San Francisco Bay Blossom Rock Blasting!

[Steadman Uhlich]

ATTENTION San Francisco Bay Sailors!

Anyone who has sailed in San Francisco Bay should appreciate this story of one of the bay's landmarks: Blossom Rock. This is an excellent short, very recent (published yesterday) video with some fascinating images shown.

While I lived and sailed in SF for years, and sailed over or by "Blossom Rock" and did some reading about the area, I had not heard of this 1870 event. Blossom Rock was a submerged pinnacle of rock and a navigational hazard located between Alcatraz and Yerba Buena Islands.

This video also includes some photos of some HUGE redwood trees that grew in Oakland hills area. These are mentioned because two very tall redwood trees served as navigational marks at one time. It is such a shame those trees were cut down during that "gold rush" era. Wait till you see the size of them! One was reported to be 31 feet in diameter!

The workmen who did the excavation (underwater!) for this blasting event were very brave. Risky business!

If you are interested in engineering tasks, or underwater engineering, you will find this video interesting too. It explains how the engineers in 1870 devised a way of removing many tons of solid rock below the surface to a depth of 25 feet! The soundings today indicate 44 feet, so even more has been removed since 1870.

I really enjoyed this video, and am sharing it here in CF because I know many CF members have sailed or do sail on San Francisco Bay. Even for those sailors who have never been there, I think you will find this video interesting and entertaining. I did.


https://youtu.be/eJQoe1K9uuU

https://youtu.be/eJQoe1K9uuU

[Steadman Uhlich]

sorry, I cannot remember how to embed a video link so it will play here on CF. If someone knows, let me know in a comment and I will see about adding it so it plays here in CF.