San Francisco Municipal Pier aka “The Muni”

By the way, Mr. Lombard is the proud holder of the California record for monkeyface eels (aka monkeyface prickleback) and even publishes the Monkeyface Eel News made out of eel skins. Now that’s impressive!

[Update — Kirk now runs the very successful website  — seaforger.com — leads tours showing where and how to catch various fish and other critters — and has a plethora of YouTube videos that are both instructional and entertaining.]

Rubberlip Seaperch — 2004

<*}}}}}}}}}>< — Fish surveys done by the Department of Fish and Game in the mid-2000’s showed the following fish at the pier (in order of number caught): jacksmelt (more than double the next fish), shiner perch, white croaker, white seaperch, walleye surfperch, Pacific sanddab, brown rockfish, black seaperch, silver surfperch, striped seaperch, cabezon, kelp greenling, monkeyface eel (prickleback), grass rockfish, bull sculpin and Pacific tomcod. Not sure why a few sharks and rays didn’t turn up although I imagine no fish surveys were done at night. Also not sure why the stripefin ronquil mentioned above wasn’t on the list.

<*}}}}}}}}}>< — Some old Fishing Reports:

Fourteen year old Ed Sachs of Burlingame tangled with a 15 pounder at the Van Ness avenue pier in San Francisco, and landed him after a half hour fight. —Fish Flashes by Cliff, San Mateo Times, July 12, 1934

The striped bass are biting well over the entire lower bay area from the Carquinez Bridge down to the ocean. Some fine bass have been taken from the ocean in the past week and Baker Beach and the Municipal pier in San Francisco continue to yield big fish. —Fish Flashes by Cliff,  San Mateo Times, July 26, 1935

The long list of catches in bait stores show stripers to 31 pounds taken at Roberts, at the San Francisco Yacht harbor, at Fulton Street, and around 20 nice fish were brought in at the Municipal Pier. —A Line On The Sportsman, Bob Dwyer, Oakland Tribune, June 13, 1941

<*}}}}}}}}}>< — Back in the 1930s the pier had its own bait shop (more or less) — the Muni Pier Bait Shop, 987 North Point. In those days there were several tackle shops/bait shops in S.F. —  Golden Gate Fish & Bait Co., 2770 Taylor; Henry’s Tackle Shop, 1674 Geary; Jerry’s Bait & Tackle Shop, 1675 O’Farrell; Modern Bait & Tackle Shop, 2969 Mission; Pioneer Bait Shop, 1646 Market; Sam’s Bait Shop, 1757 O’Farrell; Kahn’s Tackle Shop, 1431 Polk Street and probably others.

<*}}}}}}}}}>< — I turned on the TV the other day to an old Dirty Harry Movie—The Enforcer. What’s the first thing I see? Harry (Clint Eastwood) talking to a fellow detective on the Muni Pier as someone is tossing a crab net over the side of the pier. Great location for a movie.

<*}}}}}}}}}>< —  Special Bay Area Regulations:

• A perch closure exits in San Francisco and San Pablo Bay from April 1 to July 31. No perch may be kept other than shinerperch (20).
• In San Francisco and San Pablo Bay a fishing line may not contain more than three hooks.

Sturgeon Regulations:

• A sturgeon report card and tags are required for anyone fishing for or taking sturgeon. (a) The card must be in the angler’s possession; (b) a tag must be used for any sturgeon retained by the angler; (c) the angler must record information on the Sturgeon Report Card immediately after catching and   keeping or releasing the sturgeon.
• White sturgeon can only be kept from 40-60 inches; larger and smaller sturgeon must be released.
• Green sturgeon may not be taken or possessed.

History Note. Plans for a recreational pier and an adjacent Aquatic Park were in existence by 1920 (when a Bureau of Engineering picture shows the “Aquatic Park” which was designated for development in the cove at the end of Van Ness). Nevertheless, it would be more than a decade before the pier was constructed and nearly twenty years before Aquatic Park itself was finished.

Deeds Exchanged for S.F. Aquatic Park

San Francisco, Aug. 18.— Work on a new aquatic park at the foot of Van Ness avenue, to cost $350,000, will commence in a few days, following exchange of land deeds yesterday between the city and the war department. The city gave the government a deed for the land occupied by the new wharf built for the government near Fort Mason, and in return the government deeded frontage for the aquatic park, which calls for the building of a pier and breakwater, a white sand beach, pleasure and automobile drives, and provisions for swimming and boating in semi-heated water. The area enclosed will occupy 15 or 16 acres, and will be something unique in the way of aquatic parks, city officials said.

—Oakland Tribune, August 18, 1931

The Municipal Pier was built between October of 1931 and May of 1933. It was a single pier even though the 1929 plans (developed by the firm of Bakewell and Brown) had called for two identical curving piers.

The second pier was designed as an amusement pier but was never built. Initially most people seemed to have called it the Aquatic Pier or Aquatic Park Pier. This was true even though Aquatic Park itself wasn’t finished until the late ’30s (it was dedicated on January 22, 1939). However, by the early 1940s, most residents simply called the pier the Muni Pier.

