When I took this photo of the Seacliff Pier, I didn’t realize what I was looking at. The ship at the end of the pier was built in 1917 when wartime steel shortages caused the US Navy to try building three concrete ships. This one, the Palo Alto, was built in Oakland, but never put into service because the war ended before construction completed.
In 1929, the Palo Alto was purchased by a private company that decided to turn it into an amusement park. The ship was towed to its current resting place and then sunk by opening the sea cocks. The ship sank to the ocean floor and in the summer of 1930, a pier to the ship was completed.
