Treasure Island in California

Wednesday, 30 January 2019 - 11:00 am (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination:
Category/Kategorie: General, San Francisco Bay Area
Reading Time:  6 minutes

Headquarters Building at US Naval Station Treasure Island © Bruce C. Cooper/cc-by-3.0

Headquarters Building at US Naval Station Treasure Island © Bruce C. Cooper/cc-by-3.0

Treasure Island is an artificial island in the San Francisco Bay and a neighborhood in the city and county of San Francisco. Built 1936–37 for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition, the island’s World’s Fair site is a California Historical Landmark. Buildings there have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the historical Naval Station Treasure Island an auxiliary air facility (for airships, blimps, dirigibles, planes and seaplanes) are designated in the Geographic Names Information System.

The San Francisco census tract that includes Treasure Island extends far into San Francisco Bay and includes a tip of Alameda Island. Yerba Buena and Treasure islands together have a land area of 576.7 acres (233.4 ha) with – in 2010 – a total population of 2,500. Treasure Island is connected by a 900 ft (270 m) causeway to Yerba Buena Island, which in turn has on- and off-ramps to Interstate 80 on the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. The island has a marina and a bikeway connecting to the newly completed Eastern span replacement of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. Raised walkways circumscribe nearly the entire island along five streets (Avenue of the Palms, Perimeter Road, Avenue N, Pan American World Airways Esplanade and Clipper Cove Way, formerly known as 1st Street).

2008 Treasure Island Music Festival © flickr.com - Tyler Love Headquarters Building at US Naval Station Treasure Island © Bruce C. Cooper/cc-by-3.0 Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island (bottom) © NASA Treasure Island from Yerba Buena Island © Albrecht Conz/cc-by-2.5 Treasure Island Marina © BrokenSphere/cc-by-sa-4.0 Treasure Island towards Yerba Buena Island and the Bay Bridge © Tristan Sapp
<
>
Headquarters Building at US Naval Station Treasure Island © Bruce C. Cooper/cc-by-3.0
From the late 1980s, Treasure Island’s old aircraft Hangar 2 (Building 2) and Hangar 3 (Building 3) served as sound stages for film-making and TV, e.g., The Matrix (“bullet timevisual effect), Rent, and The Pursuit of Happyness. Treasure Island was a film setting of the 1939 Charlie Chan at Treasure Island, 1988 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Berlin airport scene), 1995 Copycat (private compound), 1997 Flubber, 1998 What Dreams May Come, 1998 Patch Adams, 1998 The Parent Trap and 1999 Bicentennial Man. An establishing shot of the 1954 The Caine Mutiny shows the main gate and Administration Bldg 1 to indicate the location of the fictitious court martial. For three years Treasure Island served as the site of the Battlebots TV show. The offices and penthouse apartment sets in Nash Bridges were located on the island during the show’s production (1996–2001). The island was featured as the base of operations for the prototypers in the 2008 Discovery Channel series Prototype This!. Building 180 (warehouse) and Building 111 (former firehouse) on Treasure Island served as film settings for an NBC series titled Trauma.

Cleanup crews spent several weeks cleaning the island’s coast from the 2007 Cosco Busan oil spill just a few hundred yards from Treasure Island, and the Navy sold the island to the city for $108 million as part of a redevelopment project. The Federal government still maintains an active presence on 40 acres (16 ha) occupied by the United States Department of Labor Job Corps (not part of the redevelopment). The Job Corps moved in and took over 40 acres (16 ha) and 13 building facilities just after the US Navy vacated the island. The Administration Building (Bldg. 1) and Hall of Transportation (Bldg. 2) were listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2008. On June 8, 2011, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved new neighborhood development for 19,000 people over the next 20–30 years by Wilson Meany Sullivan, Lennar Urban, and Kenwood Investments. The 2012-2014 US$1.5 billion Treasure Island Development project for up to 8,000 new residences, 140,000 sq ft (13,000 m²) of new commercial and retail space, 100,000 sq ft (9,300 m²) of new office space, 3 hotels, new Fire station and 300 acres (120 ha) of parks. The island’s gas station pumps and canopy were also removed (the island has a high risk of soil liquefaction and tsunami damage in an earthquake). All island natural gas, electricity, sewer and water utilities are serviced by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. By December 2010, Navy contractors had removed 16,000 cubic yards (12,000 m³) of contaminated dirt from the site, “some with radiation levels 400 times the Environmental Protection Agency’s human exposure limits for topsoil.” The contaminated dirt is to be replaced by dirt removed during construction of the fourth Caldecott Tunnel bore. In April 2013, caesium-137 levels three times higher than previously recorded were found (the island hosted “radioactive ships from Bikini Atoll atomic tests and [was] a major education center training personnel for nuclear war” – the USS Pandemonium (PCDC-1) mockup had begun nuclear training in 1957.