Auto Ferry Crash Damages Four Cars

San Francisco, Jan. 8.—Four automobiles were damaged by falling timbers and dozens of passengers and the crew were endangered when the Southern Pacific Golden Gate automobile ferry Golden Bear crashed into the aquatic park pier last night. A rip tide was blamed for the crash. The boat left Berkeley at 9:30 o’clock, bound for the Hyde Street slip. The tide was running swiftly and the boat could not be docked in its proper place, officers reported. They said that the aquatic park pier was not lighted, and that the side of the ferry crashed into the pier. Boat boat and pier were splintered by the collision.

—Oakland Tribune, January 8, 1934

San Francisco’s newest recreation center was built by the WPA… The landscaped park spreads along a semicircle of beach on a cove in the lee of Black Point. The municipal pier, circular in shape, encloses a half-mile stretch of water for swimming, boating, and racing. Inland rises the white Casino, four stories high toward the sea, with ends rounded like a ship’s stern, and stories, or decks, semielliptical in shape. Its seaward face is almost entirely of glass. On the lowest floor are bathing facilities to accommodate several thousand persons a day…  the central lounge room on the second floor is decorated with murals by the Federal Art Project, picturing marine and undersea life; elsewhere are statues of St. Francis and Sun Yat Sen… On each side of the Casino are stone bleachers and a promenade running the length of the beach.—California, A Guide To the Golden State, Federal Writers Project, Works Progress Administration, 1939

 

In 1942, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the pier was placed under the management of the federal government where it stayed throughout World War II. The government continued to allow fishing off the pier but it was restricted at night. During the war years the pier did suffer some damage, but it wasn’t from the Japanese, it was from a local tugboat that backed into the pier.

After the war, the pier reverted to the city, but by then (1947) the pier itself was in need of repair. Portions of the pier’s surface had apparently dropped by as much as a foot, there was considerable scouring between the pilings, and many of the pilings themselves were broken or damaged (by culprits like tugboats and wood eating Toredos). The immediate result was a prohibition on motorized vehicles (which had been allowed to drive onto the pier); the longer term result was repairs which took place in 1948. Repairs included the installation of riprap along the pier to lessen future scouring around the pilings.

The Ancient characters who sit every day, rain or fog, on the debris-littered “beach” at Aquatic Park—the “playground for the people” that turned out to be a cemetery for broken bottles and dreams to match… —Herb Caen, Baghdad-by-the-Bay,1949

On February 3, 1953, the freighter Harry Luckenbach, inbound during a “soupy ground fog,”  rammed the pier and cut a large, 12-foot pie-shaped wedge out of the pier. The pier itself was repaired but the electrical wiring for the lights, which had also been damaged, wasn’t repaired. The pier still doesn’t have lighting (and nearly 70 years seems like somewhat of a long time to wait for repairs).

To this day the pier remains a popular attraction but one which definitely shows its age. It is, in fact, threatened with closure. A survey in 1979 estimated a $2 million bill to repair the pier. Then, the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake hit, damaged more than 30 pilings, and severely weakened the pier’s ability to withstand horizontal stress. Today the estimated bill is more than $4 million and the Throttlebottoms entrusted with maintaining our park lands simply throw up their hands and say there isn’t any money. Hopefully someone will figure out a plan before it is too late.

As mentioned, it’s an interesting area even if you don’t fish. Up the street, a short distance from the pier, are the railroad lines of the State Belt Line Railroad, lines that eventually disappear into a tunnel under Fort Mason (and proposals were once made to run an old-time excursion train from the Presido to the Ferry Building). A little further up the street, on the bay side, is an area favored by sun seekers, and as they gather in their bathing suits it almost doesn’t feel like San Francisco. But just a short distance further up the street brings you to the bocce-ball courts which are almost always busy with practitioners of the sport (mostly elderly Italian gentlemen, at least when I’ve watched). Continue up the street and you’ll see a building shaped like a ship, this is the National Maritime Museum, and worth a visit anytime. On the other side of Aquatic Park sits the Hyde Street Pier and a number of old-time ships and ferries.

Transport Wharf No. 4, the small pier that sits to the left of the Muni Pier also has an interesting history. At one time it was used as the wharf to transport prisoners to Alcatrez. Al Capone, the Birdman of Alcatrez, and other prisoners were whisked away to the island, that for many, would serve as their final home.  Today it is closed but fishing around the pilings can be excellent for perch.   

San Francisco Municipal Pier Facts

Hours: Open 24 hours a day.
Facilities: There is considerable free parking near the entrance to the pier although this is such a heavily visited area that you are never guaranteed a spot unless you arrive early in the morning. If you can’t find a spot go over to Fort Mason, park, and walk back — although it is a considerable walk if you’re carrying a lot of fishing equipment. Restrooms are located just up the street from the pier as is a snack bar and grassy areas with benches. Benches with wind breaks and portable toilets are found on the pier. There are no fish cleaning tables or lights.
Handicapped Facilities: Some handicapped parking near the entrance to the pier. No handicapped facilities on the pier. The surface is concrete and the railing is approximately 40 inches high.
How To Get There: From Highway 101 north, take Lombard Street to Van Ness Avenue, turn left and follow the street till it ends at the pier. From Highway 101 south, take Van Ness Avenue straight to the pier.
Management: National Park Service.