1.
Hayward Regional Shoreline
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Hayward Regional Shoreline is a regional park located on the shores of the San Francisco Bay in Hayward, California. It is part of the East Bay Regional Parks system, the 1,713 acre park extends to the shores of San Lorenzo. Part of the park is former commercial salt flats purchased in 1996, a former landfill, now capped with soil and plants, is located in the park. The park includes the 250 acre tidal wetland, Cogswell Marsh, located to the south of the park is the Hayward Shoreline Interpretive Center, which provides information on the Bay shore habitats. The San Francisco Bay Trail runs through the park, which connects the park with San Lorenzo Creek, Hayward Regional Shoreline official web page Hayward Regional Shoreline at the San Francisco Bay Trail Project website
2.
San Francisco Bay Area
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The San Francisco Bay Area is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses the cities and metropolitan areas of San Jose, San Francisco. The Bay Areas nine counties are Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma. The combined statistical area of the region is the second-largest in California, the fifth-largest in the United States, the Bay Area has the second-most Fortune 500 Companies in the United States, and is known for its natural beauty, liberal politics, entrepreneurship, and diversity. The eastern side of the bay, consisting of Alameda and Contra Costa counties, is known locally as the East Bay, the inner East Bay is more densely populated, with generally older buildings, and a more ethnically diverse population. The word Lamorinda was coined by combining the names of the cities it includes, Lafayette, Moraga, walnut Creek is situated east of Lamorinda and north of the San Ramon Valley and, together with Concord, Martinez, and Pleasant Hill comprises Central Contra Costa County. The cities of Antioch, Pittsburg, Brentwood, Oakley and the areas surrounding them comprise East Contra Costa County. The Tri-Valley consists of the Amador, the Livermore, and the San Ramon Valleys, dublin and Pleasanton comprise the Amador Valley, Livermore lies in the Livermore Valley, and the San Ramon Valley consists of Alamo, Danville, Diablo and its namesake, San Ramon. The outer East Bay is connected to the inner East Bay by BART, Interstate 580 to the south, and State Routes State Route 4 to the north, the outer East Bays infrastructure was mostly built up after World War II. This area remains largely white demographically, although the Hispanic and Filipino populations have grown significantly over the past 2–3 decades, the region north of the Golden Gate Bridge is known locally as the North Bay. This area encompasses Marin County, Sonoma County, Napa County, the city of Fairfield, being part of Solano County, is often considered the easternmost city of the North Bay. With few exceptions, this region is affluent, Marin County is ranked as the wealthiest in the state. The North Bay is relatively rural compared to the remainder of the Bay Area, with areas of undeveloped open space, farmland. Santa Rosa in Sonoma County is the North Bays largest city, with a population of 167,815 and a Metropolitan Statistical Area population of 466,891, making it the fifth-largest city in the Bay Area. The North Bay is the section of the Bay Area that is not currently served by a commuter rail service. The area from San Francisco to the Silicon Valley, geographically part of the San Francisco Peninsula, is known locally as The Peninsula, many of these families are of foreign background and have significantly contributed to the diversity of the area. Whereas the term peninsula technically refers to the entire geographical San Franciscan Peninsula, in local terms, San Francisco is surrounded by water on three sides, the north, east, and west. The city squeezes roughly 870,000 people in under 47 square miles, on any given day, there can be as many as 1 million people in the city because of the commuting population and tourism
3.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
4.
Hiking
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Hiking is the preferred term, in Canada and the United States, for a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails, in the countryside, while the word walking is used for shorter, particularly urban walks. On the other hand, in the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland, the word hiking is also often used in the UK, along with rambling, hillwalking, and fell walking. The term bushwalking is endemic to Australia, having been adopted by the Sydney Bush Walkers club in 1927, in New Zealand a long, vigorous walk or hike is called tramping. It is an activity with numerous hiking organizations worldwide. In the United States, Canada, the Republic of Ireland, a day hike refers to a hike that can be completed in a single day. However, in the United Kingdom, the walking is also used, as well as rambling. In Northern England, Including the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales, fellwalking describes hill or mountain walks, hiking sometimes involves bushwhacking and is sometimes referred to as such. This specifically refers to walking through dense forest, undergrowth, or bushes. In extreme cases of bushwhacking, where the vegetation is so dense that human passage is impeded, the Australian term bushwalking refers to both on and off-trail hiking. Common terms for hiking used by New Zealanders are tramping, walking or bushwalking, trekking is the preferred word used to describe multi-day hiking in the mountainous regions of India, Pakistan, Nepal, North America, South America, Iran and in the highlands of East Africa. Hiking a long-distance trail from end-to-end is also referred to as trekking, in North America, multi-day hikes, usually with camping, are referred to as backpacking. The idea of taking a walk in the countryside for pleasure developed in the 18th-century, in earlier times walking generally indicated poverty and was also associated with vagrancy. Thomas West, an English priest, popularized the idea of walking for pleasure in his guide to the Lake District of 1778. To this end he included various stations or viewpoints around the lakes, published in 1778 the book was a major success. Another famous early exponent of walking for pleasure, was the English poet William Wordsworth, in 1790 he embarked on an extended tour of France, Switzerland, and Germany, a journey subsequently recorded in his long autobiographical poem The Prelude. His famous poem Tintern Abbey was inspired by a visit to the Wye Valley made during a tour of Wales in 1798 with his sister Dorothy Wordsworth. Wordsworths friend Coleridge was another keen walker and in the autumn of 1799, he and Wordsworth undertook a three weeks tour of the Lake District. John Keats, who belonged to the generation of Romantic poets began, in June 1818, a walking tour of Scotland, Ireland
5.
Bicycling
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Cycling, also called bicycling or biking, is the use of bicycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. Persons engaged in cycling are referred to as cyclists, bikers, or less commonly, apart from two-wheeled bicycles, cycling also includes the riding of unicycles, tricycles, quadracycles, recumbent and similar human-powered vehicles. Bicycles were introduced in the 19th century and now approximately one billion worldwide. They are the means of transportation in many parts of the world. Cycling is widely regarded as an effective and efficient mode of transportation optimal for short to moderate distances. Cycling also offers a reduced consumption of fuels, less air or noise pollution. These lead to financial cost to the user as well as to society at large. By fitting bicycle racks on the front of buses, transit agencies can significantly increase the areas they can serve, in many countries, the most commonly used vehicle for road transport is a utility bicycle. These have frames with relaxed geometry, protecting the rider from shocks of the road, utility bicycles tend to be equipped with accessories such as mudguards, pannier racks and lights, which extends their usefulness on a daily basis. As the bicycle is so effective as a means of various companies have developed methods of carrying anything from the weekly shop to children on bicycles. Certain countries rely heavily on bicycles and their culture has developed around the bicycle as a form of transport. In Europe, Denmark and the Netherlands have the most bicycles per capita, road bikes tend to have a more upright shape and a shorter wheelbase, which make the bike more mobile but harder to ride slowly. The design, coupled with low or dropped handlebars, requires the rider to bend forward more, making use of stronger muscles, the price of a new bicycle can range from US$50 to more than US$20,000, depending on quality, type and weight. However, UCI regulations stipulate a legal race bike cannot weigh less than 6.8 kg, being measured for a bike and taking it for a test ride are recommended before buying. The drivetrain components of the bike should also be considered, a middle grade dérailleur is sufficient for a beginner, although many utility bikes are equipped with hub gears. If the rider plans a significant amount of hillclimbing a triple-chainrings crankset gear system may be preferred, otherwise, the relatively lighter and less expensive double chainring may be better. Much simpler fixed wheel bikes are also available, many road bikes, along with mountain bikes, include clipless pedals to which special shoes attach, via a cleat, enabling the rider to pull on the pedals as well as push. For basic maintenance and repairs cyclists can carry a pump, a repair kit, a spare inner tube, and tire levers
6.
Jogging
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Jogging is a form of trotting or running at a slow or leisurely pace. The main intention is to physical fitness with less stress on the body than from faster running. Performed over long distances, it is a form of aerobic endurance training, Jogging is running at a gentle pace. The definition of jogging as compared with running is not standard, one definition describes jogging as running slower than 6 miles per hour. The word jog originated in England in the mid-16th century, the etymology of the word is unknown, but it may be related to shog or have been a new invention. In 1593, William Shakespeare wrote in Taming of the Shrew, at that point, it usually meant to leave. The term jog was often used in English and North American literature to describe short quick movements and it is also used to describe a quick, sharp shake or jar. Richard Jefferies, an English naturalist, wrote of joggers, describing them as quickly moving people who brushed aside as they passed. In the United States jogging was called roadwork when athletes in training, such as boxers, in New Zealand during the 1960s or 1970s, the word roadwork was mostly supplanted by the word jogging, promoted by coach Arthur Lydiard, who is credited with popularizing jogging. Since they would be jogging, the newspaper suggested that the club may be called the Auckland Joggers Club—which is thought to be the first use of the noun jogger. University of Oregon track coach Bill Bowerman, after jogging with Lydiard in New Zealand in 1962, published the book Jogging in 1966, in March 2014, jogging was banned in Burundi due to fears it was being used as a cover for subversion. Jogging may also be used as a warm up or cool down for runners and it is often used by serious runners as a means of active recovery during interval training. For example, a runner who completes a fast 400 metre repetition at a mile pace may drop to an 8-minute mile jogging pace for a recovery lap. Jogging can be used as a method to increase endurance or to provide a means of cardiovascular exercise, according to a study by Stanford University School of Medicine, jogging is effective in increasing human lifespan, and decreasing the effects of aging, with benefits for the cardiovascular system. Jogging is useful for fighting obesity and staying healthy, the National Cancer Institute has performed studies that suggest jogging and other types of aerobic exercise can reduce the risk of lung, colon, breast and prostate cancers, among others. It is suggested by the American Cancer Society that jogging for at least 30 minutes five days a week can help in cancer prevention, Jogging outdoors is a better way to improve energy levels and advance mood than using a treadmill at the gym. Jogging also prevents muscle and bone damage that occurs with age, improves heart performance and blood circulation. A Danish study released in 2015 reported that light and moderate jogging were associated with reduced mortality compared to both non-jogging and strenuous jogging
7.
