Aquatic Park’s human-made lagoons are an almost accidental by-product of building the Bay Bridge. The Bay Area’s largest public works project of the Great Depression, the bridge went up at what now seems near-lightning speed between 1933 and 1936. The massive effort included a straight feeder road to avoid massive traffic jams in cities to the north. Close to the bridge in South Berkeley and Emeryville, this Eastshore Highway — precursor to today’s I-80 — was built on fill just offshore, because the shoreline had been turned over to the transcontinental railroad tracks in the 1870s.
The offshore highway cut off a long finger of tide flat and shallow bay that would have become a cesspool. Emeryville, incorporated for industry, within a few years filled its lagoon, the one on the right in the photo above.
Berkeley got a federal grant to create a park — announced by telegram in October 1935, with work to start at once, as the Berkeley Gazette story at left announced. The city had never before encouraged its citizens to enjoy the waterfront. Focused on a deep water port, an airport, industry, and expansion by filling the Bay, city’s government had buried the mile-long sandy beach edging North Berkeley under garbage, boasting that this turned refuse into profit. Aquatic Park began a transformation in waterfront use that continues today.
The Berkeley Recreation Department’s 1935-6 jubilant Annual Report — selections above — also shows how little time there was to plan. On the cover: a fantasy drawing of a multi-story pool complex. Although $1 million went a long way in the 1930s, it would not have paid for also dredging the Yacht Harbor and building the Rose Garden, also included. Inside, concepts for the lagoon park that was created lacked detail: a single lagoon (center) would feature six recreational modules on small peninsulas. These would offer walking paths, picnic areas, and the like. A ring road — Bolivar Drive — would connect them. On the west shore, a row of trees would shelter the park from the highway and prevailing westerly winds. Work started quickly partly because dredged material from the lagoons and yacht harbor was needed to support both highway and Bay Bridge. (Clipping, photos and report courtesy of the Berkeley Public Library History Room.)
The future park started as a mess. was a mess. Heavy industry and railroad had long dumped and discharged wastes on the shoreline — Some of the drains still exist. The mudflat and shallow bottom needed dredging to be used even by small boats. The left photo, looking north from near Allston, shows the future lagoon was not yet separated from the pier of the failed ferry service — the only access to the yacht harbor. (Today the Berkeley Animal Shelter separates them, and the pier is University Avenue.) In the photo at right, looking south from near Bancroft, a dredge is deepening the lagoon. Thanks to the Berkeley Historical Society and Museum, and to Patrick and Linda Kielch, who saved these photos, taken to document Public Works projects of the Great Depression!
The park opened in spring 1937, the year after the Bay Bridge that led to its creation. Although still largely bare, as these photos show, it was an immediate hit. The left photo, taken from the west shore, shows the beginnnings of the island, which has gone through several uses. The photo on the right shows the small-boat concession left of Bolivar Drive. Today, painted red, it is used by nonprofits. Right of Bolivar Drive hulks the derelict old 1870s Standard Soap Factory, Berkeley’s first big industry. The site how houses the Berkeley Commons lab project.
The City of Berkeley’s 1936 as-built plan for the water system, above, shows that the park followed many of its original concepts. It remains troubled by conditions that could be said to stem from its hasty start and lack of careful planning: not enough water circulation and exchange, pollution from mainland and highway, steady silting in, the noisy west side, the isolated south end.
The park, however, has been and remains loved and defended by many, and a source of many and varied creative citizen efforts.