shippers and consignees. The Harbor Board has hurried along this necessary betterment and hopes to have the construction well started in the opening of the new year. Extension of the rock and concrete seawall southward on the line of Islais waterfront will be a most important project to be financed with the remaining $500,000 of bond money soon available. EXTENDING WATERFRONT SOUTHWARD. The Board has planned to reclaim and develop the Islais submerged area of 280 acres in three solid filled units, each 1000 feet wide by from 1600 to 3000 feet long, with deep navigable channels 400 feet in depth between the several sections, opening an immense harbor area there and providing for commercial expansion. It is planned to completely reclaim now one unit of the extensive project, about fifty acres in area. As shipping business develops, the general reclamation scheme will be followed and funds for the extension will be available from the remaining $5,000,000 bond issue authorized in 1913. This development project is recognized in business circles as the most important advancement of the future for, as the port needs further pier extension, the entire southern waterfront area will be improved in like fashion. The first unit of this extensive harbor area has been reclaimed in part for a length of 800 feet and the seawall is to be extended on its navigable front. In this partial reclamation dredged material from Islais Creek, where a navigation depth of 35 feet is maintained, was deposited inland making a foundation within the seawall line for commercial plants, leaving the seawall extension for a later time, and that work is to be continued in the present development. Dredgings had theretofore been carried on scows to dumping depths in the bay and at considerable expense. GRAIN TERMINAL A SUCCESS. On this reclaimed Islais fill a large grain terminal has been built and was in successful operation during the California crop season of 1924, meeting a shipping demand for encouragement in marketing grain. Completion of this commercial addition to harbor developments was one of the early projects of the new Harbor Commission as an aid to California farmers in the season of 1924. Funds for the enterprise were available from the harbor revenue surplus. The business was well started and is being successfully handled by a tenant company, the Islais Creek Grain Terminal Corporation, composed of men prominent in the shipping community. The terminal has a grain cleaning capacity of 600 tons daily and has a handling capacity of 200,000 tons of export barley yearly, providing a foreign market for a long neglected grainproducing industry. The state investment in this property, aside from the land values was $224,337.64. The net revenue to the state from the grain terminal lease and tolls for the year July 1, 1923, to June 30, 1924, was $12,459.02, which is 5 per cent return on the investment. It is estimated that the revenue from this industry will approximate $25,000 yearly. In addition to the profits accruing to the state, the improvements in the Islais commercial area have relieved tonnage congestion in the 4-35341 REPORT OF BOARD OF STATE HARBOR COMMISSIONERS. Building to West Sidewalk, Which Was Built in 1918 and Cost $47,446.53. Looking into Southern Entrance to the Subway at Mission Street. Note the Viaduct Over The Embarcadero from Ferry central shipping section. Other growing activities in industrial plants on the reclaimed Islais lands are rice mills, oil refineries and lumber yards. SUBWAY AT MARKET STREET CROSSING. Assuming management of the state's fast growing business on the San Francisco waterfront in July, 1923, the new Board of State Harbor Commissioners announced its purpose to build a vehicular subway under the ferry street car loop to divert such travel from the Market street crossing on The Embarcadero and make the thoroughfare safe for many thousands of pedestrians. Plans for the necessary improvements were adopted September 6, 1923, and work started in December. President Chas. H. Spear conferred with city and street railroad authorities on financing the project, with the result that the cost of the construction will be borne one-half by the state, one-quarter by the city of San Francisco and one-eighth by each of two city railways. The construction by contract will be completed about the close of the year. The full cost will be about $350,000. The subway is a reinforced concrete structure 986 feet in length covering a distance of four blocks with a closed section 390 feet long, having a roof of steel and concrete supporting the pavement and street car tracks. Open end approaches are 298 feet in length each and have a grade of 3 per cent. The subway section is 23 feet between side walls, 21 feet 8 inches between curbs and has clearance height of 13 feet for the two roadways. The subway floor of reinforced concrete is 5 feet thick, and the sidewalls reinforced concrete 2 feet thick, the whole being thoroughly waterproofed, for high tide rises to within 6 feet of the surface at that point of the waterfront, the ground being water-bearing. Planning for the construction of the subway, the engineers of the Commission bored down into what appeared to be an ancient waterfront bulkhead wharf, causing a renewal of interest in the early history of the waterfront. Old timers watched the borings along The Embarcadero and recalled the placing of the piles and heavy timbers along the Market street front during the late eighties. The old platform was found at a depth of twelve feet below street level, and the timbers appeared to be as sound as when they were placed there over a generation ago. According to the engineers, this structure constituted what is known as a timber relieving platform. The original seawall cut diagonally across The Embarcadero about 180 feet inside of what now constitutes the front of the Ferry Building. About 1889, previous to constructing the Ferry Building, a new concrete seawall was constructed on the front line of the proposed building. The space between this new concrete wall and the old rock seawall was heavily piled on rows at 5 feet and 6 feet centers, filled with sand and decked over at the elevation of low tide. On top of this platform was placed about 12 feet of sand fill carrying the street between the old seawall and the new seawall in front of the Ferry Building. The foundations for the building were then constructed on concrete piers so that the building itself is actually supported on a heavy concrete wharf. The new subway cuts through the ancient relieving platform just east of the original seawall. The engineers expected to remove the timber deck and utilize the original piling |