Crissy Field
Encyclopedia
Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy
Established in 1981, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy is the nonprofit partner that supports and assists the Golden Gate National Parks in research, interpretation, and conservation programs....
in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, United States. Historically a part of the Presidio of San Francisco
Presidio of San Francisco
The Presidio of San Francisco is a park on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Francisco, California, within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area...
, Crissy Field was closed as an airfield and eventually the National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
took control over it. While maintained by the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
, Crissy Field was heavily affected by the military's dumping of hazardous materials. In 1997 the park service began to cleanup the area and 2001 the Crissy Field Center opened to the public.
History
The land Crissy Field resides on is an ancient 130-acre salt marshSalt marsh
A salt marsh is an environment in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and salt water or brackish water, it is dominated by dense stands of halophytic plants such as herbs, grasses, or low shrubs. These plants are terrestrial in origin and are essential to the stability of the salt marsh...
and estuary
Estuary
An estuary is a partly enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea....
. Prior to European settlement, the Ohlone people used the area for harvesting shellfish
Shellfish
Shellfish is a culinary and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater environments, some kinds are found only in freshwater...
and fish. They also lived in seasonal camps in the area, leaving behind shell middens in the archaeological record. The Spanish arrived in 1776 and called the area El Presidio. They began to use the area for livestock grazing and agriculture. The U.S. Army took control of the Presidio
Presidio of San Francisco
The Presidio of San Francisco is a park on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Francisco, California, within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area...
in 1846, using the tidal wetland as a wasteland
Wasteland
-Literature:* Wasteland , the Celtic motif of the land of the Fisher King* The Waste Land, a poem by T. S. Eliot* The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands, a novel by Stephen King* Wasteland , a novel by Francesca Lia Block...
for dumping and draining. After filling in the marshlands, the Army covered over it and created an airfield.
Airfield use
After the end of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, a board of army officers suggested that the site would be ideal for the first Air Coast Defense Station on the Pacific coast. The plan was approved in 1921 and the project was led by Henry Arnold. The former space of a racetrack used at the Exposition, the airfield was kidney shaped with the outline of the racetrack still visible. The southern end of the field featured hangarHangar
A hangar is a closed structure to hold aircraft or spacecraft in protective storage. Most hangars are built of metal, but other materials such as wood and concrete are also sometimes used...
s, workshops and a garage for the army. To the east was an administrative building, barrack
Barrack
Barrack or Barracks may refer to:*Barracks, military housing*Barrack *Barracks communism, political term*A misspelling of the name of Barack Obama...
s, and a guardhouse. The bluff overlooking the field had the officer's quarters and homes.. Arnold led the effort to name the field Crissy Field in honor of Major Dana H. Crissy. Crissy died on 8 October 1919 in a crash in a de Havilland DH-4B during an Air Service transcontinental reliability test while attempting a landing at Salt Lake City, Utah.
In the early years, Crissy Field involved mainly the viewing of artillery fire, aerial photography
Aerial photography
Aerial photography is the taking of photographs of the ground from an elevated position. The term usually refers to images in which the camera is not supported by a ground-based structure. Cameras may be hand held or mounted, and photographs may be taken by a photographer, triggered remotely or...
, liaison flights for headquarter personnel, special civilian missions such as publicity flights and search and rescue
Search and rescue
Search and rescue is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger.The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, mostly based upon terrain considerations...
s, and a support field for U.S. Air Mail. The first Western aerial forest fire patrols took place from Crissy Field.
The first successful Dawn-to-dusk transcontinental flight across the United States ended at Crissy Field in 1924. That same year, the army's Round-the-World Race stopped at Crissy Field, and Lowell H. Smith, who was stationed at the field, lead the flyers upon their return back. In 1925, two navy seaplanes took off from Crissy Field, marking the first attempt to fly from the continental United States to Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
. The trip was expected to last 26-hours, but it took twelve days and the crew had to be rescued at sea. Two years later Lester Maitland and Albert Hegenberger flew non-stop in their Fokker
Fokker
Fokker was a Dutch aircraft manufacturer named after its founder, Anthony Fokker. The company operated under several different names, starting out in 1912 in Schwerin, Germany, moving to the Netherlands in 1919....
