Ferryboat Berkeley

She was the largest commuter ferry in the country when she launched in 1898, rated for seventeen hundred people, and in April 1906 she ran day and night carrying them the other way, out of a burning San Francisco to Oakland. She kept the Oakland run for another fifty two years. The Bay Bridge opened in 1936 and took the traffic, and when the Berkeley went in for repairs in 1958 she never came back, because Southern Pacific ended ferry service that July. The boat did not wear out. The job did.

What the plaque says

Ferryboat “Berkeley” The steam ferryboat “Berkeley” was the first successful west coast-built and operated ferry to be driven by a screw propeller as opposed to side-wheels. Built by the famous Union Iron Works of San Francisco in 1898, the ferry operated until 1958 as part of the San Francisco Bay ferry system. The “Berkeley” is the oldest steel-hulled ferry on the west coast and the earliest double-ended ferryboat to survive with her original historic fabric intact. After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake the “Berkeley” assisted in evacuating refugees to Oakland. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 1031 Plaque placed by the State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with the Maritime Museum Association of San Diego and the Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus, Squibob Chapter, July 9, 2000.

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Star of India — steps away
• San Diego Barracks — 0.7 mi
• La Punta de los Muertos — 0.7 mi
• Spanish Landing — 2.0 mi