Crissy Field is a former airfield, now a part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco, California, United States. Historically a part of the Presidio of San Francisco, Crissy Field was closed as an airfield and eventually the National Park Service took control over it. While maintained by the United States Army, Crissy Field was heavily affected by the military's dumping of hazardous materials.[1] In 1997 the park service began to cleanup the area and 2001 the Crissy Field Center opened to the public[2].
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The land Crissy Field resides on is an ancient 130-acre salt marsh and estuary. Prior to European settlement, the Ohlone people used the area for harvesting shellfish and fish. They also lived in seasonal camps in the area, leaving behind shell middens in the archaeological record. The Spanish arrived in 1776 and called the area El Presidio. They began to use the area for livestock grazing and agriculture. The U.S. Army took control of the Presidio in 1846, using the tidal wetland as a wasteland for dumping and draining. After filling in the marshlands, the Army covered over it and created an airfield.[1]
After the end of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, a board of army officers suggested that the site would be ideal for the first Air Coast Defense Station on the Pacific coast. The plan was approved in 1921 and the project was led by Henry Arnold. The former space of a racetrack used at the Exposition, the airfield was kidney shaped with the outline of the racetrack still visible. The southern end of the field featured hangars, workshops and a garage for the army. To the east was an administrative building, barracks, and a guardhouse. The bluff overlooking the field had the officer's quarters and homes.[3]. Arnold led the effort to name the field Crissy Field in honor of Major Dana H. Crissy. Crissy died on 8 October 1919 in a crash in a de Havilland DH-4B during an Air Service transcontinental reliability test while attempting a landing at Salt Lake City, Utah.[4]
In the early years, Crissy Field involved mainly the viewing of artillery fire, aerial photography, liaison flights for headquarter personnel, special civilian missions such as publicity flights and search and rescues, and a support field for U.S. Air Mail. The first Western aerial forest fire patrols took place from Crissy Field.[3]
The first successful Dawn-to-dusk transcontinental flight across the United States ended at Crissy Field in 1924. That same year, the army's Round-the-World Race stopped at Crissy Field, and Lowell H. Smith, who was stationed at the field, lead the flyers upon their return back. In 1925, two navy seaplanes took off from Crissy Field, marking the first attempt to fly from the continental United States to Hawaii. The trip was expected to last 26-hours, but it took twelve days and the crew had to be rescued at sea. Two years later Lester Maitland and Albert Hegenberger flew non-stop in their Fokker, named Bird of Paradise, from Crissy Field to Hawaii successfully.[3]
Originally, Crissy Field was considered ideal for an airfield. However, wind and fog often made for poor flying conditions and construction of the Golden Gate Bridge in 1937 made flights around the bay extra difficult. Crissy Field was also vulnerable to possible enemy ship attacks due to its location on the water. In 1936, Hamilton Field opened in Marin County, and Crissy Field was closed as a first-line air base.[3]
When the air corps left, the administration building served as the headquarters for the 30th Infantry Regiment, and the landing field was used as an assembly area for troop mobilization. During World War II, temporary wooden barracks and classrooms were built on site for the army's Military Intelligence Service Language School. Nisei soldiers were also trained as battlefield interpreters, as well.[3]
After World War II, the Sixth Army Flight Detachment used Crissy Field for light airplane and helicopter operations, after a paved runway replaced the grass runway. Crissy Field served liaison flights and MedEvac flights bringing wounded Vietnam soldiers from Travis Air Force Base to Letterman Army Hospital. In 1974 the field was closed to airplanes, though helicopter operations continued for several years.[3]
In 1994 the National Park Service (NPS) took over the Presidio, and Crissy Field was declared a "derelict concrete wasteland" by NPS. Due to environmental concerns about the former airfield, NPS and the Environmental Protection Agency used funds to monitor the areas chemical, biological and physical variables. NPS eventually worked with the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy to revitalize the area and the Crissy Field Center was opened to the public in 2001.[2][1]
Redesigned by Hargreaves Associates in 1994, Crissy Field passed from being a military airport, into becoming open space for the people of San Francisco, now a part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Divided into 6 major zones:
In order to create the new site, 87,000 tons of hazardous materials were removed from the site itself and the tidal wetlands were redesigned to simulate the wetlands that existed before the military appropriated the site and used the area as a dump and landfill location. The site provides great views of the San Francisco bay area, Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge.[5]
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