This little jewel near Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco is closed during the government shutdown. The park is near the end of the Hyde Street streetcar line and offers a stroll along the Hyde Street pier filled with historic ships. Along with craft on the pier, the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park has museums, visitor and research centers on the shore.
Lumber Schooner, C.A. Thayer
The first ship is an 1895, three-masted schooner designed to carry lumber along the Pacific Coast. You can look on to the city, or look up and imagine yourself at sea.
The masts
The massive 1907 steam tug Hercules towed ships around South America, through the Panama Canal and helped build the navy base at Pearl Harbor.
Steam Tug Hercules
Though there are many other ships along the pier, the last I’ll mention is the 1890 steam ferryboat, the Eureka. Before the Golden Gate bridge, which you can see to the left of the Eureka in the image below, this side-wheel paddle-boat ferried passengers and vehicles across the bay.
Ferryboat Eureka
Originally built to carry freight trains across the bay, after WWI it was reconstructed to carry automobiles and passengers. She continued carrying autos until 1941 even after bridges were built across the Bay. Then she went back to moving train cars until she broke down in the middle of the bay in 1957.
The bridge view brings us back to looking at the San Francisco skyline.
The Eureka’s bridge