Alameda's Bethlehem Shipyard  

World War I produced explosive growth in the Estuary's shipyards. One, the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, opened in 1916 in Alameda on the site of the United Engineering Works, a small shipyard established in 1900. The Bethlehem plant eventually covered more than 80 acres on the Estuary shore just east of the Posey Tube. Facilities included six massive shipways and an enormous turbine machine shop, one of the largest such structures on the Pacific coast. Wartime records were set for speed of construction and for the first-ever quadruple launching. During World War II the refurbished shipyard employed 6,200 men and women in the construction of eight troopships and the repair of over 1,000 damaged vessels. After the wars, like other shipbuilding enterprises, Bethlehem closed. The site is now occupied by Marina Village, a mixed-use development from the 1980s including a shopping center, business park, townhouses, and the largest privately owned marina on San Francisco Bay.

Woodruff Minor
Historian

  "Walk Along the Water"
  © Oakland Museum of California, used with permission.

Explore this Topic:

History of the Union Iron Works Powerhouse, the only remaining building from the Bethlehem Shipyard - National Parks Service

Image of Bethlehem Shipyard - Port of Oakland Archive, used with permission

 

2009 Photograph of remaining Bethlehem
Shipyard ways - Waterfront Action
 

back to history map