Crockett, California

Wreckage of the S.S. Garden City

The remains of a deserted steamboat sit rusting beside an old ferry pier and an abandoned train platform.

Moored along a lonely stretch of the Carquinez Strait, the S.S. Garden City, once a proud wooden paddlewheel steamboat, has been reduced to just its boilers and paddle wheel hub after a fire in 1983 that also destroyed the nearby ferry terminal.

Built in 1879, the Garden City was 208 feet long, weighed 1,080 tons, and was manned by a crew of 19 men. The steamboat was capable of carrying both passengers and automobiles into San Francisco. It went on hundreds of ferry runs before being permanently anchored at the Eckley Pier in the Carquinez Strait, serving as a fishing resort until the 1970s, when it was abandoned.

Next to the Garden City wreckage are the remains of the old Southern Pacific Ferry Terminal, now just a collection of rotten pilings jutting from the water. Across a set of nearby railroad tracks is the old Southern Pacific Railroad train stop, which used to transport passengers directly to the ferries at Eckley Pier. Today, people enjoy the spot for its fishing at Eckley Pier, hiking on Bull Valley Trail, and vistas of the northern Bay Area.