Sunday, August 15, 2010
Trip Report - Part Two
On August 11th and 12th, 2010, I had the opportunity to visit San Francisco, California. This post is Part Two of a Three-Part trip report. See Pt. III [ALCATRAZ] here.
SF-88L is the only restored Nike Missile site in the country. SF-88L was the launch battery of the 2nd Battalion, 56th Artillery. It was here that the Missile body and guidance system were assembled and tested. The warheads were attached in the warhead building prior to being wheeled over to the launch area and lowered into the underground storage bunker magazine known as the pit.
SF-88L has two magazines, each with the capacity to store 6 missiles. The magazines are 49' long and 60' wide. At the end of each magazine, located behind blast doors, was the control room. From the control room, the crew could launch the missiles as well as raise or lower them to and from the magazine.
This is technically just the launch battery. The radar Integrated Fire Control, or IFC (named SF-88C) was located just down the road. SF-88C is abandoned and I planned to visit it on this trip. However, to my surprise, the roads were gated and I only had with me street maps to the location. To make it on foot would have taken roughly several hours round trip. Since I only had about 24 hours in San Francisco, I had to make the painful decision to not visit it in order to make time for other locations that I had planned.
Begin Historic Photos
End Historic Photos
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