Rollerblading
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Inline skating is a sport practiced widely internationally. Inline skates typically have 2 to 5 polyurethane wheels, arranged in a single line, the in-line design allows for greater speed than roller skates and better maneuverability. The in-line wheels are coupled with boots designed for skating over, inline-skating is practiced and performed using inline skates designed for race tracks, skate parks, Urban areas, and off-road. Inline skating is known as roller blading due to the popular brand of inline skates. A term used to refer to inline skates on a vert ramp, vert skating is a form of gymnastics performed with skates. The purpose of vert skating is to higher than the coping. It focuses on complicated aerial maneuvers, such as spins. The intent of the skater is to speed until they are of sufficient height above the edge of the ramp to perform various aerial acrobatics. In competitions skaters have limited time, often less than a minute, to impress the judges by landing numerous, the sport was included in the first X Games in 1995. Vert skating is used in a lot of such as the X Games. Vert ramps are present in most skateparks of today. In addition to speed, fitness, artistic, or skating for fun, types of aggressive skating include Park and Street. The range of size for aggressive inline skates range from 40mm to 72mm. Park skating refers to doing tricks within a skatepark, meaning a space that is designed for skating, designed, Street skating specifically refers to tricks performed on non-allocated obstacles. Freestyle skating is a form of inline skating performed on flatland, currently the IFSA has defined three disciplines which must be offered by any competition they sanction, freestyle slalom, speed slalom, and free jump. Two additional disciplines, high jump and jam, are also defined, hockey performed in a special rink on inline skates Originally thought up by ice hockey players who wanted to continue training in their off season. Hockey rollerblades have wheel sizes generally in the 70-78mm range, the toe end of the boot is characteristically squared off
8.
Birdwatching
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Birdwatching, or birding, is a form of wildlife observation in which the observation of birds is a recreational activity. It can be done with the eye, through a visual enhancement device like binoculars and telescopes, by listening for bird sounds. Birdwatching often involves a significant auditory component, as bird species are more easily detected and identified by ear than by eye. Most birdwatchers pursue this activity for recreational or social reasons, unlike ornithologists, the first recorded use of the term birdwatcher was in 1891, bird was introduced as a verb in 1918. The term birding was also used for the practice of fowling or hunting with firearms as in Shakespeares The Merry Wives of Windsor and her husband goes this morning a-birding. The terms birding and birdwatching are today used by some interchangeably, although some participants prefer birding, in North America, many birders differentiate themselves from birdwatchers, and the term birder is unfamiliar to most lay people. At the most basic level, the distinction is perceived as one of dedication or intensity, generally, self-described birders perceive themselves to be more versed in minutiae like identification, molt, distribution, migration timing, and habitat usage. Indeed, in 1969 a Birding Glossary appeared in Birding magazine which gave the following definitions, the acceptable term used to describe the person who seriously pursues the hobby of birding. A hobby in which individuals enjoy the challenge of bird study, listing, a rather ambiguous term used to describe the person who watches birds for any reason at all, and should not be used to refer to the serious birder. Twitching is a British term used to mean the pursuit of a previously located rare bird, in North America it is more often called chasing, though the British usage is starting to catch on there, especially among younger birders. The term twitcher, sometimes misapplied as a synonym for birder, is reserved for those who travel long distances to see a bird that would then be ticked. The term originated in the 1950s, when it was used for the behaviour of Howard Medhurst. Prior terms for those who chased rarities were pot-hunter, tally-hunter, the main goal of twitching is often to accumulate species on ones lists. Some birders engage in competition to accumulate the longest species list, the act of the pursuit itself is referred to as a twitch or a chase. A rare bird that stays put long enough for people to see it is twitchable or chaseable, twitching is highly developed in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland, Finland and Sweden. The size of these makes it possible to travel throughout them quickly. The most popular twitches in the UK have drawn large crowds, for example, approximately 2,500 people travelled to Kent, England, to view a golden-winged warbler, twitchers have developed their own vocabulary. For example, a twitcher who fails to see a bird has dipped out, if other twitchers do see the bird
9.
Environmental Education
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Environmental education refers to organized efforts to teach how natural environments function, and particularly, how human beings can manage behavior and ecosystems to live sustainably. It is a multi-disciplinary field integrating disciplines such as biology, chemistry, physics, ecology, earth science, atmospheric science, mathematics, the term often implies education within the school system, from primary to post-secondary. However, it includes all efforts to educate the public and other audiences, including print materials, websites, media campaigns. Engaging with citizens of all demographics to,2, think critically, ethically, and creatively when evaluating environmental issues,3. Make educated judgments about those issues,4. Develop skills and a commitment to act independently and collectively to sustain and enhance the environment, to enhance their appreciation of the environment, resulting in positive environmental behavioural change. Environmental education has crossover with other disciplines. These fields of education complement environmental education yet have unique philosophies, specifically, CCE needs to help learners develop knowledge, skills and values and action to engage and learn about the causes, impact and management of climate change. Science Education focuses primarily on teaching knowledge and skills, to develop innovative thought in society, outdoor Education relies on the assumption that learning experiences outdoors in ‘nature’ foster an appreciation of nature, resulting in pro-environmental awareness and action. Outdoor education means learning in and for the outdoors, garden-based learning is an instructional strategy that utilizes the garden as a teaching tool. Inquiry-based Science is an open style of teaching in which students follow scientific steps in a similar manner as scientists to study some problem. Often used in biological and environmental settings, while each of these educational fields has their own objectives, there are points where they overlap with the intentions and philosophy of environmental education. Several decades later, Louis Agassiz, a Swiss-born naturalist, echoed Rousseau’s philosophy as he encouraged students to “Study nature, not books. ”These two influential scholars helped lay the foundation for an environmental education program, known as nature study. The nature study movement used fables and moral lessons to help develop an appreciation of nature. A new type of education, Conservation Education, emerged as a result of the Great Depression. Conservation Education dealt with the world in a drastically different way from Nature Study because it focused on rigorous scientific training rather than natural history. Conservation Education was a scientific management and planning tool that helped solve social, economic. The modern environmental movement, which gained significant momentum in the late 1960s and early 1970s, stems from Nature Study
10.
San Francisco Bay
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San Francisco Bay is a shallow estuary in the U. S. state of California. It is surrounded by a region known as the San Francisco Bay Area, dominated by the large cities San Francisco, Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water from approximately 40 percent of California and it then connects to the Pacific Ocean via the Golden Gate strait. However, this group of interconnected bays is often called the San Francisco Bay. The bay was designated a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance on February 2,2013, the bay covers somewhere between 400 and 1,600 square miles, depending on which sub-bays, estuaries, wetlands, and so on are included in the measurement. The main part of the bay measures 3 to 12 miles wide east-to-west and it is the largest Pacific estuary in the Americas. Later, wetlands and inlets were filled in, reducing the Bays size since the mid-19th century by as much as one third. Recently, large areas of wetlands have been restored, further confusing the issue of the Bays size, despite its value as a waterway and harbor, many thousands of acres of marshy wetlands at the edges of the bay were, for many years, considered wasted space. As a result, soil excavated for building projects or dredged from channels was often dumped onto the wetlands, from the mid-19th century through the late 20th century, more than a third of the original bay was filled and often built on. The idea was, and remains, controversial, there are five large islands in San Francisco Bay. Alameda, the largest island, was created when a shipping lane was cut in 1901 and it is now predominantly a bedroom community. Angel Island was known as Ellis Island West because it served as the point for immigrants from East Asia. It is now a park accessible by ferry. Mountainous Yerba Buena Island is pierced by a tunnel linking the east and west spans of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, attached to the north is the artificial and flat Treasure Island, site of the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition. From the Second World War until the 1990s, both served as military bases and are now being redeveloped. Isolated in the center of the Bay is Alcatraz, the site of the federal penitentiary. The federal prison on Alcatraz Island no longer functions, but the complex is a popular tourist site, despite its name, Mare Island in the northern part of the bay is a peninsula rather than an island. During the last ice age, the now filled by the bay was a large linear valley with small hills
11.
Bay Area Ridge Trail
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The Bay Area Ridge Trail is a planned 550-mile multi-use trail along the hill and mountain ridgelines ringing the San Francisco Bay Area, in Northern California. When complete, the trail will connect over 75 parks and open spaces, the trail is being designed to provide access for hikers, runners, mountain bicyclists, and equestrians. It will be accessible through trailheads near major population centers, while the trail will extend into more remote areas, the first trail section was dedicated on May 13,1989. The plan would later attract bipartisan support, with George Miller joining Mott, later that year, a planning committee was formed with membership from nearly 40 public agency, recreation groups, and individuals. Eventually, this became the Bay Area Ridge Trail Council. Dinesh Desai, an engineer, and Bob Cowell, a retired fire chief, completed the first hike of the Ridge Trail in 1999. The pair followed existing trails and planned alignment where no trails existed, existing trails in public open spaces were incorporated into the Ridge Trail, enabling it to reach 100 miles by 1990 and 200 miles by 1995. By 1999,217 miles of the Ridge Trail had been completed,10 miles of the Ridge Trail were added in 2005, including a new bridge over San Geronimo Creek, at that point the Ridge Trail had completed 285 miles. The section of Ridge Trail through Crockett Hills Regional Park in Contra Costa County, as of 2015, the Ridge Trail stands at 365 miles completed. The section of the trail runs through San Francisco has been completed. Large sections of the trail through San Mateo, Marin, Contra Costa, much of the remaining mileage is on private property in Santa Clara, Sonoma, and Napa and may require land acquisition and/or easements to expand the trail across these properties. The planned alignment of the Ridge Trail extends as far north as Calistoga and Angwin, BARTC initially was supported by the Greenbelt Alliance, but incorporated in 1991 as a 501 nonprofit under co-chairs Brian ONeill and Marcia McNally. The Council office is located in The Presidio, San Francisco, San Francisco Bay Trail Rusmore, Jean. Bay Area Ridge Trail, The Official Guide for Hikers, Mountain Bikers, the Country in the City, The Greening of the San Francisco Bay Area. Seattle, Washington, University of Washington Press
12.
San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge
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San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge is a 13, 190-acre National Wildlife Refuge in California established in 1970. It extends along the shore of San Pablo Bay, from the mouth of the Petaluma River, to Tolay Creek, Sonoma Creek. The refuge encompasses the largest remaining patch of pickleweed-dominated tidal marsh in the northern San Francisco Bay. Historically, the wetlands surrounding San Pablo Bay were one of the largest tidal marsh complexes on the Pacific Coast of North America. However, the area has significantly impacted by human activities such as hydraulic mining, salt production, diking, draining, filling, agriculture. All told, about 85% of San Pablo Bays tidal marshes have been altered, the Refuge includes a variety of habitats including open water, mud flat, tidal marsh, estuary, and seasonal and managed wetlands. The refuge hosts millions of shorebirds and waterfowl, including the largest wintering population of canvasbacks on the west coast. The Refuge also provides habitat for sensitive species including the endangered California clapper rail. Public access to the refuge is provided by the Tolay Creek Tubbs Island Trail and this article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Provides a brief history of the marshes of San Pablo Bay
13.
Napa River
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The Napa River, approximately 55 miles long, is a river in the U. S. state of California. It drains a famous wine-growing region, called the Napa Valley, milliken Creek and Mt. Veeder watersheds are a few of its many tributaries. The mouth is at Vallejo where the inter-tidal zone of fresh, the Napa River rises in northwestern Napa County just south of the summit of Mt. St. Helena in the Mayacamas Mountains of the California Coast Ranges. The source begins as seasonal Kimball Canyon Creek in Robert Louis Stevenson State Park at an elevation of 3,745 feet which descends the slope of Mt. St. Helena to Kimball Canyon Dam. It flows south for 4 miles, entering the head of the slender Napa Valley north of Calistoga, in the valley, it flows southeast past Calistoga, St Helena, Rutherford, Oakville and through Napa, its head of navigation. Downstream from Napa, it forms an estuary, entering Mare Island Strait. It discharges into San Pablo Bay through the Napa Sonoma Marsh, the Napa River watershed encompasses approximately 426 square miles. Larger tributaries, such as Dry, Conn, and Soda creeks, several large dams were built between 1924 and 1959 on major eastside tributaries and the northern headwaters of the Napa River. In addition, many smaller dams can be throughout the watershed. These numerous dams are barriers to salmon and steelhead seeking their historic spawning grounds. The river also supports a diversity of fishes and recovering salmonid populations, especially chinook salmon. In 2003 the Napa County Resource Conservation District began an ongoing monitoring program. The Chinook run begins in late October through January, the Napa River basin is estimated to have historically supported a spawning run of 6, 000–8,000 steelhead, and as many as 2, 000–4,000 coho salmon. By the late 1960s, coho salmon were extirpated from the watershed, flow reductions in key rearing streams have reduced food availability for juvenile steelhead, causing reduced growth and survival. Recently, a salmon was caught in the river. In addition, a fourth species, sockeye salmon, was also identified in the Napa River. Because of this diversity the Napa River has been prioritized for special protection, white sturgeon and many other native and non-native fishes currently utilize the Napa River watershed. The California golden beaver was historically extant, recently beaver have recolonized the Napa River and have been documented in Napa as well as near Rutherford and Oak Knoll
14.
Petaluma River
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The Petaluma River is a river in the California counties of Sonoma and Marin that becomes a tidal slough for the majority of its length. The headwaters are in the area southwest of Cotati, the word Petaluma may derive from the Miwok words pe’ta, flat, and luma, back. The Miwok people lived in Sonoma County for more than 2500 years, Petaluma was the name of a village on a low hill east of Petaluma creek and north east of the present day town of Petaluma. The first recorded exploration of the Petaluma River was by Captain Fernando Quiros in October,1776, located in southern Sonoma County, California, and a portion of northeastern Marin, the Petaluma River Watershed drains 146 square miles. The watershed is approximately 19 miles long and 13 miles wide with the City of Petaluma near its center, the lower 12 miles of the Petaluma River flow through the Petaluma Marsh, the largest remaining salt marsh in San Pablo Bay. The marsh covers 5,000 acres and is surrounded by approximately 7,000 acres of reclaimed wetlands, in the marshes west of Lakeville, the river is joined by San Antonio Creek, at which point it becomes the boundary between Marin County and Sonoma County. The river flows under State Route 37 at Green Point and enters northwest San Pablo Bay just north of Petaluma Point, while the rivers source lies over 300 ft above sea level, it descends to 50 ft within about 0.4 mi. The river is fully tidal 11 mi from its mouth, indicating its slight gradient through the marshes below Petaluma, the United States Army Corps of Engineers dredges this section to keep it navigable by gravel barges and pleasure craft. The Petaluma River Watershed hosts several federally endangered animals including the salt marsh harvest mouse, endangered flora include soft bird’s-beak, Baker’s stickyseed, Burke’s goldfields, showy Indian clover, and Sebastopol meadowfoam. Steelhead that spawn and rear in the Petaluma River watershed are wild, not hatchery, Chinook salmon are seen in the main stem of the Petaluma River and The United Anglers of Casa Grande High School have seen chinook at the turning basin, near the Lynch Creek confluence. The high school constructed a salmonid hatchery in 1993 and in 200274 Chinook salmon returned to spawn in the Adobe Creek tributary. The marshes provide an important wildlife habitat and fish hatchery, however, since the onset of intensive immigration in the mid-1850s, the water quality has diminished, partly due to overgrazing and other agricultural uses. Pollutants present in the river include nitrates, phosphates, petroleum hydrocarbons, pesticides, urban runoff, particularly from the City of Petaluma, adds heavy metals and hydrocarbons to the river. Starting about 1990, material steps were taken to mitigate the pollution, because the Petaluma River is relatively well-protected, most of the pollution comes from nearby storm drains. It is up to the people of Petaluma to keep the river clean, because most of the length of the waterway is tidal and urban/suburban, there is a significant collection of tidally deposited debris along the banks. Despite the poor aesthetics including turbidity, the quality is not particularly poor. It has been alleged that the greatest threat to the Petaluma River is the planned Dutra asphalt plant, the reported concerns involve the loud noises it will create that will scare away the birds and throw off the entire ecosystem. The longest highway span, the 4-lane Route 37 bridge, is 2,183 ft long and was built in 1958, the oldest public bridge, built in 1925, is a 114 ft concrete triple span carrying two lanes of Petaluma Boulevard North
15.
