Torpedo Storehouse--Torpedo (Mine) Assembly Building & Long Range Accuracy Storage Building
historic place
On Yerba Buena Island in San Francisco, stands the Torpedo Storehouse, also known as the Torpedo Mine Assembly Building. This historic place was erected in 1891 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Its primary purpose was to store and assemble submarine mines, then called torpedoes, for the defense of San Francisco Bay. The San Francisco architectural firm of Percy & Hamilton designed the building to store 1100 torpedoes. The interior features two rooms with railroad tracks in the floor, facilitating the loading and unloading of mines. The building is notable for its reinforced concrete construction, a pioneering technique designed by Ernest Leslie Ransome. The concrete was chiseled to resemble stone masonry, making it one of the earliest reinforced concrete buildings in the United States. The Torpedo Storehouse served its original function for about a decade, being abandoned in the 1930s. Today, it is the oldest remaining building from the Army's nearly half-century presence on the island, located directly beneath the modern Bay Bridge span. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008. This structure showcases early coastal defense strategies and innovative construction methods in San Francisco.