San Diego Bay Embarcadero: Pacific Sails and Tuna Fleets

Why is it significant?

Step onto the wide, breeze-cooled pavement of the Embarcadero along North Harbor Drive and take in the sparkling blue waters of San Diego Bay. Gaze across the channel toward the naval docks of Coronado Island and Point Loma sheltering the deep natural harbor.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Step onto the wide, breeze-cooled pavement of the Embarcadero along North Harbor Drive and take in the sparkling blue waters of San Diego Bay. Gaze across the channel toward the naval docks of Coronado Island and Point Loma sheltering the deep natural harbor.

In September fifteen forty-two, Portuguese explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, sailing under the flag of Spain, navigated his flagship San Salvador into this very bay, becoming the first European expedition to set foot on the coast of what is now the state of California, naming the natural haven San Miguel.

For much of the twentieth century, San Diego was the Tuna Capital of the World: hundreds of purse-seiner boats operated by Portuguese and Italian immigrant families set sail from these piers to fish across the eastern Pacific, canning millions of pounds of tuna annually in waterfront canneries.

Walk south along the waterfront toward the colossal silhouette of the aircraft carrier USS Midway.