Benicia State Recreation Area
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Benicia State Recreation Area is a state park unit of California, USA, protecting tidal wetland. It is located in Solano County 2 miles west of downtown Benicia, the park covers 447 acres of marsh, grassy hillsides and rocky beaches along the narrowest portion of the Carquinez Strait. Southampton Creek and the tidal marsh front Southampton Bay, where the waters of the Sacramento. The cove is noted as J on Cañizares famous 1781 Map of San Francisco Bay, the present name, Southampton Bay, is for the Navy frigate Southampton, which Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones sailed, along with a small fleet, to the cove in 1849. The sandstone point at Benicia SRA has been known as Rocky Point, Quarry Point, stonecutter Patrick Dillon came to California from Tipperary, Ireland, during the 1849 California Gold Rush, settling in Benicia in 1851. General Vallejo leased Dillon the tidal flat at Southampton Bay and Rocky Point peninsula for a sandstone quarry, when the sandstone played out, the Dillon family and subsequent owners raised sheep and grapes until the State acquired the property in 1967. The Southampton Bay Wetland Natural Preserve makes up 70% of the park, the Southampton mudflat formed eroded upriver silt and clay deposits exceeds 1,000 feet thick. The principal habitats here are marsh, saltwater marsh and freshwater marsh. This rare and endangered wetland ecosystem is covered with plants such as salt grass, pickleweed, coyote bush. Bird’s-beak is an endangered gray-green annual herb in the snapdragon family, park mammals include the federally endangered northern salt marsh harvest mice. Other mammals living in the park are coyote, river otter, muskrat, the beaver probably migrated from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in 2007. Historically, before the California Fur Rush of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It was Californias early fur trade, more than any single factor, that opened up the West. In 1840, explorer Captain Thomas Farnham wrote that There is probably no spot of equal extent in the continent of America which contains so many of these muchsought animals. Benicia SRA has been designated an Important Bird Area, providing habitat for endangered California clapper rails, other uncommon species include Virginia rails, Suisun song sparrows and salt marsh common yellowthroat. On their journey along the Pacific Flyway, many waterfowl winter in the park, cyclists, runners, walkers and roller skaters enjoy the parks 2.5 miles of road and bike paths. The Hike and Bike Trail—two parallel, paved, accessible trails—begins at the Military West entrance and runs 0.75 miles to the park entrance. The trail system is part of the Bay Area Ridge Trail, most popular is the 1. 5-mile-long walk out to Dillon Point on the park road
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Carquinez Bridge
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The Carquinez Bridge refers to parallel bridges spanning the Carquinez Strait, forming part of Interstate 80 between Crockett and Vallejo, in the U. S. state of California. The name originally referred to a cantilever bridge built in 1927. A second parallel bridge was completed in 1958 to deal with the increased traffic. Later, seismic problems of the 1927 span led to the construction and 2003 opening of a replacement, currently, the Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge carries westbound traffic from Vallejo to Crockett, and the 1958 cantilever span carries eastbound traffic. The first regular crossing of the Carquinez Strait began in the mid-1800s as a ferry operated between the cities of Benicia and Martinez, six miles upstream from the bridge site, auto service started on this route in 1913. A train ferry operated between Benicia and Porta Costa from 1879 until 1930 when a bridge opened. Ferry service at the site of the started in 1913 by the Rodeo-Vallejo Ferry Company. The original steel bridge was designed by Robinson & Steinman. Prior to this, crossing the Carquinez Strait necessitated the use of ferries, the bridge cost $8 million to build. It was the first major crossing of the San Francisco Bay, upon its completion, the span became part of the Lincoln Highway. This historic transcontinental roadways original alignment, like the Transcontinental Railroad that preceded it nearly sixty years earlier, for decades, building a bridge here was considered prohibitively expensive and technologically risky. Once the bridge was however, driving from Sacramento to the East Bay became much more direct. The Carquinez Bridge provided an alternative route from the Central Valley to the Bay Area, one that no longer required loading ones vehicle onto. During demolition, the 3, 000-pound bronze bell atop one of the Carquinez Bridge piers was removed and placed into storage, the bell will eventually be displayed in a new museum to be built at the Oakland end of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. In 1958, at a cost of $38 million a second bridge was built alongside and this new span, nearly identical to the first, was needed to accommodate the ever-increasing levels of traffic. The three-lane 1927 span, originally two-way, now served only westbound drivers while the 1958 span handled eastbound traffic. In 2003, as a resolution to seismic problems of the aging 1927 span brought to light after the Loma Prieta earthquake and this span features a pedestrian and bicycle path, part of a bike trail which it is hoped will eventually circle the entire Bay Area. The bridge was dedicated on November 8,2003 and opened for traffic on November 11, the new suspension bridge, to the west of the earlier bridges, has spans of 147 m,728 m, and 181 m
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Martinez Regional Shoreline
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Martinez Regional Shoreline is a regional park on the shoreline of Carquinez Strait in Martinez, located in northwestern Contra Costa County, California. The park is part of the East Bay Regional Park District system, in the eastern section of the park there are group picnic areas, softball fields, bocce ball courts, and soccer fields. In the western section there are lawns, small family picnic areas, ponds and creeks. The 500 miles long San Francisco Bay Trail passes through the park, the Carquinez Strait Regional Shoreline continues to the west along Carquinez Strait, through Port Costa to Crockett and the Crockett Hills Regional Park. Parks in Contra Costa County, California East Bay Regional Park District, official Martinez Regional Shoreline website
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Martinez station
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Martinez is an Amtrak passenger train station in Martinez, California, United States, the county seat of Contra Costa County. The station was opened in September 2001, superseding an earlier building that still stands a couple of blocks to the east. Prior to the creation of Amtrak on May 1,1971, the station is served by local County Connection bus service and connecting service from WestCAT, and Tri-Delta Transit, as well as an Amtrak Thruway Bus Service. The station includes a center for buses, passenger drop off and pick-up zones, a taxi stand. The station is served by 42 Amtrak passenger trains each weekday and 34 per day on the weekends, the Capitol Corridor service runs between San Jose, CA and Sacramento, CA and offers 30 trains per weekday. The San Joaquin service offers 8 trains daily between Oakland, CA and Bakersfield, CA, the California Zephyr and the Coast Starlight each operate one train daily in each direction. Of the 74 California stations served by Amtrak, Martinez was the sixth-busiest in fiscal 2013 and this Station is located in Contra Costa County. County Connection is the transit agency charged with providing bus service. Route 98X offers a bus service to the Walnut Creek BART station. Routes 3,16,18,19, and 28 provide local bus service to the Concord, North Concord/Martinez, and Pleasant Hill BART stations, as well as points in between, including Diablo Valley College. There is an Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach service to McKinleyville, CA300 miles to the north of Martinez, via Vallejo, Napa, Santa Rosa, Ukiah, Garberville, Amtrak – Stations – Martinez, CA Martinez Amtrak Station Martinez -Great American Stations
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Amtrak
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Founded in 1971 to take over most of the remaining U. S. passenger rail services, it is partially government funded yet operated and managed as a for-profit corporation. Amtrak serves more than 500 destinations in 46 states and three Canadian provinces, operating more than 300 trains each day over 21,300 miles of track, some track sections allow trains to run as fast as 150 mph. In fiscal year 2015, Amtrak served 30.8 million passengers and had $2.185 billion in revenue, nearly two-thirds of passengers come from the 10 largest metropolitan areas, 83% of passengers travel on routes shorter than 400 miles. Its headquarters is at Union Station in Washington, D. C, the name Amtrak is a portmanteau of the words America and trak, the latter itself a sensational spelling of track. From the mid-19th century until about 1920, nearly all intercity travelers in the United States moved by rail, historically, U. S. passenger trains were owned and operated by the same privately owned companies that operated freight trains. About 65,000 railroad passenger cars operated in 1929, from 1920 into the later 20th century, passenger rails popularity diminished and there was a series of pullbacks and tentative recoveries. Rail passenger revenues declined dramatically between 1920 and 1934 because of the rise of the automobile, in the same period, many travelers were lost to interstate bus companies such as Greyhound Lines. However, in the mid-1930s, railroads reignited popular imagination with service improvements and new, diesel-powered streamliners, such as the gleaming silver Pioneer Zephyr and Flying Yankee. Even with the improvements, on a basis, traffic continued to decline. World War II broke the malaise, passenger traffic soared sixfold thanks to troop movements, in 1946, there remained 45 percent fewer passenger trains than in 1929, and the decline quickened despite railroad optimism. Passengers disappeared and so did trains, few trains generated profits, most produced losses. Broad-based passenger rail deficits appeared as early as 1948, and by the mid-1950s, by 1965, only 10,000 rail passenger cars were in operation,85 percent fewer than in 1929. Passenger service was provided on only 75,000 miles of track, the 1960s also saw the end of railway post office revenues, which had helped some of the remaining trains break even. The causes of the decline of rail in the United States were complex. Until 1920, rail was the practical form of intercity transport. By 1930, the companies had constructed, with private funding. In 1916, the amount of track in the United States peaked at 254,251 miles, some rail routes had been built primarily to facilitate the sale of stock in the railroad companies, they were redundant from the beginning. These were the first to be abandoned as the financial positions deteriorated
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Marin Civic Center
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The Marin County Civic Center, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, is located in San Rafael, California, United States. Groundbreaking for the Civic Center Administration Building took place in 1960, after Wrights death and under the watch of Wrights protégé, Aaron Green, the Hall of Justice was begun in 1966 and completed in 1969. Veterans Memorial Auditorium opened in 1971, and the Exhibit Hall opened in 1976, located away from the former county seat in downtown San Rafael, the expansive complex stretches across two valleys just east of US101. Its pink stucco walls, blue roof and scalloped balconies are distinctive, the smaller wing is the county administration building and the larger the Hall of Justice, joined by a round structure on a small hill that houses a county library. A battle between factions of the Marin County Board of Supervisors played out through the selection of the site and the architect, the financing of the project, the Marin County Civic Center is a state and National Historic Landmark. The main Civic Center building has been nominated for the UNESCO World Heritage List as a part of ten properties by Frank Lloyd Wright, the nearby fairgrounds host the Marin Sonoma Concours d’Elegance each spring, they host the Marin County Fair each July. The selection of Frank Lloyd Wright in 1957 to design the Civic Center was controversial, the Civic Center project was Wrights largest public project, and encompassed an entire campus of civic structures. The post office was the federal government project of Wrights career. Wrights design borrowed ideas and forms from Wrights Broadacre City concept, the Hall of Justice spans a small valley, arching twice over an access road and a parking area, while the Administration Building spans a smaller ravine. Both structures are entered through archways on their lower levels, the long principal facades are marked by shallow non-structural arches of decreasing span with each story. The arches, which are framed in metal with a stucco appliqué, on the intermediate level they appear to stand on short slender gold-anodized columns, and on the top level they become round openings with gold railings directly under the deep roof overhang. The railings themselves have a circular pattern, interior guardrails at the atrium are solid stucco with no metal elements. Entrances are controlled by vertical grills of gold-anodized metal with rounded tops and bottoms, the eaves are embellished with an arched fascia with small gold balls inset in each arch, a pattern repeated in the atria. The rotunda on the central hill houses the county library and a central cafeteria and its 172-foot gold spire was meant to house a radio transmitter, as well as the boiler plants chimney. The interiors are arranged around open atria or malls as Wright called them, originally open to the sky, the malls were later covered with skylights designed by William Wesley Peters. Interior spaces featured glass walls to light to penetrate from the exterior and the atrium. Wrights concept envisioned a gold-colored roof, which proved to be impossible to obtain in a long-lasting material, after Wrights death, Olgivanna Wright chose a bright blue color that would weather well, gaining a softer color with age. The color choice, together with the stucco walls, was initially controversial
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Hercules Station & Terminal
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Hercules Amtrak Station and Ferry Terminal is a planned intermodal infill railway station and ferry terminal in Hercules, California in Western Contra Costa County. It is to be the first direct rail-to-ferry transit hub in the San Francisco Bay Area, construction is currently scheduled to begin in 2016, with a planned completion date for the first phase of the project in 2018. The buses would provide service from the surrounding communities of Pinole, Rodeo, El Sobrante, Crockett, Tara Hills. The station will also host a future Amtrak station, the Capitol Corridor and some San Joaquin trains will stop at Hercules. The ferry will take approximately 42 minutes to San Francisco, ridership is projected at 1,022 passengers per day by the year 2025. The route will run between this terminal and the San Francisco Ferry Building where passengers may walk, bike or take Muni to nearby job centers in the citys downtown Financial District. A bike and pedestrian friendly community will be built up around the hub to connect it to existing housing in the nearby Refugio and it will feature 220 live/work dwellings in addition to 490,000 sq. ft. of office, retail, and public space. The money for this project is being coordinated by partnerships and cooperation between the Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority, the City of Hercules, and WETA. Funds will be collected from sources including the Federal Ferryboat Discretionary Fund, Contra Costa County Measure J Sales Tax, Transit Impact Fees. In the early 2000s the region has experienced unprecedented expansion of transit systems
22.