, named Bird of Paradise, from Crissy Field to Hawaii successfully.
Originally, Crissy Field was considered ideal for an airfield. However, wind and fog often made for poor flying conditions and construction of the Golden Gate Bridge
Golden Gate Bridge
The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the opening of the San Francisco Bay into the Pacific Ocean. As part of both U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1, the structure links the city of San Francisco, on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula, to...
in 1937 made flights around the bay extra difficult. Crissy Field was also vulnerable to possible enemy ship attacks due to its location on the water. In 1936, Hamilton Field
Hamilton Air Force Base
Hamilton Air Force Base was a United States Air Force base located along the western shore of San Pablo Bay, south of Novato, California.-History:...
opened in Marin County
Marin County, California
Marin County is a county located in the North San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. As of 2010, the population was 252,409. The county seat is San Rafael and the largest employer is the county government. Marin County is well...
, and Crissy Field was closed as a first-line air base.
After the air corps and closure
When the air corps left, the administration building served as the headquarters for the 30th Infantry Regiment30th Infantry Regiment (United States)
The 30th Infantry Regiment is a United States Army infantry regiment.-Lineage:*Constituted 2 February 1901 in the Regular Army as the 30th Infantry...
, and the landing field was used as an assembly area for troop mobilization. During World War II, temporary wooden barracks and classrooms were built on site for the army's Military Intelligence Service Language School. Nisei soldiers were also trained as battlefield interpreters, as well.
After World War II, the Sixth Army Flight Detachment used Crissy Field for light airplane and helicopter operations, after a paved runway replaced the grass runway. Crissy Field served liaison flights and MedEvac
MEDEVAC
Medical evacuation, often termed Medevac or Medivac, is the timely and efficient movement and en route care provided by medical personnel to the wounded being evacuated from the battlefield or to injured patients being evacuated from the scene of an accident to receiving medical facilities using...
flights bringing wounded Vietnam soldiers from Travis Air Force Base
Travis Air Force Base
Travis Air Force Base is a United States Air Force air base under the operational control of the Air Mobility Command , located three miles east of the central business district of Fairfield, in Solano County, California, United States. The base is named for Brigadier General Robert F...
to Letterman Army Hospital
Letterman Army Hospital
The Letterman Army Hospital was located on the Presidio of San Francisco and was established around 1898.- History :The hospital, built in 1898 and named in 1911 for Jonathan Letterman, was featured in every US foreign conflict in the 20th century and remained in service until the army base was...
. In 1974 the field was closed to airplanes, though helicopter operations continued for several yaers.
National Park Service
Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy
Established in 1981, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy is the nonprofit partner that supports and assists the Golden Gate National Parks in research, interpretation, and conservation programs....
to revitalize the area and the Crissy Field Center was opened to the public in 2001.
Architectural facts
Redesigned by Hargreaves Associates in 1994, Crissy Field passed from being a military airport, into becoming open space for the people of San Francisco, now a part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Divided into 6 major zones:- the rehabilitation of a 1920s grassed airfield
- a mile-long promenade
- newly restored tidal wetlands
- beach & dunes
- West Bluff(a picnic area)
- East Beach(gathering)
In order to create the new site, 87,000 tons of hazardous materials were removed from the site itself and the tidal wetlands were redesigned to simulate the wetlands that existed before the military appropriated the site and used the area as a dump and landfill location. The site provides great views of the San Francisco bay area, Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge.
External links
- Crissy Field official website
- Crissy Field Aviation Museum Association
- Presidio of San Francisco - Golden Gate National Recreation Area
- Aviation: From Sand Dunes to Sonic Booms, a National Park Service Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary
- Crissy Field on San Francisco's Golden Gate
- Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields - Crissy Army Airfield (CSY), San Francisco, CA