FAQs about Aquatic Park & Pier
What is the National Park Service role & involvement? I thought it was a City pier.
Although the City of San Francisco built Aquatic Park Pier with the assistance of the federal Works Progress Administration in the 1930s, the Pier is now the responsibility of the NPS. The Golden Gate National Recreation Area was established in 1972, and between 1977 and 1978 acquired nearby resources related to maritime history, including Aquatic Park. When San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park was established in 1988, it included the maritime museum, historic vessels, Aquatic Park District, and associated historic structures. San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park accepted management responsibility for the Pier in 2004.
What is being done to maintain and keep the Pier open, and what does that cost?
In recent years, the park has spent roughly $123,000 per year to maintain, monitor, and keep the Pier safe for visitors. Recent investments include $186,000 to repair safety fencing and have an engineering firm assess the Pier’s structural integrity. Other investments include new safety fencing, removing deteriorated light poles and installing visible-from-the-water hazard signage to warn cove swimmers and boaters.
What is Aquatic Park’s mission?
As early as 1866, noted architect and planner Frederick Law Olmsted envisioned the Aquatic Park Cove (then Black Point Cove) as a “sea-gate of the city.” As the decades rolled on, other planners thought the area was perfect for a “bay shore park,” and the community floated three city bond measures to finance its creation. San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park seeks to honor and amplify that vision – to continue the tradition of a welcoming public open space that serves as a gateway between the urban metropolis and the beauty of San Francisco Bay. Whether it’s swimming, paddling, strolling, riding, fishing, painting, or just splashing along the beach on a warm day, the Park wants to preserve the public’s enjoyment of this unique San Francisco waterfront recreational and cultural resource.
How does the Pier benefit the rest of the park?
Aquatic Park Pier protects the cove, beach, promenade, Hyde Street Pier (and the five National Historic Landmark vessels berthed there), and the Museum. The Pier calms large waves and swells that would otherwise batter and damage the park’s NHL vessels. It also keeps the public beach from eroding, and prevents deterioration of the promenade. The Pier makes the cove safe for swimming, enables a range of water-dependent children’s educational programs, like boatbuilding and (sea) scouting. .
Why is it important that the Pier is a National Historic Landmark?
A National Historic Landmark is a nationally significant historic place that possesses an exceptional value or quality in illustrating or interpreting the heritage of the United States. As contributing element of the Aquatic Park District, the Pier received landmark status in 1987. The Pier and District are of national significance in architecture and landscape architecture. It is of regional significance in two areas: military history, as the headquarters for the Anti-Aircraft Defense of the Pacific coast states during the Second World War; and social/humanitarian movements, as one of California’s most extensive depression era work relief programs. Aquatic Park is also of local significance in two areas: as a recreation spot since the Civil War; and for long community planning process which first preserved the land, and then created a public recreation area.
Why is the National Park Service trying to fix the pier?
The mission of the National Park Service is to preserve, unimpaired, the natural and cultural resources and values of the National Park System for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations. Aquatic Park and Pier and Fort Mason are national parks and are part of our city’s and nation’s irreplaceable cultural resources.
What planning has already been done?
Many studies have examined the park and pier, and more are in progress now. In 2009, the park assembled a multi-disciplinary team to look at options to repair and stabilize the Pier. Based on assessments of the deck, railing, wave baffles, and pilings, the group determined the best approach was to essentially rebuild the Pier to its historic alignment, length and width. An order of magnitude cost estimate of that approach, in 2009 dollars, was between $60 - 70 million dollars.
What exactly is wrong with the pier?
The Pier is threatened by loss of strength in its reinforcing steel members, loss of support piles, and spalling of the Pier’s concrete slab (walkway). As a result of these factors, the Pier has deteriorated to one-fourth of its as-built live load capacity. A seismic event or major wave action (such as a tsunami or severe storm) would result in partial or complete loss of the structure. Corrosion activity is ongoing, and there are no known viable alternatives to provide long term corrosion control/mitigation to the reinforced steel elements of the Pier.
How does the city of San Francisco benefit from the Pier?
The iconic Aquatic Park Pier has been enjoyed by generations of San Franciscans. The historic Pier and District are the culmination of decades of local planning and activism—its existence closely tied to the West Coast women’s suffrage movement (City women’s clubs spearheaded the drive to create a recreation area at the site). With a true urban beach, the district welcomes all city residents, and is also a destination for tourists. Many enjoy the park during Fourth of July or other major holidays that draw people to the water. The Pier also provides wave and current protection to the City’s assets along the northern waterfront.
Does the park have any partners working/advocating on behalf of the Pier?
The park’s non-profit partner, the San Francisco Maritime National Park Association through its initiative, Aquatic and Park Pier Project, has built a coalition joining multiple city agencies, key nonprofits, and two national parks to rebuild the pier and forge an exciting future — one that embraces history and meets 21st century needs — for the surrounding area.
Why has the pier been allowed to reach this dire condition?
Because of its location between the Golden Gate and San Francisco’s northern shoreline, the Pier is regularly buffeted by northwesterly wave action, and often stands against the severe wave, swell and surge energy generated by winter storms. Sustained exposure to the marine environment (salt air) has also resulted in corrosion to its reinforcing steel members. Like all piers, repair work is very expensive. Although some maintenance and repair work has been done over the years, park budgets could never cover the cost of extensive repair to the Pier.
Why is it so expensive to fix the pier?
By their nature, piers are precarious extensions of land over the water. Marine infrastructure, like the pier, requires driving pilings into the water, fastening a surface atop, creating a bridge to shore, and then engineering this structure to withstand waves, tides, and storms. In-water demolition and construction, and associated environmental protection measures, are inherently costly. Like any pier on San Francisco Bay, the Aquatic Park Pier is expensive to repair and maintain. But what makes this Pier so unusual – its graceful curve, 60-foot width, 1,400-foot length, 634 concrete-encased timber pilings, and precast concrete wave baffling panels – also adds to the cost of rehabilitating it.
How does the Pier help recreation? Who benefits?
Aquatic Park Pier provides protection from wind and waves, but its integrated and permeable wave baffling system goes a big step further – it calms waves and weakens currents, while allowing the cove it cradles to flush itself clean with each tide. The Pier also prevents boats from entering the cove, making swimming (and other human-powered water recreation) safer and worry-free. The Pier is also a popular, accessible destination for walkers, bikers and even Segway riders. It offers unmatched, “bridge to bridge” views, including Alcatraz and the San Francisco skyline. The Pier also gives local fisherman a rare chance to cast their lines out into the Bay, and take their catch without having to buy a state fishing license (because it is a federal, public pier).
What is the wave baffling system and what does it do?
Underneath the deck, a long row of precast concrete panels stick down into the water. Each panel is supported by a thickened section of the vertical piles, along with two battered piles and a single diagonal brace. These panels reduce the wave energy from swells coming from the west. But unlike a breakwater, the baffling panels allow water to flow back and forth, enabling the cove to flush itself out with each tide cycle. This system balances safe recreation (relatively calm water) with natural cleansing (clean water).
Who will pay for the Park and Pier’s improvements?
With the passage of the 2020 Great American Outdoors Act, $9 billion of federal investment will be devoted to deferred maintenance in the National Park Service. Aquatic Park is a national park and, given the nature of the need and the strength of the partnerships and team in place, we are confident that it will be among the sites selected for this federal funding. Private and philanthropic funding will likely to be required to realize the full potential of surrounding area, which includes city and private property.