China Camp State Park
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China Camp State Park is a state park of California, United States, surrounding a historic Chinese American shrimp-fishing village and a salt marsh. The park is located in San Rafael, California, on the shore of San Pablo Bay and it is known for its hiking and mountain biking trails, scenic views, and open spaces. The 1, 514-acre park was established in 1976, China Camp State Park, along with the Rush Ranch Open Space Preserve, is part of the San Francisco Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. After the 1775 arrival of the Spanish, who founded the nearby Mission San Rafael Arcángel, in 1844, the Spanish granted much of the land that now comprises the park to Timothy Murphy, an Irish settler who became mayor of San Rafael. These businesses employed a number of Chinese immigrants, who began to settle in the area, by the 1880s, Chinese Americans had established a village at China Camp of approximately 500 people, many of whom were originally from Canton, China. They supported themselves by fishing in San Pablo Bay and/or working at local businesses. In its heyday, the village had three stores, a marine supply store and a barber shop. For a brief time following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, in the late 1800s, the Chinese American fishermen of China Camp would catch 3 million pounds of shrimp per year, much of which was exported to China and Hawaii. As a result, the population of China Camp greatly declined, in 1914, a new net, the trawl, was invented, which made it possible for the Quans to resume their commercial shrimp fishing enterprise and process 5,000 pounds of shrimp per day. They also operated other businesses such as a store, a boat rental, and a cafe. By the 1960s, most of the area including the future park lands was owned or controlled by developer Chinn Ho. In the early 1970s, Gulf Oil expressed interest in development of the area, including high-rise condominiums. Chinn Ho donated the 36-acre site of China Camp village for preservation as a memorial to Chinese American history, the general plan established for the park specifically provided that Frank Quan would be permitted to continue living in the village. In 2011, China Camp State Park was one of 70 parks slated for closure by the state of California in connection with a $22 million state budget cut. The California state parks department claimed that China Camp State Park was running at a deficit, the nonprofits Marin State Parks Association and Friends of China Camp, along with various other residents and community groups, protested the closure and raised funds to save the park. Similar agreements were reached for two other Marin County state parks, Olompali State Historic Park and Tomales Bay State Park. A revised agreement in 2013 returned operation of Olompali and Tomales Bay parks to the state, Frank Quan died August 2016, at age 90, while still living at the park. The park offers a variety of activities, including overnight camping, picnic facilities, hiking and biking trails, kayaking, paddleboarding
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Pinole Creek
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Pinole Creek is a stream in western Contra Costa County, in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, California. The creek has one of the last primarily undeveloped watersheds in the Bay Area, the headwaters of Pinole Creek are in the Briones Hills on Costa Peak, within the western area of Briones Regional Park. It flows 10 miles westerly through the towns of Pinole and El Sobrante and its mouth is 4 miles east of Point Pinole. The name Pinole is from the Spanish term for parched corn, in 1823, a Mexican land grant for 17,000 acres that included Pinole Creek was granted to Don Ignacio Martinez, a Commandant of the San Francisco Presidio. The land grant was initially known as El Rancho de La Nuestra Sonora de Merced, Martinez built the first adobe in Pinole Valley and brought his family to settle the property with livestock and orchards. The upper watershed contains large areas of space and managed grazing lands, with ranching and agricultural activities. The lower watershed contains the historic Old Town District of Pinole, and suburban neighborhoods in Pinole, El Sobrante, the watershed follows the regional geologic northwest-southeast orientation, similar to the orientation of the Berkeley Hills, and is located just northeast of the Sobrante Ridge. The watershed is approximately 39.6 square miles in area, extending from headwaters on Costa and Duarte Peaks in the Briones Hills, the average annual rainfall for the Pinole Creek watershed is 610 mm, with 90% falling between November and April. There are twelve minor, locally named tributaries and the gradient is 1%, in 1965, the Army Corps of Engineers armored the creek channel between Interstate 80 and San Pablo Bay for flood control. However, this removed riparian zone vegetation and tree cover needed for food, shelter, biologists from the East Bay Municipal Utility District have observed Steelhead trout in the Pinole Creek watershed of multiple ages. Genetic studies by EBMUD in 1999 suggest that the trout are native Central California stock, however, the I-80 crossing may be a significant obstacle to upstream trout migration. Pinole Creek supports a native fish assemblage including rainbow/steelhead trout, California roach, Sacramento sucker, Threespine stickleback. Mosquitofish and Common carp are nonnative fishes found predominately in the section of Pinole Creek. Native plants are species of the California chaparral and woodlands and riparian forest habitats, invasive plant species such as Giant reed, Scotch broom, Yellow star thistle, Himalayan blackberry and many others are established along riparian zone sections of Pinole Creek. List of watercourses in the San Francisco Bay Area Flora of the California chaparral and woodlands Friends of Pinole Creek Pinole Creek Map at Oakland Museum
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Point Pinole Regional Shoreline
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The Point Pinole Regional Shoreline is a regional park on the shores of the San Pablo Bay, California. It is approximately 9 square kilometers in area, and is operated by the East Bay Regional Park District, Point Pinole is located in the city of Richmond, California. The other relic of the industrial past are the large number of eucalyptus glades which were planted around the factory site for safety reasons. The eucalyptus was planted in strategic groves between the Giant Powder Company and the town to block the sound and smell of occasional explosions. The park features the promontory of Point Pinole, located where the East Bay shoreline turns from running south towards Berkeley and Oakland to running eastwards, geologically, it is a result of movement on the Hayward Fault which runs along its western edge, creating a low scarp. The parks trails are flat and not at all challenging, there is a $3 parking fee, in 2009 the park acquired the Breuner Marsh site and added it to the Point Pinole Regional Shoreline park. The park is a mixture of grassland and woodland, with beaches and low cliffs, and it has a rich bird life, including many ducks and shorebirds. It is located on the Pacific Flyway, so many migrant species are also seen, the park is located on the Hayward Fault, whose exact position is marked by monuments erected by the United States Geological Survey. The USGS has a seismometer posted along the Union Pacific Railroad, which divides the park from the mainland, the San Francisco Bay Trail runs through the park. The park can be reached by the AC Transit bus service, by car, pedestrian and cyclist admission is free, but there is a parking fee. East Bay Regional Park District, official Point Pinole Regional Shoreline website A short history of California Historical Landmarks — including #1002, wikimapia, Aerial image of Point Pinole
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San Rafael Transit Center
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The San Rafael Transportation Center in San Rafael, California, also called the C. Paul Bettini Transportation Center, is the main passenger transit terminal for Marin County. From here, passengers can make transfers throughout Marin County, to San Francisco, Contra Costa and it is also an important station for buses serving San Francisco International Airport, Oakland International Airport, and the rest of the country. The Transit Center is planned to be moved in the years as Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit begins operations. The original San Rafael railway depot that served the Northwestern Pacific Railroad was located at what is now a north of the station. As rail use fell into decline and was discontinued in the mid 20th century, busses came to prominence with the expansion of the road, the current transportation center was constructed in 1991. The San Rafael Transit Center hosts to a number of bus agencies, including, Golden Gate Transit - serving Marin, Contra Costa, Sonoma, Marin Transit - serving Marin County Marin Airporter - serving the San Francisco International Airport from Marin County. Airport Express - serving the Oakland International Airport, serves as stopover for Marin County to Sonoma County, Sonoma County Transit - serving the Sonoma Valley from San Rafael. One morning southbound and one northbound only, with timed connections to Golden Gate Transit buses to San Francisco. Greyhound Bus Lines - the main stop of Greyhound in Marin County, serving points in Northern California and the rest of the United States. In addition to bus services, there is a double-track railway, commuter trains arrived in Santa Rosa for testing in March 2016 after a fifty seven-year absence of such services. Rail operations have significantly disrupted service to bus stop locations, the San Rafael Transit Center is located at the corner of 3rd and Hetherton Streets, bounded by Tamalpais Avenue to the west and 2nd Street to the south. Along with that, being the stop for Greyhound for the county, SRTC provides connections for its passengers from within Marin County to intra-. Note, † - Select Route 259 trips originate as Route 251 Note, Route 101, Golden Gate Transits limited-stop service, serves the San Rafael Transit Center complementing the existing Route 80 on weekdays and Saturdays. For a description of this service, click here, Route 80 continues to serve the SRTC weeknights, weekends, and holidays when the Route 101 does not operate. The San Rafael Transit Center has the following amenities for its passengers, Saluté Cafe, also nearby are three park-and-ride lots within walking distance of the SRTC, all located under the Highway 101 overpass, that allow commuter parking. Golden Gate Transit Marin Transit San Rafael Sonoma County Transit
