“Bowl For Health”, Treasure Island, San Francisco, CA, 2007.
All the pixels, shoe rental not included, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/2123765265
#photography
“Bowl For Health”, Treasure Island, San Francisco, CA, 2007.
All the pixels, shoe rental not included, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/2123765265
#photography
San Francisco’s Treasure Island is a weird place. An artificial island built adjacent to Yerba Buena Island in the middle of the Bay Bridge, it initially hosted the 1939 World’s fair, with plans to then use it for the city’s main airport. At the start of WW II, the US government appropriated it for use as a Naval station. After the Cold War, the government returned the island to the city. It was extensively contaminated by radioactive waste from decontamination training conducted on the island.
@[email protected] Would have been a cool airport to land at.
And then hellish to get to the city from, unless it had a BART stop…
@[email protected] You could catch a streetcar on the Bay Bridge, though.
@[email protected] @[email protected] RIP
@luis_in_brief @mattblaze I’m trying to imagine the flight path, with the bridge right there.
@msbellows @luis_in_brief Keep in mind that commercial aviation generally used pretty small planes, and seaplanes were pretty common (eg, PanAm “Clipper” service). I’m not sure if they were considering TI primarily an airport for seaplanes or not, but if so, that would be fairly easy to do near the bridge.
@[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] Don’t know about “primarily” but there are lots of great stills, films, and art of seaplanes there at the time.
This article has a fun picture with the bridge still under construction: https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/16-17-april-1935/
@[email protected] Slightly creepy having these next to a well trodden path there.
@[email protected] Not long ago they had the radiation, but not the signs.
@[email protected] I worked for a few years on the Alameda (ex-)naval base with much the same situation and it was beginning to get disturbing how many people I worked with fell to cancer. But it’s tricky to find background rates to compare with to see if this is typical.
@[email protected] Someone I know who was working on a soundstage n Alameda was told “Whatever you do, don’t bring a Geiger counter. The readings will upset you and there will be nothing you can do about it.”
@[email protected] The only reason I don’t have a Geiger counter is that I couldn’t decide which model to get from the wide array on offer :)
@[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] that’s an … interesting … way to fame that information.
By now many, though not all, of the structures from the island’s military era have been demolished (including the bowling alley in the photo). Environmental remediation is proceeding slowly.
A small community of mostly low-income families live in the island’s housing, and some of the larger buildings are used as sound stages for film production and related industries. Fancier redevelopment is starting to accelerate.