Rocky and friend Botanical Gardens November 23rd, 2024
By Peter Hartlaub, Culture Critic Nov 21, 2024 - San Francisco Chronicle
The obituary for the Klamath ferry on Sept. 1, 1956, was full of melancholy and poetry.
The Richmond-San Rafael Bridge had been completed days earlier, rendering the four identical auto and passenger ferry boats linking Marin and Contra Costa counties obsolete. The Chronicle reported tears flowing as nostalgic commuters and lifetime ferry employees said a final goodbye to the diesel-powered vessel.
“To the south, against a skyful of stars,” the Chronicle reported, “the passengers stared at the bright beads of lights on the bridge that had doomed the El Paso, the Klamath, the Sierra Nevada and the Russian River.”
That would be the end for most mid-century commuter ferries. But it was just the beginning for the Klamath, the Bay Area’s “Forrest Gump” of passenger watercraft. Over the past century, it has reinvented itself over and over, hosting the Rolling Stones, ramming a Navy submarine, witnessing the birth of logos for Coke and Levi’s, and entertaining heads of state.
In its latest act, a ferry that once carried 1,000 passengers and 78 cars is now the best-kept secret on the Embarcadero; among the most lux of the city’s growing public open spaces, with stunning views and a rooftop garden you can visit today.
This historic S.F. ferry has a rooftop garden open to the public. Here’s how to visit for free
Greg