Hunter's Point crane
The historic Hunter's Point Gantry Crane is gantry crane located at the naval shipyard in Hunters Point, San Francisco.[1] It was constructed in 1947 to repair battleships and aircraft carriers. At 730 feet long and 450 feet tall it boasted a record breaking 630 long ton lift capacity. It was once the worlds largest gantry crane, surpassed by twin gantry cranes in China and Ireland.[2][3]
It has a 450-long-ton (460 t) capacity and was completed at the site by the American Bridge Company.[4]
When it was first built, it was used to lift 630 tons, which the San Francisco Chronicle reported at the time was the heaviest load ever lifted.[2]
In 1959, it was used for Operation Skycatch, where dummy Polaris missiles were fired and caught via a string of arresting cables, before being lowered to the ground for testing.[5] Previous versions of the test had the missiles flung out into the bay and retrieved from the ocean floor.[6][7]
A large trapezoidal frame was erected atop the gantry crane for the UGM-73 Poseidon missile test facility; the structural members were lifted by Marine Boss in 1967.[8] The addition of the frame brought the total height of the crane to nearly 500 feet (150 m). The crane dominates the landscape in the area, as it is easily visible from miles around.
The Hunters Point Gantry Crane is situated on a broad flat runway designated the Gun Mole Pier- a region the Nuclear Regulatory Commission calls "the loading point for nuclear waste." From 1946 to 1951 the damaged salvaged hulk of the USS Independence was moored along the northern border of the Gun Mole Pier.
Today, the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Parcel D - where the Gantry Crane is located is a superfund site due to contamination by the military. There is restricted public access.
In 2019 the Hunters Point Community Biomonitoring Program launched the first human Biomonitoring program established in the US at a federal superfund site. HP Biomonitoring Principal Investigator Dr. Ahimsa Porter Sumchai is detecting chemicals and radionuclides of concern along with seven unique chemical and cancer clusters in an estimated 200 residents, workers, shipyard artists and a colony of RV dwellers.
Radionuclides of concern include products of nuclear fission Pu-238, Pu-239, U-235, U-233 and Cesium. Cite: web/url= https://www.HuntersPointCommunityBiomonitoring.net
Cite: web/url=https://medium.com/@PoliticoMD/showdown-hunters-point-gantry-crane-5a7132ba5c9f Cite web|url=https://sf.curbed.com/2018/1/31/16956458/hunters-point-toxic-cleanup-navy-responds-san-francisco|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180131234837/https://sf.curbed.com/2018/1/31/16956458/hunters-point-toxic-cleanup-navy-responds-san-francisco|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 31, 2018|title=Navy: Do-over of $250 million cleanup at Hunters Point necessary|first=Chris|last=Roberts|date=January 31, 2018|website=Curbed SF}}</ref>[9]
References
[edit]- ↑ "Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard - FoundSF". www.foundsf.org.
- 1 2 Hartlaub, Peter (January 8, 2020). "A love letter to Hunters Point crane, the most underrated Bay Area landmark". San Francisco Chronicle.
- ↑ King, John (December 14, 2017). "A new vision for the development of Hunters Point Naval Shipyard". San Francisco Chronicle.
- ↑ Stimson Jr., Thomas E. (September 1947). "Spanning the Navy's Mole at Hunter's Point, Calif., is the World's Largest Crane". Popular Mechanics. Vol. 88, no. 3. pp. 124–128, 256. ISSN 0032-4558. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
- ↑ "L55-15.01.03 L55-15.01.03 Operation Skycatch Polaris missile dummy at testing site". NHHC. Archived from the original on February 12, 2023.
- ↑ "Hunters Point Crane". Department of the Navy. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
- ↑ "The story of the Hunters Point crane's arch — and its nuclear secret". 19 February 2023.
- ↑ Venturino, Marco F. (March–April 1967). "Test facility modifications for Poseidon". The Navy Civil Engineer. 8 (2): 18–19. Retrieved 3 January 2020.
- ↑ Roberts, Chris (January 23, 2020). "Shipyard radiation tests around housing were sound, scientist panel says, but questions remain". Curbed SF. Archived from the original on January 23, 2020.