Mare Island Naval Shipyard (MINSY) was the first United States Navy base established on the Pacific Ocean in 1854. It is located 25 miles northeast of San Francisco in Vallejo, California.
MINSY made a name for itself as the premier U.S. West Coast submarine port as well as serving as the controlling force in San Francisco Bay Area shipbuilding efforts during World War II.
Mare Island entered the atomic age in 1954 by building the first nuclear submarine on the west coat, the USS Sargo. The shipyard went on to build a total of 17 nuclear-powered submarines, ending with the USS Drum in 1970.
The base was closed in 1996 as part of Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC). This was a national strategy to resolve the political, economic and military issue of excess base capacity. The excess capacity was created by the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the U.S. victory in the cold war. These events quickly lead to the demand for peace dividends and the downsizing of the military, and a shift of money to other programs.
After graduating from Cal Poly S.L.O. in 1982, I worked for IBM on Cold War defense related programs. Only 11 years later, the 1993 BRAC Commission decided to end operations at Mare Island Naval Shipyard. At the age of 20, I was part of the miitary-industrial-complex that helped end the Cold War, and my parents ended up living on military property deemed “no longer required” (full-circle).
In May of 2008, Mom and Dad sold their house in Danville, CA and moved to Mare Island. Ever since getting my bike, I have wanted to explore the island…. Go everywhere, top to bottom… and that’s exactly what I did.
The movie “Submarine Command” (1951) starring William Holden, has many scenes filmed at Mare Island. I remember watching the movie, and realizing that I have been in exactly the same places. Astounding.
MINSY was registered as a California Historical Landmark in 1960, and parts of it were declared a National Historic Landmark District in 1975.
This is near the entrance of the Mare Island Shoreline Heritage Preserve which is approximately 130 acres on the southern end of Mare Island. This area is a National Historic Landmark, the National Parks Service’s highest ranking for historic sites in the United States.
The Mare Island Naval Cemetery (MINC) is the oldest Naval cemetery in the Pacific where Commanders and Captains, doctors and nurses, chaplains, and family members lie together with US Sailors/Marines and foreign Sailors from Russia, France, Canada and Britain.
Burials began at this hillside cemetery in 1856 and continued until 1921. Although it’s not noted for big-name interments, there are some memorable stories among the headstones. Among the approximately 900 buried here are the daughter of Francis Scott Key, murderess Lucy Lawson, and six Russian sailors who were laid to rest during the Civil War.
This hilltop is the highest point on Mare Island with a view of the Richmond Bridge.
On the way back down.
I then went down to the hill and rode over to the Mare Island Causeway Bridge to get to the other side of the Napa River. The Bridge was originally built in 1934 and is 165 feet long and 48.5 feet wide. The middle section of the causeway is a Drawbridge Lift Bridge and is fully staffed with Bridge Operators and can be raised on signal from 6:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m., every day, including Holidays.
The Napa River goes through the Mare Island Strait and separates the peninsula shipyard from the main portion of the city of Vallejo. I stopped in the middle of the causeway to take a picture looking south along the Napa River. It was pretty cool.
Dad moored his “Hunter 240” sailboat at the City of Vallejo Municipal Marina at the north end of the Downtown Marina Waterfront. He and I left from that marina to go sailing out on the S.F. Bay. I so enjoyed riding my bike around there.
The Vallejo Waterfront has a promenade along the water’s edge, which is an area providing open space and parks for walking, biking and picnicking, from Curtola Parkway on the south to the Mare Island Causeway on the north.
