Last Monday a few intrepid members of the Menlo Park
genealogy class took a train to San Francisco, a streetcar to the wharf, and
then walked right off the Hyde Street
Pier into the history of San Francisco’s maritime industry. We didn’t even get our feet wet!
Our
guide, an enthusiastic National Park ranger named Alan, took us aboard the
Eureka ferry boat and the schooner C.A. Thayer, which carried fish, and then
lumber, along the California coast and as far as the South Pacific.
The
car ferries when still running when I was a child, and I remember traveling
with my grandmother as she drove her car up - or down (the tides) into the
bottom of the ferry in Berkeley.
We were
able to get out and go up top to enjoy the trip, then had to rush down as
docking was announced in San Francisco.
There was even a restaurant which served what must have been the first
truly fast food on the trip across.
After a lunch out on the pier, we went
across to the National Park Service visitors center. A few years ago, when I first visited, it was
a small display area and a room for videos.
It’s now much larger with several dioramas, a boardwalk, a crashed ship(!),
and displays of store fronts selling goods imported from Asia and Europe. You can see below your feet some of the
objects found during various excavations of the waterfront, the graveyard of
gold rush ships. There are Park Service
rangers on hand to answer questions, and several videos and interactive maps.
The pier is now part of the National
Park Service. Entry is free with your
National Park pass.
“Located in the Fisherman's Wharf neighborhood,
San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park offers visitors the sights,
sounds, smells and stories of Pacific Coast maritime history. The Park includes
a magnificent fleet of historic ships, a Visitor Center, Maritime Museum,
Maritime Research Center, and Aquatic Park Historic District.”
Guided tours can be arranged
through their website at https://www.nps.gov/safr/index.htm
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