Coronado San Diego Bay 🇺🇸 California USA

CORONADO is a vibrant community with historic and present day navy heritage and offers a rich history. Just over the bridge from San Diego is this small, tree-lined beach haven island, which is really a peninsula connected to the mainland by a neck of land named the Silver Strand.

San Diego land boom

In the mid-1880s, the San Diego region was in the midst of one of its first real estate booms. At that time, it was common for a developer to build a grand hotel as a draw for what would otherwise be a barren landscape.

Coronado Beach Company

In November 1885, five investors went together to buy all of Coronado and North Island, approximately 4,000 acres and in April 1886, Babcock and Story created the Coronado Beach Company, after which they established a number of additional enterprises to support the development of Coronado. The Coronado Ferry Company built wharves and storage facilities and developed ferryboat service between Coronado and San Diego; The Coronado Water Company piped fresh water under San Diego Bay from the San Diego River; The Coronado Railroad Company provided rail lines in Coronado and eventually a “Belt Line” connected Coronado to San Diego via the Strand. Hotel del Coronado also boasted one of the largest electrical power plants in the state, providing service to the entire community of Coronado until the 1920s.

The men hired architect James W. Reid and his brother Watson Reid helped supervise the 2,000 laborers needed for the construction of the grand hotel.

” It would be built around a court… a garden of tropical trees, shrubs and flowers,… From the south end, the foyer should open to Glorietta Bay with verandas for rest and promenade. On the ocean corner, there should be a pavilion tower, and northward along the ocean, a colonnade, terraced in grass to the beach. The dining wing should project at an angle from the southeast corner of the court and be almost detached, to give full value to the view of the ocean, bay and city.”

TREES ON CORONADO

There is a unique list of heritage trees on the island from many areas around the world.

• TORREY PINE / Pinus Torreyana is the rarest pine in the United States and is native to this area
  Well-cared for, Coronado’s Torreys grow to more than 50 feet in height.
• STAR PINE located in Rotary Plaza was designated a Heritage Tree on April 3, 2008. This Araucaria Heterophylla is native to Norfolk Island in the SW Pacific and was transplanted to this location by Supt. Bandel in 1936.
• MORETON BAY FIG located adjacent to Star Park at 1121 Flora Avenue was designated a Heritage Tree on December 7, 2011. Ficus Macrophylla, native to northeastern Australia, has heavy buttressing trunks that spread to support a massive crown that can grow to more than 100 feet in diameter.
• FERN PINE / Afrocarpus Gracilior (previously known as podacarpus g.) are from eastern Africa.
• ITALIAN STONE PINE  clearly visible from the streets  is believed to be the largest in the City and was planted as a one foot Christmas tree in 1965. A native of southern Europe, Pinus Pinea grow well here, producing paired bright green needles in a dense umbrella shape.
• DEODAR CEDAR located in the second block of the Orange Avenue  was planted in 1952 as one of the forty-two memorial trees to replace the trolley tracks that were removed after World War II. This Cedrus deodara, native to the Himalayas.
• SUGAR GUM is a stately Eucalyptus cladocalyx is representative of the Sugar Gums that were planted on this block at the beginning of the 20th century. Eucalyptus were imported from Australia soon after California’s Gold Rush, 90% of them being Tasmanian Blue Gums. The Blue Gums are structurally weak and have other problems which these Sugar Gums lack.
• NORFOLK ISLAND PINE  was designated a Heritage Tree on February 5, 2015. Araucaria heterophylla, sometimes called Star Pine, is native to a small beautiful southwest Pacific island. It grows wonderfully well and very tall in Coronado. This beautiful specimen about 100 years old is on the property of a historically designated home moved from Ocean Boulevard after the 1905 storm that washed away some of the boulevard.

 DOG FRIENDLY BEACH 

Voted one of America’s finest beaches Coronado is known for its pristine sandy beaches with sand  courtesy of the mineral Mica.
You can even bring your four legged friends to North Beach, where dogs are allowed off-leash year round!

