The Port of Richmond is on California’s northeastern shore of the San Francisco Bay. Located in South Richmond at the end of Canal Boulevard, the Port of Richmond is one of the United States’ largest seaports.
Port History
Shell mounds built about 5000 years ago by the ancient Ohlone Indians have been found near the Port of Richmond, California. The first Europeans visited the site on the East Bay in 1772. After Mexico won its independence in 1821, Francisco Castro was given 17 thousand acres and made the site part of his Rancho San Pablo. After his death, the City of Richmond was established there.
Augustin Macdonald visited Point Richmond in 1895 and was inspired with the idea for a rail terminal and ferry service for a direct route to San Francisco. When the Santa Fe Railway terminated in the Port of Richmond in 1900, the railway moved its shops there, and ferry service was established. In 1901, Standard Oil built a refinery.
With a population of just over two thousand, Richmond was incorporated in 1905, though it was already a thriving industrial town. By 1910, 7,500 people lived there. Rancho San Pablo’s fields were subdivided into city lots, and towns began to grow up around the industries. Harbor construction started in 1907, and bond issues helped fund dredging and terminal construction.
World War II brought dramatic changes to the Port of Richmond when the Kaiser Richmond shipyards became one of the country’s biggest ship-building operations, supplying more than 750 warships. The Rosie the Riveter Memorial in Marina Bay marks the location of the shipyards and commemorates the role of women to the war effort.
By 1943, over 93 thousand people lived there, and over 60 thousand of them lived in “temporary” public housing that remains today. The shipyards closed when the war ended, production declined quickly, and population decreased from the 1947 high of 101 thousand to about 72 thousand in 1960. New industries occupied the shipyards, and the Port of Richmond Redevelopment Agency undertook several projects to redevelop the area.
Post-war development included warehousing and distribution facilities and chemical and research facilities. Standard Oil (now Chevron USA) and its subsidiaries continue to be the city’s biggest employer and industry. Since 1960, several major projects (Marina Bay, the Knox Freeway, Richmond Parkway, and a shopping center) transformed both the city’s face and its economy. New development efforts began in the 1980s, and the Port of Richmond’s population grew to over 90 thousand in 1995.
Port Commerce
The Port of Richmond is the most diversified cargo-handling port in northern California. In addition to its traditional oil and liquid bulk cargoes, the port has expanded to handle dry and break bulk, containers, and automobiles. The Port of Richmond contains five city-owned terminals and ten private terminals. In 1993, the Port of Richmond handled 26 million tons of cargo.
About nine miles from the Golden Gate, the Port of Richmond is accessible through a 38-foot deep-water channel, the Richmond Harbor Channel, maintained by the federal government. Linked to the interstate highway system and transcontinental railroads, the Port of Richmond provides for easy distribution of cargoes to and from its hinterlands.
The Port of Richmond’s Terminal 2 contains a 225-foot concrete wharf with a draft of 35 feet and berthing length of 720 feet. Terminal 2 covers about 8 acres, with 140 thousand square feet of warehouse for storage and distribution of liquid bulk. The Terminal boasts rail connections for the easy transfer of cargo.
Terminal 3 supports the import, storage, and distribution of containers, break bulk, and project cargo. It contains a thousand-foot concrete wharf with 1250 feet of berthing space with a depth of 35 feet. Its warehouse covers 80 thousand square feet, and the terminal is connected to adjacent terminals by rail. The Port of Richmond’s Terminal 4 covers about 37 acres and offers berthing length of a thousand feet at 28 feet deep. It also contains 12 thousand square feet of warehouse.
The Pt. Potrero Marine Terminal supports the import, storage, and distribution of automobiles and dry, liquid, and break bulk cargo. It offers a 2300-foot concrete wharf, two 550-foot concrete piers, and total berthing space of 1620 feet at a depth of 35 feet. The terminal contains two 170-thousand square foot warehouses and 11 rail car spots.
Cruising and Travel
The City of Richmond’s Point Richmond is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city where visitors will find a charming Victorian style. The East Brother Lighthouse is one of three wood frame lighthouses left on the United States’ Pacific Coast. Opened in 1874, the US Coast Guard operated it from 1939 until 1969 when automation took over.
The Miller/Knox Regional Shoreline covers 260 hilly acres where visitors enjoy hiking, biking, and outdoor activities. The Sobrante Ridge Regional Preserve contains a variety of wildlife and the rare endangered chaparral plant. This 277-acre park boasts hills and woody ravines. Point Pinole Regional Park covers over 2 thousand acres of shoreline where fishers can enjoy their favorite sport on its quarter-mile fishing pier.
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