By John King : sfchronicle – excerpt
Look past the obvious attractions along San Francisco’s bay waterfront, and Hyde Street Pier has long had its own cult appeal.
Tucked between Fisherman’s Wharf and Aquatic Park, it’s an 1,100-foot-long structure lined with historic vessels from as far back as 1886. Visitors can board ships that carried grain from California to Europe, and crossed the bay before today’s bridges were a gleam in anyone’s eye.
At some point this spring, however, four of the floating landmarks will set sail for Vallejo for at least several years — and the century-old pier itself will be torn out and totally rebuilt, a project that may not be complete until 2027.
“There’s going to be disruption, we know that,” said Dale Dualan, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, which manages the pier and nearby Aquatic Park. “But this is an opportunity to preserve these resources for future generations.”.
Though the $102 million project was approved by Congress in 2022, many basic details remain vague — such as what the new pier will look like, or when construction will begin and end. Nor is it clear when the historic vessels that line the pier will depart, or if all will return once work is complete…(more)