peak, 20,000 workers were employed at Marinship. Marinship built a total of 93 Liberty Ships, oilers, and tankers from June, 1942 until the end of the war in 1945.

On our way out of the museum we stopped at the Corps of Engineers dock along the bay. One of the tasks of the Corps of Engineers is keeping the bay free from floating debris. They have a boat with a large conveyor and a boom with a claw to pick up floating objects.

From the model of the bay, it was only a few minutes farther south to the town of Sausalito. In the mid-1800s, boats could easily reach Sausalito from San Francisco, but wagons had to make the arduous journey all the way around the northern part of the bay. Consequently, Sausalito was generally dominated by two diverse groups who had access to boats - commercial fishermen and wealthy yacht owners. In the late 1800s, the North Pacific Railroad extended its tracks southward to Sausalito, and a ferry across to San Francisco was established.

In 1926, a major auto ferry connected San Francisco and Sausalito, and long lines of cars waiting for the ferry were commonplace. During Prohibition, Sausalito became a major distribution point for illegal booze brought in from Canada.

Sausalito has long attracted artists, writers, and the wealthy. William Randolph Hearst lived here in the early 1900s before he built Hearst Castle in San Simeon to the south. Today, because Sausalito is right at the northern end of the Golden Gate Bridge, it is a popular tourist destination. There are small hotels, restaurants and open-air cafes, high-end shops, and picturesque views of San Francisco from the marinas along the bay. We walked along the bay and around the square where Margery and Molly enjoyed the views.

 

As we said, Sausalito is only a short distance north of the Golden Gate Bridge. The headlands on the north side of the Golden Gate are part of a National Recreation Area, so we drove a little farther south of Sausalito and up to the top of the hill where we could see the bridge.

 

Incidentally, the Golden Gate Bridge has never been painted gold. The bridge gets its name form the Golden Gate, which is the name of the opening across which the bridge is built.

Although the idea for a bridge was not new, the first practical plan took shape in 1916. It took more than a decade to drum up support for the project and to raise funding. There were those who said the bridge could not be built because of the great depth of the water and because of the strong currents. The California Legislature approved the bridge in 1928, but the Stock Market crash of 1929 put the project on hold until a backer for a bond measure could be found. Construction finally started in 1933 and was completed in 1937.

The total length of the bridge is 1.7 miles. The length of the center span is 4,200 feet. When it was built, the Golden Gate Bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world, but it has since been surpassed by 8 other bridges. The center span is still the second longest main span surpassed only by the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in New York City. Based on average high tide level, the clearance under the bridge is 220 feet, and the tops of the towers are 476 feet above the water.

San Francisco is a major seaport. Container shipping has all but replaced bulk cargo, and there were several container ships like the one in the photo below sailing into the bay while we were at the overlook.

 

There was another overlook near the one where we stopped first. The second overlook is on the site of Battery Spencer, which was part of Fort Baker. Fort Baker, along with the Presidio at the south end of the bridge and Alcatraz Island, was an important part of the defense of San Francisco Bay from the late 1800s until the 1940s. Construction of Battery Spencer was started in 1893 and completed in 1897. The photo below shows some of the remaining buildings at Battery Spencer. The circular foundation to the left was for one of three 12-inch, breech-loading guns at Battery Spencer. The last gun was removed in 1943, and Fort Baker was closed in 2000.

 

The next photo is the view of the Golden Gate Bridge from Battery Spencer. San Francisco is visible through the vertical bridge supports to the left.

 

It was a little late in the day, and headed back to the motor home by the northern route rather than drive through the city at the beginning of rush hour. We still hit some rush-hour traffic going through Oakland, but we finally made it back to the motor home. We're really glad we don't have to fight traffic like that every day. After a good night's rest and a day off to catch up on some grocery shopping and chores, we were off on another adventure. We'll tell you all about it in our next post.

Comments

[Randy]

I like your travel blog.

There is very good fishing all over SF bay. Have you traveled around the San Jose area very much? There are some great little treasures in that area. Ever stay at Outdoor World in Belvidere, Ill?