Richardson’s Bay: What Could Have Been
Tuesday, October 9, 2012 at 02:43PM By Mitch Powers
Can you imagine Coney Island in Richardson’s Bay? It might have happened if Joseph Strauss had his wish. This and other off the wall bay development schemes are described in Mitch Powers’ new book, “A brief history of Sausalito and Richardson’s Bay.” Here are some excerpts:
In December 1935 Joseph Strauss, chief engineer for the Golden Gate Bridge, proposed filling in the northern half of Richardson’s Bay to create an amusement park, coliseum and airfield, among other things. Fortunately this idea never materialized. Prior to the 1939 World's Fair officials considered dumping fill in a large section of the northwestern bay, thinking that once filled and leveled the area could be used for an airport after the fair. In the end, they selected Goat Island shoals next to Yerba Buena Island, filled the area in and created Treasure Island.
In 1912 there was a proposal to cut a four mile channel from Tennessee Valley Cove (the channel being located on the west side of Richardson’s Bay Bridge) over to Richardson’s Bay, thus creating a backdoor shipping canal into the Bay. This idea came up again in 1936 when the Navy was eyeballing Richardson’s Bay as a potential submarine base. The idea was to avoid the treacherous Potato Patch off the coast as well as the fog drenched entrance at the Golden Gate. The Sausalito City Council liked this idea because for some time they had wanted to dredge out a deeper channel so ships could travel farther up into Richardson’s Bay In conjunction with building the canal the Navy would also have to dredge a deeper route along the waterfront. However, the Navy scrapped the whole plan.
One reason for the construction of the Bay Model in 1957 was that in the 1940s John Reber, a local theater producer, devised the Reber Plan to build two dams in the Bay to create freshwater reservoirs. The dams were to be built where the San Rafael Richmond and Bay Bridges are today. Congress allotted $2.5 million to study the proposal. The Bay Model, at a cost of $400,000, was constructed to run tests to help determine the validity
of the Reber Plan. Reber died in 1960 before the tests were finished in 1963, determining his plan unfeasible.
Mitch Powers’ book is currently available at the Ice House. It also contains tour itineraries of the Sausalito waterfront, either by foot, by car, or by boat.
Joseph Strauss
Photo courtesy of Sausalito Historical Society
Reader Comments