RON HENGGELER

This exhibit was a labor of love for park staff, who worked with Academy Studios to design a visitor experience that avoided the walls and cases of a typical museum. It took a year of research and design plus three more years to complete.

The exhibit is organized into six areas. Upon entering, visitors are drawn into the lush, marshy edge of San Francisco Bay during the 1770s in the area we now know as Crissy Field, as they stand and gaze into a huge floor to ceiling mural.

A detail from “The Waterfront” exhibit, at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park
Historic sections of San Francisco’s storied waterfront, not seen for over a hundred years, are being replicated.

Over 360 artifacts from the Park's collection are carefully tucked into ship facades, store front windows, and even ship passengers' luggage.

Extensive collaboration with representatives from the Native American, Chinese, and Italian communities helped ensure that the sounds and content were as authentic as possible.

A detail from “The Waterfront” exhibit, The Southern Piers, early 1900’s. . .The Ferries and Ferry Building
at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park

View two slide presentations that are part of the exhibit on wooden shipbuilding on San Francisco Bay and the coastal lumber trade.

A detail from “The Waterfront” exhibit,
at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park
Stroll along Fisherman's Wharf piers in the 1920s, past trim Italian fishing boats and fresh fish for sale.

A state of the art film takes visitors to the top of Telegraph Hill where they can watch boats and ships sailing San Francisco Bay from the earliest times to the present. The audiovisual design firm John Cavala Associates collaborated with park staff to create the film, other sounds and stories.

At the foot of Market Street, visitors can touch an anchor or a huge timber from a real Gold Rush ship recently unearthed by archeologists.
Walk on a glass floor and view Gold Rush artifacts recently discovered in San Francisco’s Financial District.

At the Waterfront Exhibit, make your way south to the watery inlet of Channel Street.
Not actually a street, today it's called Mission Creek and it feeds McCovey's Cove at the AT&T ballpark.

Here, you'll find hay scows or lumber schooners, unloading fresh lumber from Puget Sound just over your head, while the clamor of steel shipyards waits for you further south.

A detail from “The Waterfront” exhibit,
Potrero Point and Hunters Point 1880’s to 1940’s
Your ears will ring with the clamor of steel shipbuilding as you make your way toward Hunter's Point.

A detail from “The Waterfront” exhibit,
at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park
The mural on the right depicts the San Francisco Bay shoreline near the Golden Gate as it looked in the 1770s.

A detail from “The Waterfront” exhibit,
at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park
Eavesdrop on sailors trading yarns at a raucous Barbary Coast bar.

The Visitor Center is at 499 Jefferson Street in SF, cross street Hyde, and open seven days a week from 9:30am to 5pm.
415-447-5000.

Tourists at Aquatic Park across from Ghirardelli Square
San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, San Francisco

A homeless man at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park

Alcatraz seen from the beach at Aquatic Park across from Ghirardelli Square
The beach is part of the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park

Homeless man in San Francisco, seen near the Visitors Center,
at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park

A view at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park

An old lifeguard station at the Aquatic Park Historic District,
San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park

The Dolphin Club at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park

Jefferson Street at Hyde, the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park

Historic Ships at the Hyde Street Pier,
San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park

Homeless on Mission Street, San Francisco

Homeless at the entrance to the San Francisco Main Library, Grove and Hyde

The Golden Gate and bridge seen from the Berkeley Marina

Homeless in San Francisco, alongside the Old Mint at 5th and Mission

Moments after sunset,
the Golden Gate and bridge as seen from the Berkeley Marina