On A Tank Of Gas: June
From June 2005
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Strait Scoops: Carquinez and Mare Island Where History Mixes With Renewal, Recreation and Rest
By Patricia Kutza
It was once the nautical highway of superlatives: From Port Costa’s deepwater port during the late 1870s, the Carquinez and Mare Island straits were plied by mega-train ferries and huge merchantsailing ships.
They hauled grain, as well as a lively mix of sailors, townsfolk, railroad workers and, earlier on, carried such passenger luminaries as General Mariano Vallejo, the Mexican commandant for Northern California.
Nowadays a lively mix of tourists and commuters board ferries at Mare Island Strait, bound for San Francisco. They leave their cars behind in the city that shares its name with the general, Vallejo. It’s a different century, but the Carquinez and Mare Island straits still make their mark on the cities that front their waters.
Slumbering Port Costa
Boaters cruising the Carquinez Strait see a vista that’s at once very modern and very much a throwback to earlier days. Approaching both the new and old Carquinez Bridges, on their starboard side Benicia’s horizon is a mesh of townhouses, shops and a busy marina.
Continued...
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