Walking The Ways of WWII in Sausalito

In March of 1942, earthmovers began to push over 800,000 tons of soil up, down and around the swampy Sausalito waterfront to create a huge shipyard known as "Marinship". At its height of operation during WWII, the yard had 20,000 employees working three shifts around the clock. By September of 1945, when the last vessel slid down the ways just days after the Japanese surrender in Tokyo, 93 Liberty Ships, tankers, and oilers (floating gas stations for ships) had been built and sent off on war duty.

The shipyard is long gone, but artifacts of its tenure along these shores remain, along with several shipyard buildings (including the one housing the San Francisco Bay Model) that have been converted to peace-time uses. There are two ways that you can relive the history of those times: Watch a recently filmed documentary entitled "Marinship Memories" which focuses on the lives of several of the yard's workers living in Marin City (click here for the Marin I-J Mother's Day story about the film which soon will be "playing" on the County of Marin Web site "Channel G"), or go on an hour and half walking tour of the old shipyard locales led by Bay Model docent Carol Schoenfeld (pictured here with fellow docent, Dick Jordan). The tour begins at the Bay Model Visitor Center, 10:30 am - Noon, the second Saturday of each month; next tour will be on June 13th).