San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park
Published On: Mar 29, 2006

San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park
Hype Street Pier
San Francisco, CA

San Francisco is a city full of culture and history, for those that are seeking a little bit of both a trip to the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park may be in order. The park is comprised of historical ships, a visitor center, a museum and a research facility.
For those wanting to tour the historic vessels, the fleet is moored at Hyde Street Pier and is made up of six major ships as well as one hundred smaller boats. Bigger ships ranging from schooners to tug boats are all there to be viewed. Among the bigger ships on display are the Balcutha, the C.A. Thayer, Eureka, Alma, Hercules and Eppleton Hall.
The Visitor Center is located on the waterfront and tells the tales of San Francisco's sailing history. The center is filled with informational plaques and exhibits as well as an information desk so you can get all of your questions answered.
Originally designed as a public bathhouse, the maritime museum is located in the Streamline Moderne. The Steamship room goes over the advances that have been made in technology as ships went from wind power to steam power. The second floor of the museum is filled with photos of an early San Francisco waterfront as well as exhibits of whaling guns. The third floor contains more exhibits such as shipboard radios and radio teletype technology.
For those that want to learn more about the ships and ship builders, take a trip over to the Research Library where you can look over 120,000 architectural drawings and about 5,000 maps and charts.

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