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Point San Pablo
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Point San Pablo Yacht Harbor is an isolated marina and small community at the far end of Point San Pablo in San Pablo Bay, within Richmond, in Contra Costa County, California. The village is home to a few individuals living in hundreds of boats. The area also features the Point San Pablo Marina and Yacht Club, the village is also the starting point for visitors to East Brother Light Station a historic landmark. The hills surrounding the town are completely undeveloped and feature chaparral landscaping, the area is near the Chevron Richmond Refinery and some tank farm containers are visible in addition to the Richmond Landfill across the waters of Castro Cove, a contaminated estuarine habitat. Point San Pablo Beach is also located here, the village has panoramic views of the undeveloped coastlines of southern Napa, Sonoma, and Solano counties and eastern central Marin County. The hills surrounding the village are completely undeveloped and feature Eucalyptus trees, the isolation of the area and undeveloped lands make deer sightings commonplace. Other animals in the include the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse. The areas around the marina and breakwaters have many egrets, herons, the Point San Pablo Yacht Harbor is privately owned. Both the San Pablo Sportsmens Club and the Point San Pablo Preservation Society are non-profit organizations located at the harbor, the societys goal is to preserve the harbor and surrounding lands and waterways for public use and enjoyment. San Pablo Peninsula San Pablo Bay topics Point San Pablo Yacht Harbor website Google maps aerial view
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Larkspur Landing
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Larkspur Landing, also known as Larkspur Ferry Terminal, is the main Golden Gate Ferry terminal in Larkspur, Marin County, California. The terminal is a regional hub receiving heavy service throughout the North Bay for commuter ferries to downtown San Francisco. Among various San Francisco Bay Area properties owned by San Francisco-born civil engineer Alfred Finnila in the 1970s was the known as Larkspur Landing in Larkspur. In the mid-1970s, Finnila sold, leased and rented parts of Larkspur Landing to the City of Larkspur and to various businesses and it is the main Golden Gate Ferry terminal in Larkspur, Marin County. Constructed in the mid-1970s, Larkspur Ferry Terminal rose from the ashes of the long demolished Hutchinsons Rock Quarry, the Ferry Terminal was built with an 18, 000-square-foot open air space frame, or tetrahedral-octahedral tesselation, a canopy designed by San-Francisco-based architect Jacques de Brer. The Ferry Terminal opened on December 11,1976, regular commute service started on December 13,1976. The ex-quarry-property also spawned the Larkspur Landing Shopping Center, with adjacent apartments and it will serve as an intermodal station, where passengers can transfer to San-Francisco-bound ferries. Director Don Siegel filmed the scenes of the 1971 movie Dirty Harry on the area of Larkspur Landing. Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit Alfred Finnila Prime Rib and Boxcars, Whatever Happened to Victoria Station, Victoria Station is still working on its restructuring. March 19,1986 - Los Angeles Times, Quarry, Larkspur Landing, CA « Dirty Harry Filming Locations. 20sep2002 Dirty Harry - filming locations
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Miller/Knox Regional Shoreline
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Miller/Knox Regional Shoreline is a 295-acre bayside park in the Brickyard Cove neighborhood of the Point Richmond District in Richmond, California. The park is centered on the Miller/Knox lagoon which is depicted on a large 200 foot by 50 foot mural at the Richmond Municipal Natatorium nearby. The park affords views of the Bay Area especially the Oakland and San Francisco skylines, islands, bridges. The views are the farthest from the high point, Nicholls Knob. The regional shoreline includes Keller Beach on San Pablo Bay in addition to picnic and barbecue areas, parking. There is also a train ferry pier and other assorted ruins. The park is home to the Golden State Model Railroad Museum. The park is named for state senator George Miller, Jr. and former State Assembly member. The park features many trails for cyclists, dog-walkers, and hikers, and a salt water lagoon where ducks, seagulls, the beach was closed due to an Cosco-Busan oil spill in 2007, but reopened months later. Miller/Knox Regional Shoreline - at the East Bay Regional Parks District website
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Corte Madera Creek (Marin County, California)
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Corte Madera Creek is a short stream which flows southeast for 4.5 miles in Marin County, California. Corte Madera Creek is formed by the confluence of San Anselmo Creek and Ross Creek in Ross, the Coast Miwok lived for thousands of years in the Corte Madera watershed, gathering pinole and acorns, hunting, and salmon-fishing. Traces of the Miwok include seven mounds in what is now the Town of Ross, the Mexican government divided the northwest and southeast portions of the Corte Madera watershed into two separate land grants. The Rancho Cañada de Herrera, a 6, 658-acre rancho that includes the areas that are now Fairfax, Sleepy Hollow and his family used the land for crops, sheep, horses, and cattle and fished San Anselmo Creek for salmon. Cooper harvested timber and was granted a license to hunt southern sea otter. Rancho Punta de Quentin is now the towns of San Anselmo, Ross, Kentfield, Corte Madera Creek is named for the Spanish corte de madera meaning a place where wood is cut. A Tasmanian immigrant, James Ross, who had made a fortune selling liquor to gold panners in San Francisco, Ross continued logging and also started a regular schooner route to San Francisco to transport the wood. His family established an estate at the site that is now the Marin Art, Corte Madera Creek is one of few streams flowing into San Francisco Bay with a steelhead trout population. The best spawning gravels are in Upper San Anselmo Creek, Ross Creek, Fairfax Creek has a total barrier to fish passage at its confluence with San Anselmo Creek. Larkspur Creek is rumored to have had long ago. Chinook salmon currently utilize the watershed, historically, Corte Madera Creek watershed supported coho salmon with recorded observations dating from 1926-1927, the 1960s,1981, and the last sighting in 1984. The main non-salmonid fish species in the Corte Madera Creek Watershed include the three-spined stickleback, California roach, several species of sculpin, the 1, 000-acre Corte Madera Marsh Ecological Reserve is recognized as an Important Bird Area by the Audubon Society. Just south of the marsh, there is a channel named San Clement Creek where harbor seals haul out. The Corte Madera Watershed ranges in elevation from sea level to 2,571 feet at the East Peak of Mount Tamalpais. The watershed covers 28 square miles in the quarter of Marin County and encompasses the towns of Larkspur, Corte Madera, Kentfield, Ross, San Anselmo. The watershed includes Corte Madera, Ross, San Anselmo, Tamalpais, Sleepy Hollow, Fairfax, Larkspur and Tamalpais creeks drain directly into the estuary/tidal portion. The watershed includes 44 miles of stream channels, Ross Creek drains the northern slope of Mt. Tamalpais, San Anselmo Creek and its tributaries drain the northwestern portion of the watershed. List of watercourses in the San Francisco Bay Area California Fur Rush Friends of Corte Madera Creek Watershed Corte Madera/Ross Valley Watershed pages at Marin Watersheds
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Point Isabel Regional Shoreline