START STUDDED HISTORY

In 1958 a trio of actors checked into the Hotel Del Coronado to film what would become the most lauded comedy of all time – Billy Wilder’s SOME LIKE IT HOT.

A funny as hell screenplay with award-winning performances from screen legends Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe  during what is said to be one of the happiest times in her life.

EXPENSIVE REAL ESTATE – NAVY SEAL HQ

Coronado is also home to some of the most expensive real estate per sqft in California with cultural attractions such as the world-famous, historic Hotel Del Coronado—visited by many U.S. Presidents and global dignitaries, the Coronado Museum of History and Art, and the U.S. Navy SEAL Headquarters.

MARINAS, FERRIES,  BRIDGES AND ANCHORAGES

Public Docks
Glorietta Bay Marina is a Clean Marina Certified marina managed by California Yacht Marina.

Centrally located adjacent to the historic Hotel Del Coronado and Coronado’s vibrant downtown mainstreet, Glorietta Bay Marina features brand new dock systems with 100 slips ranging in size from 20’ to 110’feet. Each slip includes electrical power, water and cable/internet connections. Showers, restrooms, and a coin operated laundry are provided on-site for tenants and guests.

The Glorietta Bay Marina offers both transient and permanent docks. There is currently a waitlist for dockage. For more information on slip availability and transient docking please contact California Yacht Marina at (619) 435-5203 or by email at gbm@californiayachtmarina.com.

THE CORONADO BRIDGE

In 1926, John D. Spreckels recommended that a bridge be built between San Diego and Coronado, but voters dismissed the plan. The U.S. Navy initially did not support a bridge that would span San Diego Bay to connect San Diego to Coronado. They feared a bridge could be collapsed by attack or an earthquake and trap the ships stationed at Naval Base San Diego.

In 1951–52, the Coronado City Council initiated plans for bridge feasibility studies. By 1964 the Navy supported a bridge if there was at least 200 feet (61 m) of clearance for ships which operate out of the nearby Naval Base San Diego to pass underneath it. To achieve this clearance with a reasonable grade, the bridge length was increased by taking a curved path, rather than a more direct path to Coronado. The clearance would allow an empty oil-fired aircraft carrier to pass beneath it

The principal architect was Robert Mosher. Construction on the San Diego–Coronado Bay Bridge started in February 1967. The bridge required 20,000 tons of steel and 94,000 cubic yards of concrete. To add the concrete girders, 900,000 cubic yards of fill was dredged and the caissons for the towers were drilled and blasted 100 feet into the bed of the bay. It is supported by 27 concrete girders, the longest ever made at the time of construction.

The center span of the Coronado Bay Bridge was designed to float in the event of a bombing, according to local urban legend. Though the 1,880-foot-long center section of the bridge is hollow, the circumstances that would allow it to fall 200 feet and somehow still float are beyond improbable.

FERRY FROM DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO

To get a across to Corando take a scenic boat ride across the bay to/from Coronado, aboard a piece of San Diego history with a scenic 15-minute ride to the Coronado Ferry Landing, a waterfront marketplace full of over 25 unique shops and restaurants, and convenient access to all that Coronado Island offers!

ANCHORAGES

Beginning July 1, 2021, the Port of San Diego’s Maritime Department will assume management responsibilities from the Harbor Police Department for anchorages on San Diego Bay, including the Glorietta Bay A5 anchorage, and the Port’s Shelter Island Guest Docks located at 1401 Shelter Island Drive on the southern end of Shelter Island at the entrance to the Shelter Island Yacht Basin.

The Port also provides two 72-hour anchorages and a “Cruiser Anchorage.” Aside from the management change, no additional changes are being made for the anchorages at this time. No fee is required to anchor in these areas; however, a permit is required. Permits for the A1 and A5 anchorages are still available online. For the A9 anchorage, permits still require a vessel inspection performed by a Harbor Police Officer and must be obtained in person at the Harbor Police substation located at 1401 Shelter Island Drive.

Anchorage locations are: