7 ms·

Nike Missile Sites of the San Francisco Bay Area

90 points by stevewilhelm 11y ago

justizin 11y ago
They note that one of the sites (Ft Cronkhite) is being used by The Marine Mammal Center, it says that one 'magazine' (silo) is being used for the storage of veterinary drugs, there are also a few decades of biological samples, and the second silo is used in the rare case a Dolphin needs to be rehabilitated.
angersock 11y ago
If you're ever able to hunt down a copy of the project report on Nike/Spartan, do so. They're interesting reading. Those engineers were pretty awesome.
enknamel 11y ago
Out in the Marin Headlands they have a whole exhibit about the missile sites there and around the Bay. You can even interview and listen to presentations by people who were stationed around the Bay during the cold war watching for a Soviet attack. Apparently, the Soviets had a plan to repeatedly nuke the bay to generate huge clouds of radiation that would then spread across the country. http://www.nps.gov/goga/nike-missile-site.htm http://www.nps.gov/goga/nike-missile-site.htm
- enahs-sf 11y ago
  The headlands missile site is just a short and very pleasant bike ride away. Highly recommended.
  - mikeyouse 11y ago
    Pleasant!? Up Hawk Hill?! (Mostly joking while nursing some very sore legs after my first ride in a few weeks)
  - slayed0 11y ago
    Ha! I do this ride nearly every week and I'm not sure I would describe it as "short and very pleasant" to a general audience. Unless you have a decent road bike and are fairly fit you will likely be walking up hawk hill.
    - zten 11y ago
      Never mind making it up the hill -- the backside descent of Conzelman Road is really what your average person should skip. You'll miss out on some of the old structures by skipping that, but there's still things to see if you go down Alexander, take the tunnel to Bunker Rd, and follow that out.
- ghaff 11y ago
  Well worth seeing. As far as I know, it's the only Nike exhibit of its type with a launcher that actually gets raised up. There are various remains of other Nike sites around (including on Angel Island) but there's typically not much there.
- Animats 11y ago
  It's much more than a static exhibit. I've been out to SF-88 and had a tour of the control and radar trailers, with their analog computers and consoles powered up [2], but the radars not emitting. They can run the missile lifts up and down and raise a missile to firing position.[1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg3sjXUr-yg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg3sjXUr-yg [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssY11Dujaog https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssY11Dujaog
thesis 11y ago
I've often wondered where our current air defense systems are now. It seems the government must spend a lot of money hiding them in plain sight or I'm not looking hard enough.
- rhino369 11y ago
  The airforce is testing a cruise missile defense balloon in Maryland. It's a blimp tied to the ground. I'd imagine most of US civil air defense is just sending up fighter jets. But on 9-11, US air defense got caught with their pants down. I wouldn't expect much.
  - smeyer 11y ago
    >I'd imagine most of US civil air defense is just sending up fighter jets. The US has developed a lot of missiles, including those used to shoot down other missiles. Do you have a reason to believe that their IADS is so dependent on fighters? I'm not particularly well-informed on the issue so I'd be interested to read more.
    - rhino369 11y ago
      Just guessing based on lack of obvious military installations around cities.
      - nostrademons 11y ago
        Miniaturization technology has advanced enough that they don't need fixed installations. Low altitude anti-air defense is probably a bunch of Stingers stored in a locker in key target buildings. High-altitude ABM defense would be Patriots and THAADs, both of which are mounted on mobile trucks which presumably are housed in U.S. military bases and in secret garages or other locations. It's to your advantage to not let your enemies know where your defenses are; pretty much all missiles since the 1980s have been mounted on trucks that let them be stationed anywhere a road goes to.
dgfv1 11y ago
They make some nice shoes, too.
vt240 11y ago
The site in Poulsbo, WA had been flooded for years. When I was a high school student, we used to go have parties there. The whole campus was 10-20 acres and most of the buildings were still intact, although pretty ransacked. Similar to the sites I visited in the Anchorage, AK area. I think it was about 10 years ago they started to prep the site to build a new Walmart. The construction crew pumped all of the launchers out and let me go down and take a look around. It was pretty neat to see everything that had been under water for most likely 30 years. I took a bunch of slides I'll have to dig up one of these days. I still haven't made it to see the museum. Most of these neat military sites are private property now, although I think most of the Nike installations were given to local government orgs.
craigjb 11y ago
This AT&T Bell Labs documentary about the anti-ballistic missile defense program is eye-opening. The program roots are in the Nike anti-bomber defense program. The complexity of radar and digital signal processing technology in the 1960-70s is incredible (they even had stylus touch-screen interfaces). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARx2-wRn9-Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARx2-wRn9-Y
elcapitan 11y ago
"Nike - Just do it." :D scnr

90 points by stevewilhelm 11y ago

They note that one of the sites (Ft Cronkhite) is being used by The Marine Mammal Center, it says that one 'magazine' (silo) is being used for the storage of veterinary drugs, there are also a few decades of biological samples, and the second silo is used in the rare case a Dolphin needs to be rehabilitated.

angersock 11y ago

If you're ever able to hunt down a copy of the project report on Nike/Spartan, do so. They're interesting reading. Those engineers were pretty awesome.

enknamel 11y ago

Out in the Marin Headlands they have a whole exhibit about the missile sites there and around the Bay. You can even interview and listen to presentations by people who were stationed around the Bay during the cold war watching for a Soviet attack. Apparently, the Soviets had a plan to repeatedly nuke the bay to generate huge clouds of radiation that would then spread across the country. http://www.nps.gov/goga/nike-missile-site.htm http://www.nps.gov/goga/nike-missile-site.htm

enahs-sf 11y ago
The headlands missile site is just a short and very pleasant bike ride away. Highly recommended.
- mikeyouse 11y ago
  Pleasant!? Up Hawk Hill?! (Mostly joking while nursing some very sore legs after my first ride in a few weeks)
- slayed0 11y ago
  Ha! I do this ride nearly every week and I'm not sure I would describe it as "short and very pleasant" to a general audience. Unless you have a decent road bike and are fairly fit you will likely be walking up hawk hill.
  - zten 11y ago
    Never mind making it up the hill -- the backside descent of Conzelman Road is really what your average person should skip. You'll miss out on some of the old structures by skipping that, but there's still things to see if you go down Alexander, take the tunnel to Bunker Rd, and follow that out.
ghaff 11y ago
Well worth seeing. As far as I know, it's the only Nike exhibit of its type with a launcher that actually gets raised up. There are various remains of other Nike sites around (including on Angel Island) but there's typically not much there.
Animats 11y ago
It's much more than a static exhibit. I've been out to SF-88 and had a tour of the control and radar trailers, with their analog computers and consoles powered up [2], but the radars not emitting. They can run the missile lifts up and down and raise a missile to firing position.[1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg3sjXUr-yg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg3sjXUr-yg [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssY11Dujaog https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssY11Dujaog

thesis 11y ago

I've often wondered where our current air defense systems are now. It seems the government must spend a lot of money hiding them in plain sight or I'm not looking hard enough.

rhino369 11y ago
The airforce is testing a cruise missile defense balloon in Maryland. It's a blimp tied to the ground. I'd imagine most of US civil air defense is just sending up fighter jets. But on 9-11, US air defense got caught with their pants down. I wouldn't expect much.
- smeyer 11y ago
  >I'd imagine most of US civil air defense is just sending up fighter jets. The US has developed a lot of missiles, including those used to shoot down other missiles. Do you have a reason to believe that their IADS is so dependent on fighters? I'm not particularly well-informed on the issue so I'd be interested to read more.
  - rhino369 11y ago
    Just guessing based on lack of obvious military installations around cities.
    - nostrademons 11y ago
      Miniaturization technology has advanced enough that they don't need fixed installations. Low altitude anti-air defense is probably a bunch of Stingers stored in a locker in key target buildings. High-altitude ABM defense would be Patriots and THAADs, both of which are mounted on mobile trucks which presumably are housed in U.S. military bases and in secret garages or other locations. It's to your advantage to not let your enemies know where your defenses are; pretty much all missiles since the 1980s have been mounted on trucks that let them be stationed anywhere a road goes to.

dgfv1 11y ago

They make some nice shoes, too.

vt240 11y ago

The site in Poulsbo, WA had been flooded for years. When I was a high school student, we used to go have parties there. The whole campus was 10-20 acres and most of the buildings were still intact, although pretty ransacked. Similar to the sites I visited in the Anchorage, AK area. I think it was about 10 years ago they started to prep the site to build a new Walmart. The construction crew pumped all of the launchers out and let me go down and take a look around. It was pretty neat to see everything that had been under water for most likely 30 years. I took a bunch of slides I'll have to dig up one of these days. I still haven't made it to see the museum. Most of these neat military sites are private property now, although I think most of the Nike installations were given to local government orgs.

craigjb 11y ago

This AT&T Bell Labs documentary about the anti-ballistic missile defense program is eye-opening. The program roots are in the Nike anti-bomber defense program. The complexity of radar and digital signal processing technology in the 1960-70s is incredible (they even had stylus touch-screen interfaces). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARx2-wRn9-Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARx2-wRn9-Y

elcapitan 11y ago

"Nike - Just do it." :D scnr