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It has easy access for pedestrians and via public transit, private vehicles, and bikes. It also features a concession offering food for people and grooming for pets, a longtime community organization and nonprofit, Point Isabel Dog Owners and Friends, is active in the maintenance and improvement of the park. This 50-acre park was incorporated into the East Bay Regional Park District in 1975, the United States Postal Service operates a large bulk mail facility adjacent to what is now Point Isabel Regional Shoreline. As mitigation for the construction of this facility on the shoreline. The lease came with the condition of public access. Originally 23 acres, Point Isabel officially added North Point Isabel in 2002 when McLaughlin Eastshore State Park was created, North Point Isabel is across the narrow Hoffman Channel from Point Isabel and accessed via a short footbridge or from the Bay Trail. Both Point Isabel and North Point Isabel, like many parks along the East Bay shoreline, are landfill, for years North Point Isabel was a dumping ground for industrial waste—the Battery Point name referred to battery casings—and underwent an intensive cleanup and clay-capping operation in the 1980s. Two of the toxins of concern in the area were lead, the fenced-off area just north of the public restrooms at the Rydin Road end of the park is dirt that was dug more recently when the restrooms were installed. The dirt pile tested positive for high levels of contaminants and was fenced off, planted, the park is slated to undergo some trail and parking lot repaving in the second half of 2015. A few years ago it underwent some US $500,000 worth of improvements, including new irrigation systems and turf, fox tail removal, trail repavement, picnic sites. That was funded by a portion of US $225 million collected by Measure AA, at some point in the future there are plans to possibly expand the seating at Mudpuppys Tub and Scrub cafe. Park usage has increased exponentially from an estimated 500,000 human visitors in 2000 to more than 1,400,000 last year and it is used heavily by people walking dogs but also by walkers, joggers, windsurfers, kayakers, photographers, birders, and picnickers. Point Isabel regularly makes the list of the top best places in the U. S. to walk dogs off-leash and it was named the number one dog park by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in 2006. It is named for the promontory of Point Isabel, which was itself named for landowner Víctor Castros daughter Isabel. During the Gold Rush, the Castros operated a ferry from Point Isabel to send supplies from their ranch to San Francisco, for many years a pottery company, Tepco, operated near where the water treatment plant is today. Shards of broken pottery are still found in the area. The remains of Laci Peterson washed up at Point Isabel in 2003, the park is located along the eastern shore of the San Francisco Bay in the East Bay region of the Bay Area and is administered by the East Bay Regional Park District. The park consists of two halves of roughly equal size—Point Isabel and North Point Isabel—separated by the narrow Hoffman Channel
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Cerrito Creek
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Cerrito Creek is one of the principal watercourses running out of the Berkeley Hills into San Francisco Bay in northern California. It is significant for its use as a boundary demarcation historically, in the early 19th century, it separated the vast Rancho San Antonio to the south from the Castro familys Rancho San Pablo to the north. Today, it part of the boundary between Alameda County and Contra Costa County. The main stem, running through a canyon that separates Berkeley from Kensington, is joined below San Pablo Avenue by a fan of tributaries. The largest of these is Middle or Blackberry Creek, a southern branch, the creek is named for Albany Hill, formerly called Cerrito de San Antonio, a prominent isolated hill on the shoreline of San Francisco Bay in Albany. Cerrito Creek, joined by a fan of other small creeks, the creek played a part in history larger than its size. Because it divided the two land-grant ranches, it became the division between Alameda and Contra Costa Counties and this lasted until a post-World-War-II reform movement in the City of El Cerrito. The marsh at the mouth also played a curious bit part in history. Regarding such wetlands as useless, 19th and 20th Century settlers set out to fill it, locating a slaughterhouse, an early 20th Century typhoid scare, however, led to closing of the dump. This left Berkeley, booming with new residents after the great San Francisco earthquake, a new dump south of the hill was quickly arranged, in what is now the City of Albany. Women of that area were upset, but they lacked the vote. One morning, they sought to back the garbage wagon with guns. The marsh was eventually filled—rubble from dynamite making and quarrying on Albany Hill contributed. In 1953, the head of Stege Sanitary District wrote, “As late as 1920, records show a lake bordered by marsh south of County Road No.4 now Central, near Belmont. ”Tides still rise and fall inland as far as Albanys and El Cerritos Creekside Parks. When a high tide coincides with winter storm runoff, the marsh area can flood. Volunteers with this group have worked since 1996 on this and other creeks, principally removing invasives, planting natives. The City of El Cerrito is committed to a plan to daylight the still-culverted reaches of the creek at the south edge of El Cerrito Plaza. The cities of Albany and El Cerrito have adopted a plan for a pedestrian-bicycle route mostly along the creek
32.
Golden Gate Bridge
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The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate strait, the one-mile-wide, one-point-seven-mile-long channel between San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The bridge is one of the most internationally recognized symbols of San Francisco, California, and it has been declared one of the Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The Frommers travel guide describes the Golden Gate Bridge as possibly the most beautiful, certainly the most photographed and it opened in 1937 and was, until 1964, the longest suspension bridge main span in the world, at 4,200 feet. Before the bridge was built, the only practical short route between San Francisco and what is now Marin County was by boat across a section of San Francisco Bay. A ferry service began as early as 1820, with a scheduled service beginning in the 1840s for the purpose of transporting water to San Francisco. Once for railroad passengers and customers only, Southern Pacifics automobile ferries became very profitable, the trip from the San Francisco Ferry Building took 27 minutes. Many wanted to build a bridge to connect San Francisco to Marin County, San Francisco was the largest American city still served primarily by ferry boats. Because it did not have a permanent link with communities around the bay, experts said that ferocious winds and blinding fogs would prevent construction and operation. San Franciscos City Engineer estimated the cost at $100 million, which would have been $2.12 billion in 2009 and he asked bridge engineers whether it could be built for less. One who responded, Joseph Strauss, was an engineer and poet who had, for his graduate thesis. At the time, Strauss had completed some 400 drawbridges—most of which were inland—and nothing on the scale of the new project. Strausss initial drawings were for a massive cantilever on each side of the strait, connected by a central suspension segment, Local authorities agreed to proceed only on the assurance that Strauss would alter the design and accept input from several consulting project experts. A suspension-bridge design was considered the most practical, because of recent advances in metallurgy, Strauss spent more than a decade drumming up support in Northern California. The bridge faced opposition, including litigation, from many sources, the Department of War was concerned that the bridge would interfere with ship traffic. The navy feared that a collision or sabotage to the bridge could block the entrance to one of its main harbors. Unions demanded guarantees that local workers would be favored for construction jobs, in May 1924, Colonel Herbert Deakyne held the second hearing on the Bridge on behalf of the Secretary of War in a request to use federal land for construction. Another ally was the automobile industry, which supported the development of roads. The bridges name was first used when the project was discussed in 1917 by M. M
33.
Albany Bulb
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The Albany Bulb is a former landfill largely owned by the City of Albany, in California. The Bulb is the west end of a peninsula jutting west from the east shore of San Francisco Bay. The term Bulb is often used to refer to the peninsula, which includes the Albany Plateau, north of Buchanan Street at its base, the high narrow Neck. The Bulb is part of the City of Albany, and can be reached via Buchanan Street or the Bay Trail along the east side of San Francisco Bay and this filling was largely halted by efforts of Save The Bay from the 1960s to the 1980s. The development dream was to join the peninsulas, leaving a narrow shipping channel edged by commerce, the tidelands off Berkeley and Albany were sold by the state in the 1870s, as railroads extended tracks northward along the waterfront from the Oakland terminus of the Transcontinental Railroad. Early in the 20th century, the tidelands were acquired by the rival Santa Fe Railroad, the debris was pushed into the Bay to create parking lots. Almost immediately afterward, the City of Albany extended Buchanan Street west on Bay fill, aerial photos show the gradual filling of this lagoon at the same time that dumping extended the peninsula west into the Bay and, later, north onto the Plateau. The Bulb proper—the round hill at the tip of the peninsula—was created in 1963, after the City of Albany and Santa Fe, thus The Bulb is made of mostly of construction debris such as concrete and rebar, as is still very visible. Lawsuits against the operator brought the dumping to a halt in 1983. The City of Albany entertained a variety of proposals for development of the peninsula, including high-rise hotels, the City of Albany maintains ownership of The Bulb itself. The City of Albany continues to negotiate to have the State Parks Department and/or East Bay Regional Park District take over the Bulb, other entities are reluctant due to liability and potential costs of making the area, with its projecting concrete and rebar, safe. Meanwhile, the Bulb area and adjacent Albany Beach have become one of the most heavily used outdoor recreation sites in the Bay, Bay currents were altered by creation of the Bulb and fill peninsulas to the north and south. One result has been westward extension of tidal mudflats at the mouths of Codornices, Village and these are the Albany Mudflats, protected as important habitat for waterfowl and shorebirds. The wooden posts in the area serve as perches for Peregrine Falcons. Another result was formation of Albany Beach—low dunes and a beach running south between the Bulb peninsula and Fleming Point. Sandy beaches are rare on San Francisco Bay, but strong tidal current to and from the Golden Gate tend to them along the Berkeley. The beach has been used by dog owners for decades. Strong winds make the south of the Bulb peninsula, off the beach, popular with wind-
34.
