Pier One, San Francisco
historic place
Pier One, a historic place in San Francisco County, California, was constructed in 1931. It was built as a finger pier, a design intended for handling bulkbreak traffic, where freight was moved in small crates by laborers. Pier One was part of a larger master plan for The Embarcadero, which began in 1915 and drew inspiration from the City Beautiful movement. Of the forty-nine finger piers originally built on the San Francisco waterfront, only eleven survive, including Pier One. This pier played a role in facilitating inland trade and transport, supporting California's agricultural business. However, the advent of container shipping after the mid-1940s rendered finger piers largely obsolete. Pier One underwent rehabilitation in 2000. In 1999, it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior. Pier One stands as an example of San Francisco's early 20th-century maritime infrastructure.