Yerba Buena Island
United States · Americas
About
Yerba Buena Island (Spanish: Isla Yerba Buena) sits in San Francisco Bay within the borders of the City and County of San Francisco. The Yerba Buena Tunnel runs through its center and connects the western and eastern spans of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, linking the city with Oakland, California. Treasure Island is connected by a causeway to Yerba Buena Island. According to the United States Census Bureau, Yerba Buena Island and Treasure Island together have a land area of 0.901 square miles (2.33 km2) with a total population of 2,500 as of the 2010 census.
Yerba Buena Island has had several other names over the decades: Sea Bird Island, Wood Island, and Goat Island. The island may have been named after the pueblo of Yerba Buena, which was named for the plant of the same name that was abundant in the area. The plant's English and Spanish common name, Yerba buena, is an alternate form of the Spanish hierba buena (literally meaning 'good herb'), generally used to describe local species of the mint family.
In 1939, the newly formed United States Coast Guard (USCG) took over control of the lighthouse above the island's southern shore. The USCG Sector San Francisco – Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) tower is located on Signal Road Building 278 atop the peak of the island. The USCG Sector San Francisco Headquarters is co-located with USCG Station San Francisco on Healy Avenue and Fresnel Way at water-level on the southeast coast of the island. The USCG Aids to Navigation San Francisco has a navigational buoy repair facility on Fresnel Way. The USCG Senior Officers' residences are in Quarters A, B, C, 8 and 9, off Hillcrest Road on the hill atop the USCG base. During the summer of 2011, the Department of Homeland Security / USCG opened the new SAFE Port Act (2006) Interagency Operations Center (IOC at Building 100 site on Spindrift Circle) on the USCG Sector / Station San Francisco base. The IOC houses the VTS, WatchKeeper and the USCG Sector San Francisco Command Center together in one building.
Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.