Presidio of San Francisco
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It had been a fortified location since September 17,1776, when New Spain established it to gain a foothold on Alta California and the San Francisco Bay. It passed to Mexico, which in turn passed it to the United States in 1848. As part of a 1989 military reduction program under the Base Realignment, on October 1,1994, it was transferred to the National Park Service, ending 219 years of military use and beginning its next phase of mixed commercial and public use. In 1996, the United States Congress created the Presidio Trust to oversee and manage the interior 80% of the parks lands, with the National Park Service managing the coastal 20%. In a first-of-its-kind structure, Congress mandated that the Presidio Trust make the Presidio financially self-sufficient by 2013, the park is characterized by many wooded areas, hills, and scenic vistas overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. It was recognized as a California Historical Landmark in 1933 and as a National Historic Landmark in 1962, battery Chamberlin, seacoast defense museum and artillery display at Baker Beach built in 1904. Fort Point,1861 brick and granite fortification located under the Golden Gate Bridge, the visitor center, open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, offers video orientations, guided tours, self-guiding materials, exhibits, and a bookstore. Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary Visitor Center, This center offers hands-on marine-life exhibits, the building was used by the Coast Guard from 1890 to 1990. Golden Gate Bridge Pavilion, opened May 2012 for the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge and it is located just east of the southern end of the bridge. Crissy Field Center is an environmental education center with programs for schools, public workshops, after-school programs, summer camps. The Center is operated by the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, the facilities include interactive environmental exhibits, a media lab, resource library, arts workshop, science lab, gathering room, teaching kitchen, café and bookstore. The landscape of Crissy Field was designed by George Hargreaves, the project restored a naturally functioning and sustaining tidal wetland as a habitat for flora and fauna, which were previously not in evidence on the site. It also restored a historic grass airfield that functioned as a significant military airfield between 1919 and 1936. The park at Crissy Field expanded and widened the recreational opportunities of the existing 1 1⁄2-mile San Francisco shore to a number of Presidio residents. 1776, Spanish Captain Juan Bautista de Anza led 193 soldiers, women,1794, Castillo de San Joaquin, an artillery emplacement was built above present-day Fort Point, San Francisco, complete with iron or bronze cannon. Six cannons may be seen in the Presidio today, 1776–1821, The Presidio was a simple fort made of adobe, brush and wood. It often was damaged by earthquakes or heavy rains, in 1783, its company was only 33 men. Presidio soldiers duties were to support Mission Dolores by controlling Indian workers in the Mission, and also farming, ranching, support from Spanish authorities in Mexico was very limited
35.
Crissy Field
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Crissy Field, a former U. S. Army airfield, is now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco, California, United States. Historically part of the Presidio of San Francisco, Crissy Field closed as an airfield after 1974, under Army control, the site was affected by dumping of hazardous materials. The National Park Service took control of the area in 1994 and cleaned it up, while most buildings have been preserved as they were in the 1920s, some have been transformed into offices, retail space, and residences. The land Crissy Field resides on is an ancient 130-acre salt marsh, prior to European settlement, the Ohlone people used the area for harvesting shellfish and fish. They also lived in camps in the area, leaving behind shell middens in the archaeological record. The Spanish arrived in 1776 and called the area El Presidio and they began to use the area for livestock grazing and agriculture. The 127-acre marsh site was filled in during the 1870s and this alteration was finished in time for the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition. The U. S. Army took control of the Presidio in 1846, after filling in the marshlands, the Army covered over it and created an aerodrome. In June 1919 the Army assigned Colonel Henry H, arnold of the Air Service as Air Officer, Western Department, and directed him to convene a board of four officers to select the site. The board chose the former exposition site as much for its sheltered beach to protect seaplane operations as the fact that the infield of its racetrack was already in use as an aviation field. Although the wartime appropriations were reduced by the end of the war, the east-west clay and sand landing field was kidney shaped with the outline of the racetrack still visible. The western end of the field featured hangars, workshops and a garage for the army, the bluff overlooking the field had the row of officers quarters. Arnold led the effort to name the facility Crissy Field in memory of Major Dana H. Crissy, the base commander of Mather Field, California. The first unit assigned to the field, the 91st Observation Squadron, arrived from Mather in August, the first Western aerial forest fire patrols took place from Crissy Field. The first successful dawn-to-dusk transcontinental flight across the United States ended at Crissy Field in June 1924. That same year, the armys first aerial circumnavigation of the world stopped at Crissy Field, and Lowell H. Smith, who was stationed at the field, led the flyers upon their return. In 1925, two Navy flying boats led by Commander John Rodgers took off from Crissy Field, marking the first attempt to fly from the continental United States to Hawaii. The flight was expected to take 26-hours, but it took twelve days when the PN-9 ran out of short of land
36.
Berkeley Marina
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The Berkeley Marina is the westernmost portion of the city of Berkeley, California, located west of the Eastshore Freeway at the foot of University Avenue on San Francisco Bay. Narrowly speaking, Berkeley Marina refers only to the city marina, there are several restaurants, a hotel and a yacht club in the Berkeley Marina. There are also walking and bicycle paths. In addition, it is the terminus of AC Transit Route 51B on select trips only. The easternmost portion of the Marina, running parallel to I-80/580, is now a part of the Eastshore State Park, the Berkeley Marina was originally part of the open waters of San Francisco Bay. The original shoreline ran a few yards west of the Southern Pacific tracks on 3rd Street, the area was gradually filled in over the years. In 1909 the City built a wharf at the foot of University Avenue which was used primarily for freight. Starting in 1926 the Golden Gate Ferry Company began construction of the Berkeley Pier and it was built out from the foot of University Avenue about 3.5 miles into the Bay. On June 16,1927 auto ferry service began, between the Berkeley Pier and the Hyde Street Pier in San Francisco, a pier shared with the Sausalito ferry. During this period U. S. Route 40 ran from San Pablo Avenue down University Avenue to the Berkeley Pier, the ferry service lasted until about 1937, after the 1936 opening of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. Thereafter it became a fishing pier, US40 was shifted to the new Eastshore Highway and the Bay Bridge. Storms damaged the end of the pier over the years and it was closed, after World War II ended, it was repaired and re-opened in 1946 for fishing. In the 1970s, the city repaired and upgraded the least damaged length of the Berkeley Pier. Since about the late 1920s the city municipal dump was located here, in the early 1990s much of the former dump was landscaped and converted into a park, originally named North Waterfront Park. The park was renamed Cesar Chavez Park in 1996 to commemorate the late California labor leader, during World War II, the Berkeley Yacht Harbor was used by the United States Navy to construct tug boats. From October 1961 until April 1974 a heliport was operated by San Francisco and this helicopter airline transported passengers to the San Francisco and Oakland international airports. And also at one point to downtown San Francisco, SFO Helicopter operated jet turbine powered Sikorsky S-61 and Sikorsky S-62 helicopters into the heliport which is no longer in existence
37.
Marina Green
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The Marina Green in San Francisco, California, is a 74-acre expanse of grass between Fort Mason and the Presidio. It is adjacent to San Francisco Bay, and this location provides views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Angel Island, Alcatraz Island. Houses built mostly in the 1920s and 1930s line Marina Boulevard, many of these houses have large bay windows, and Herb Caen, the late San Francisco newspaper columnist, often made references to the immaculate furnishings behind these windows. In the past, a track along the southern edge of the Marina Green allowed the San Francisco Belt Railroad to serve the Presidio. Adjacent to the Marina Green is a marina, home to the St. Francis Yacht Club, the San Francisco Bay Trail runs through the green. Prior to the 1906 earthquake, this area was a tidal marsh, after the earthquake, much of the resulting rubble was dumped here. Later, to land for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, this site. A nearby remnant of the Exposition is the restored Palace of Fine Arts, the San Francisco Parks and Recreation Department currently administers the Marina Green. 49-Mile Scenic Drive San Francisco Marina Guide
38.
Fort Mason
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Fort Mason served as an Army post for more than 100 years, initially as a coastal defense site and subsequently as a military port facility. During World War II, it was the port for the Pacific campaign. Today it is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and it is a National Historic Landmark District with over 49 buildings of historic significance, spread over 1,200 acres. Fort Mason can be split into two distinct areas, the upper area, sometimes called Fort Mason, is situated on a headland and was the site of the original coastal fortifications. The lower area, Fort Mason Center, is situated close to level to the west of Upper Fort Mason. The Marina Green lies to the west of Fort Mason, while Aquatic Park is to the east, the nucleus of Fort Mason was a private property owned by John C. Frémont, the explorer of the US west, who also spearheaded the conquest of California from Mexico. Appointed a Major General in the Union army at the start of the Civil War, in 1863, the government seized the property without payment, by executive order of Lincoln, on the grounds it was needed for the war effort. Frémont would again contest the US presidency in 1864, running as the candidate of radical Republicans, the 1968 lawsuit was perhaps the last shot of a century-long legal struggle to obtain compensation for the seized realty. In 1870, the government returned property to 49 parties in the vicinity, but not to Frémont, but in 1968 the Frémont heirs complained it had failed to carry out this direction, with John Frémont then recently dead and his widow Jessie nearly 70 years old. The Civil War prompted the construction of coastal defense batteries located inside the Golden Gate. A breast-high wall of brick and mounts for six 10-inch Rodman cannons, excavation in the early 1980s uncovered the well-preserved remains of the western-half of the temporary battery, and it has now been restored to its condition during the Civil War. The fort was named Fort Mason in 1882, after Richard Barnes Mason, President Grover Cleveland established the Endicott Board in 1885 for the purpose of modernizing the nations coastal fortifications. Chaired by Secretary of War William Endicott, the board recommended new defenses at 22 U. S. seaports, as a result, an extensive series of forts, batteries, and guns were built on the harbor, including Fort Mason. The piers and sheds of Lower Fort Mason were originally built from 1912 to warehouse army supplies, by this time, the US Army began to build new bases in Hawaii, the Philippines, and various other Pacific islands. Most of the materiel for those bases was shipped through San Francisco, by 1915, the three piers together with their associated warehouse had been completed, and Fort Mason Tunnel driven under Upper Fort Mason to connect with the railroad network along the Embarcadero. With these new facilities, Fort Mason was transformed from a defense post into a logistical. The Army ferry USAT General Frank M. Coxe provided scheduled transportation from Fort Mason to the center at Fort McDowell on Angel Island up to eight times per day during the war
