Yerba Buena Lighthouse

Thought I’d try a more artistic rendering for today.  Sometimes when I don’t have any new pictures to work on, I find something that might lend itself to some textures and such.  All this while I watched last night’s recorded episode of The Voice.  LOL.  (You can read about the lighthouse below if you wish.)

This lighthouse sits on Yerba Buena Island between the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.  Yerba Buena was originally nicknamed “Goat Island” due to the Costanoan Indians who would herd goats on the island.  In 1873, the U.S. Army set up camp on the island, which ended up driving away the Indians (sadly).  In 1874, the Lighthouse Board set up a Lighthouse Depot on the island to maintain all the aids to navigation for the Bay Area.

The lighthouse was built in 1874, mainly to serve passenger boats and ferries between Oakland and San Francisco.  Once the Bay Bridge opened in the late 1930s, the decision was made to keep the lighthouse operational due to increased shipping traffic in the Bay.  To this day, the lighthouse still retains its original fourth-order Fresnel lens and is still an active aid to navigation. However, instead of a lighthouse keeper, the keeper’s dwelling is occupied by a Coast Guard Admiral.  Surprisingly enough, he is responsible for all of the aids to navigation for the San Francisco Bay area.  The lighthouse was automated in 1958.

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Lt. Cortesia

Here’s another one from the Port of Oakland tour we took the other day.  If you haven’t seen the other images, please check the post before this one.  Please forgive me but I’m lazy with my words today, so I’ll just leave you with the image.  Hope you are all having a great day!

Lt. Cortesia – Port of Oakland

 

 

Port of Oakland (3 images)

Last night we went on a 90 minute Port of Oakland tour and it was fantastic!  At first I was wondering if it was going to happen because it had literally rained all day long; but one hour before our tour, the rain magically stopped and the clouds parted!  (Click on the pictures to see high resolution).

The Port of Oakland was the first major port on the Pacific Coast of the United States to build terminals for container ships, and it’s now the fifth busiest container port in the United States.

The tour departed from Jack London Square in Oakland and traveled down the estuary which is between the Cities of Alameda and Oakland toward the Bay Bridge.  I was really excited that we got as close as we did to the bridge.  You can see San Francisco there just beyond this portion of the bridge which is the western portion.

The cranes that lift the cargo containers from the ships were quite big.   I’ve always thought they looked like something out of a sci-fi adventure and half expect them to start wading down the estuary.  “Attack of the Cranes” sounds like an upcoming movie doesn’t it?

See the bow of the boat?  I was on the right hand side most of the tour.  I started off inside but knew I didn’t want to take pictures through a window, so I’m glad I headed out there shortly after the boated departed for the tour because it became completely crowded up there.  I took a lot of pictures but thought I’d share these two (besides the boat) for now since they’re the only ones I’ve worked on.

The tour is FREE….yes FREE!  Amazing!  I’m glad I discovered this because our tour was the second to the last tour of the year.  I’m not sure when they start up again but I’m assuming sometime in late spring or early summer.   You can check out more about the port and find out about the tour here.

Hope you enjoy!

Western Span Bay Bridge – Port of Oakland Tour

The Cranes