Berkeley Marina
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The Berkeley Marina is the westernmost portion of the city of Berkeley, California, located west of Interstate 80, the Eastshore Freeway at the foot of University Avenue on San Francisco Bay. Narrowly speaking, "Berkeley Marina" refers only to the city marina, but in common usage, it applies more generally to the surrounding area.
The Berkeley Marina was originally part of the open waters of the San Francisco Bay. The original shoreline ran a few yards west of the Southern Pacific (now Union Pacific) tracks on 3rd Street. The area was gradually filled in over the years.
In 1907, the City built a municipal wharf at the foot of University Avenue which was used primarily for freight. In 1927, an auto ferry pier was built out from the foot of University Avenue about 3.5 miles into the Bay (measured from the original shoreline). A Southern Pacific ferry (operating as the Golden Gate Ferry) transported autos here to and from the Hyde Street Pier in San Francisco, a pier shared with the Sausalito ferry. During this time period, US Highway 40 ran to the Berkeley Pier, connecting by way of University Avenue from San Pablo Avenue. The ferry service lasted until about 1937, soon after the opening of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in 1936, and the pier was turned into a fishing pier. US 40 was then re-routed to the new Eastshore Highway. Storms damaged the end of the pier over the years. In the 1970s, the city repaired and upgraded the least damaged length of the Berkeley Pier, and it is still in use today for fishing and viewing.
Since about the late 1920s the city municipal dump was located here, and it is the accumulated garbage of Berkeleyans over many decades which accounts for most of the dry land of the Berkeley Marina. In the early 1990s, much of the former dump was landscaped and converted into a public park, originally named "North Waterfront Park". The park was renamed Cesar Chavez Park in 1996, to commemorate the late California labor leader.[1]
The actual Berkeley Marina, used by many people who sail on the Bay, was constructed as the "Berkeley Yacht Harbor" in the late 1930s by the Works Progress Administration in conjunction with its nearby work developing Aquatic Park. In the 1960s, a heliport operated by SFO Helicopter existed at the foot of University Avenue, transporting airline passengers to the San Francisco and Oakland international airports.
There are several restaurants and a hotel in the Berkeley Marina. There are also several walking and bicycle paths. The area is accessible from the rest of Berkeley by foot or bike over the Berkeley I-80 Bridge at the foot of Addison Street (one block south of University Avenue), and is traversed near Interstate 80 by a segment of the San Francisco Bay Trail.
The eastern-most portion of the Marina (running parallel to I80/580 is now a part of the Eastshore State Park.
[edit] References
- Berkeley, California: the story of the evolution of a hamlet into a city of culture and commerce by William Warren Ferrier, Imprint Berkeley, Calif. (1933); pp.375-6
- Berkeley: The Town and the Gown of It, by George Pettitt, Howell-North Books, Berkeley (1973)
- Berkeley: The First Seventy-Five Years, Federal Writers Project (1941), p.140
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| Neighborhoods | Berkeley Hills · Berkeley Marina · Claremont · Cragmont · Downtown Berkeley · La Loma Park · Lorin District · Northside · Ocean View · South Berkeley · West Berkeley · Westbrae |
| Education | Berkeley City College · Berkeley High School · Berkeley Unified School District · Graduate Theological Union · University of California, Berkeley |
| Trunk roads and Highways | Interstate 80 · Interstate 580 · Piedmont Avenue · San Pablo Avenue (SR 123) · Solano Avenue · Telegraph Avenue |
| Public Transportation | AC Transit · Ashby BART · Berkeley Amtrak Station · Berkeley BART · North Berkeley BART |
