Yerba Buena Island | |
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— Neighborhood of San Francisco — | |
Yerba Buena Island | |
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Coordinates: 37°48′36″N 122°21′58″W / 37.809912°N 122.366002°W | |
Country | United States |
State | California |
City | San Francisco |
Yerba Buena Island sits in the San Francisco Bay between San Francisco and Oakland, California. The Yerba Buena Tunnel runs through its center and connects the western and eastern spans of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. It has had several other names over the decades: Sea Bird Island, Wood Island, and Goat Island. The island is named after the town of Yerba Buena, which was named for the plant of the same name that was abundant in the area. The plant's English and Spanish common name, Yerba buena, is an alternate form of the Spanish hierba buena (literally meaning "good herb"), generally used to describe local species of the mint family.
The island is currently part of District 6 of the City and County of San Francisco. According to the United States Census Bureau, Yerba Buena Island and Treasure Island together have a land area of 2.334 km2 (0.901 sq mi) with a total population of 2,500 as of the 2010 census.
Today the land southeast of the Yerba Buena Tunnel belongs to the United States Coast Guard (USCG). The USCG Sector San Francisco - Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) tower is located on the peak of the island. The USCG Sector San Francisco headquarters base is located at water-level on the southeast coast of the island. During the summer 2011, the Department of Homeland Security-USCG opened the new Interagency Operations Center (IOC) on the Sector San Francisco Base. The IOC houses the VTS and the USCG Sector San Francisco Command Center together in one building.
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History
The first California legislature on February 18, 1850, passed an act establishing the boundaries of San Francisco County and naming the island after the former name of the city of San Francisco, Yerba Buena, which was changed in 1847.
Officially, the island was Yerba Buena Island until 1895, when on a decision by the United States Board on Geographic Names, it was changed to Goat Island. During the gold rush, a large number of goats were pastured on the island, and the name "Goat Island" came into popular use.[1] It was changed back to Yerba Buena Island on June 3, 1931.
The idea of a military post on Yerba Buena Island originated during the Civil War, when it was feared a raiding Confederate warship could slip past Fort Point and Alcatraz during a foggy night. However, it was not until the 1870s that Camp Yerba Buena Island was completed, including a fog signal and octagonal lighthouse called Yerba Buena Light (1875) that remain today. Just before the turn of the 19th to 20th century, the first U.S. Naval Training Station on the Pacific Coast was established on the north east side of the island. Quarters One, also known as the Nimitz House, was built about 1900 as the commandant's residence. Its Classic Revival style, fashionable for private residences in the Bay Area at the time, was unusual for naval base housing. The training station closed after World War I.
During World War II, Yerba Buena Island fell under the jurisdiction of Treasure Island Naval Station, headquarters of the 12th Naval District. Built on the shoals of Yerba Buena Island, the 403-acre (163 ha) Treasure Island was a Works Progress Administration project in the 1930s. After hosting the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition, the United States Navy deemed Treasure Island an ideal location for transporting people and machines to the Pacific theater, and on April 1, 1941, established Treasure Island Naval Station which also included a portion of Yerba Buena Island. Quarters One became the residence of the Commander of the Naval Base. Several other buildings used by the Naval Station during World War II also remain on the island, including the senior officers' quarters and Buildings 83, 205 and 230.
In 1996, the naval base and the Presidio of San Francisco were decommissioned, and opened to public control, under stipulations. Quarters One is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Atop YBI stands an old wooden tower, built c. 1917 as a signal tower for ships in the bay. Originally the tower had no roof. In the 1940s, the tower was jacked up onto a new cement foundation and used by the US Navy as a control tower for seaplanes. Most recently the tower was used by the US Navy as an Officers' Club (a bar) for aviators — The Tower Club. The Tower Club was condemned after the October 17, 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. It has stood in ruins since then. The view from the top of the tower is one of the best in the San Francisco Bay, but unfortunately it's closed to the public. The tower's destiny is unclear; it's not a registered historical landmark, so it's subject to being destroyed as YBI is redeveloped for commercial use.[citation needed]
Miscellaneous
Located west of the island is Blossom Rock, a treacherous submerged rock that lay only 5 feet below the surface of the water at low tide. Blossom Rock was discovered and named in 1826 by Captain Beechey of the HMS Blossom. Beechey noted that the rock could be avoided by aligning the northern tip of Yerba Buena Island with two especially large redwood trees growing in the East Bay hills as one entered the Bay. These redwoods were located in what is now Roberts Regional Recreation Area, near the "Madrone" picnic area; the area is marked with a historical marker. The "Navigation Trees" were logged in about 1851, exacerbating the danger of Blossom Rock. The top of the rock was blown up in 1870, and another section removed by blasting in the early 1930s.
In his book Two Years Before the Mast, published in 1840, Richard Henry Dana, Jr. mentioned the island and called it "Wood Island."
See also
References
- ^ Saperstein, Susan. "Goats on Goat Island in San Francisco". San Francisco City Guides. http://www.sfcityguides.org/public_guidelines.html?article=410&submitted=TRUE&srch_text=&submitted2=&topic=Early%20San%20Francisco. Retrieved August 29, 2011.
- "Quarters One, Yerba Buena Island, Naval Training Station". World War II in the San Francisco Bay Area. National Park Service. http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/wwIIbayarea/qua.htm. Retrieved 2007-03-22.
External links
- Treasure Hunting on Yerba Buena Island: San Francisco's newest neighborhood to be landscaped with locally appropriate native plants.
- "Naval Training Station: San Francisco Bay, Calif., Yerba Buena Island". http://www.military.com/HomePage/UnitCreatedPage/0,11003,203269,00.html. Retrieved July 12, 2005.
Coordinates: 37°48′36″N 122°21′58″W / 37.809912°N 122.366002°W
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