Read more on Treasure Island Development Authority – Businesses, Attractions and Recreation, San Francisco Travel Association – Treasure Island, thrillist.com – 12 things you had no idea you could do on Treasure Island and Wikipedia Treasure Island (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). Photos by Wikimedia Commons. If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.




Recommended posts:

Share this post: (Please note data protection regulations before using buttons)

Palazzo Barberini in Rome

Palazzo Barberini in Rome

[caption id="attachment_218237" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © flickr.com - Jean-Pierre Dalbéra/cc-by-2.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Palazzo Barberini (English: Barberini Palace) is a 17th-century palace in Rome, facing the P...

[ read more ]

Theme Week Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur

Theme Week Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur

[caption id="attachment_203626" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © flickr.com - naim fadil/cc-by-sa-2.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Kuala Lumpur, officially the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur and commonly known as KL, is the nationa...

[ read more ]

Theme Week Calabria - Corigliano Calabro

Theme Week Calabria - Corigliano Calabro

[caption id="attachment_239752" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Il Conte Suino Atomico/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Corigliano Calabro is a town and a frazione of Corigliano-Rossano located in the province of Cosenza, c...

[ read more ]

Mercado da Ribeira in Lisbon

Mercado da Ribeira in Lisbon

[caption id="attachment_193039" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © flickr.com - Paul Arps/cc-by-2.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Mercado da Ribeira is a market hall on Avenida 24 de Julho of the Portuguese capital of Lisbon, where f...

[ read more ]

Schwaebisch Hall in the Kocher Valley

Schwaebisch Hall in the Kocher Valley

[caption id="attachment_154322" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Historic town centre © Re-Zensor[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Schwäbisch Hall (or Hall for short) is a town in the state of Baden-Württemberg and capital of the district...

[ read more ]

Theme Week Thailand - Surat Thani

Theme Week Thailand - Surat Thani

[caption id="attachment_204587" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Marinapark © panoramio.com - Ralf Schmidt/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Surat Thani is a city in Amphoe Mueang Surat Thani, Surat Thani Province, southern Thai...

[ read more ]

Theme Week Vatican City - St. Peter's Basilica

Theme Week Vatican City - St. Peter's Basilica

[caption id="attachment_191910" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Tiber, Ponte Sant'Angelo and St. Peter's Basilica © Rabax63/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Papal Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican, or simply St. Peter's...

[ read more ]

Theme Week North Korea - Hamhung

Theme Week North Korea - Hamhung

[caption id="attachment_218615" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Mass Dance © flickr.com - Mario Micklisch/cc-by-2.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Hamhŭng is North Korea's second largest city, and the capital of South Hamgyŏng Province...

[ read more ]

Palestrina in Latio

Palestrina in Latio

[caption id="attachment_246449" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Museo archeologico nazionale di Palestrina in Palazzo Barberini © Acquario51/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Palestrina (ancient: Praeneste; Ancient Greek: Prain...

[ read more ]

The Great Journeys of New Zealand

The Great Journeys of New Zealand

[caption id="attachment_196622" align="aligncenter" width="500"] The Great Journeys of New Zealand © KiwiRail/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Great Journeys of New Zealand is the tourism division of KiwiRail that brings to...

[ read more ]

Füssen, on the Romantic Road and the Via Claudia Augusta

Füssen, on the Romantic Road and the Via Claudia Augusta

[caption id="attachment_161050" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Daniel71953[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Füssen is a town in Bavaria, in the district of Ostallgäu situated 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) from the Austrian border. It is locat...

[ read more ]

Theme Week New Zealand - The Marlborough Sounds

Theme Week New Zealand - The Marlborough Sounds

[caption id="attachment_151732" align="aligncenter" width="590"] The Marlborough Sounds, visible to the left of the Space Shuttle. Image taken from the International Space Station© NASA[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Marlborough Sound...

[ read more ]

Return to TopReturn to Top