Pier 70 has been used for shipbuilding since the Gold Rush. Since becoming home to the Union Iron Works in 1883, Pier 70 was occupied by a variety of industries, including the Pacific Rolling Mills, Risdon Iron & Locomotive, Kneass Boat Works, Union Iron Works, Bethlehem Shipbuilding, and BAE Systems.
After Bethlehem acquired Union Iron Works in 1905, the pier housed Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation’s administrative offices in Building 101.
Bethlehem Steel sold their holdings in the area to the Port of San Francisco in 1980.
The port of San Francisco……
is a marvel of nature,
and might well be called the harbor of harbors….
And I think if it could be well settled like Europe
there would not be anything more beautiful
in all the world
Juan Bautista de Anza, explorer