Carquinez Strait

Aerial view of the Carquinez Strait looking east, with the Carquinez Bridge in the foreground and the Benicia-Martinez Bridge in the background.

Carquinez Strait

The Carquinez Strait is a narrow tidal strait in northern California. It is part of the tidal estuary of the Sacramento and the San Joaquin rivers as they drain into the San Francisco Bay. The strait connects Suisun Bay, which receives the waters of the combined rivers, with San Pablo Bay, a northern extension of the San Francisco Bay.

Location

The strait forms part of the border between Solano (to the north) and Contra Costa (to the south) counties, and is approximately 15 mi (25 km) north of Oakland. The cities of Benicia and Vallejo lie on the north side of the strait, while Martinez, Port Costa, and Crockett sit on the southern coast. The Napa River joins the strait, via the short Mare Island Strait, near its entrance into San Pablo Bay.

Name

The strait is named after the Karkin ("los Carquines" in Spanish), a linguistic division of the Ohlone Native Americans who resided on both sides of the strait.^[1]

Installations

The California Maritime Academy is at the western end of the strait on the northern waterfront. The old C&H Sugar refinery is located on the southern shore in the small town of Crockett.

Bridges

The strait is crossed by two highway bridges, the Carquinez Bridge on Interstate 80 and the Benicia-Martinez Bridge on Interstate 680. Each highway bridge consists of two spans.

Interstate 780 connects the two highways on the northern slope of the strait. State Route 4 connects these highways south of and inland from the strait.

A rail bridge just east of the Benicia-Martinez bridge is used by the Capitol Corridor, California Zephyr, and Coast Starlight trains. A rail ferry, with the ferries Contra Costa and Solano provided service across the strait near the location of the current rail bridge until the rail bridge was built in 1930.

Tall pylons carrying power lines cross the strait as well. The Carquinez Strait Powerline Crossing was the world's first powerline crossing of a large river.

Ship traffic

The channel is navigable and is used for commercial and military shipping. Deep water ship traffic bound for both the Port of Sacramento and the Port of Stockton traverse the strait.

Formation of Delta

The narrow gap in the Coast Range that forms the strait has led to the formation of the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta, an inverted river delta, upstream of it, a rare geological feature. The strait is too small to allow the passage of huge amounts of floodwaters created during years with heavy rainfall/snowmelt events. Because the Delta area is the first to fill and last to drain in a flood event, silt and soil have more time to drop out of suspension, creating the inverted river delta feature.

References

v t e San Francisco Bay Area Bodies of water Bodega Bay Carquinez Strait Clifton Forebay Golden Gate Grizzly Bay Guadalupe River Half Moon Bay Lake Berryessa Napa River Oakland Estuary Petaluma River Richardson Bay Richmond Inner Harbor Russian River Sacramento River San Francisco Bay San Leandro Bay San Pablo Bay Sonoma Creek Suisun Bay Tomales Bay Counties Alameda Contra Costa Marin Napa San Francisco San Mateo Santa Clara Solano Sonoma Major cities San Jose San Francisco Oakland Cities and towns 100k–250k Antioch Berkeley Concord Daly City Fairfield Fremont Hayward Richmond Santa Clara Santa Rosa Sunnyvale Vallejo Cities and towns 50k–99k Alameda Brentwood Castro Valley Cupertino Livermore Milpitas Mountain View Napa Novato Palo Alto Petaluma Pittsburg Pleasanton Redwood City San Leandro San Mateo San Rafael San Ramon South San Francisco Union City Vacaville Walnut Creek Cities and towns 25k-50k Belmont Benicia Burlingame Campbell Danville Dublin East Palo Alto Foster City Gilroy Los Altos Los Gatos Martinez Menlo Park Morgan Hill Newark Oakley Pacifica Pleasant Hill Rohnert Park San Bruno San Carlos San Pablo Saratoga Suisun City Windsor Cities and towns 10k–25k Alamo Albany Alum Rock American Canyon Ashland Bay Point Cherryland Clayton Discovery Bay Dixon El Cerrito El Sobrante Emeryville Fairview Half Moon Bay Healdsburg Hercules Hillsborough Lafayette Larkspur Millbrae Mill Valley Moraga North Fair Oaks Orinda Piedmont Pinole San Anselmo San Lorenzo Sonoma Stanford Tamalpais-Homestead Valley Sub-regions East Bay North Bay San Francisco Peninsula Silicon Valley South Bay Transportation Sports

v t e San Francisco Bay watershed Outline Hydrography Ecology List of tributaries List of lakes Subdivisions Major San Francisco Bay Suisun Bay San Pablo Bay Minor Golden Gate Grizzly Bay Richardson Bay San Rafael Bay Richmond Inner Harbor San Leandro Bay Waterways Rivers San Joaquin Sacramento Napa Guadalupe Petaluma Creeks (discharging into the Bay) Alameda Baxter Cerrito Codornices Coyote (Santa Clara) Coyote (Marin) San Leandro San Lorenzo Schoolhouse Temescal Sausal Redwood San Mateo Sonoma Corte Madera Arroyo Corte Madera del Presidio San Rafael Miller Novato Tolay San Francisquito Pacheco Alhambra Adobe Rodeo Refugio Pinole Garrity Rheem Karlson San Pablo Castro Wildcat Fluvius Innominatus Marin (Alameda County) Strawberry Easton Reservoirs Calaveras Reservoir Straits and estuaries Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta Carquinez Strait Oakland Estuary Raccoon Strait Parks and protected areas Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge Eden Landing Ecological Reserve Hayward Regional Shoreline Hayward Shoreline Interpretive Center Crown Memorial State Beach Eastshore State Park Emeryville Crescent State Marine Reserve Point Isabel Regional Shoreline César Chávez Park Brooks Island Regional Shoreline Point Pinole Regional Shoreline Antioch Dunes National Wildlife Refuge Coyote Point Park Middle Harbor Shoreline Park National Estuarine Research Reserve China Camp State Park San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park SF Bay Trail Oyster Bay Regional Shoreline Big Break Regional Shoreline Islands and peninsulas Major islands Alameda Alcatraz Angel Treasure Island Yerba Buena Minor Brooks Bair Bay Farm Belvedere Brother Castro Rocks Coast Guard Mare Red Rock The Sisters Marin Islands Roe Ryer Seal Islands Peninsulas/infill Albany Bulb Point Isabel Foster City Fleming Point Hunters Point Wetlands Chelsea Cordelia Crissy Field Hoffman Meeker Mowry Napa Sonoma Point Molate Seal Stege Suisun Westpoint Bridges and tubes Bridges San Francisco–Oakland Eastern span replacement Richmond–San Rafael San Mateo–Hayward Dumbarton Golden Gate Benicia–Martinez Antioch Carquinez Leimert Fruitvale Tubes Posey/Webster Street Transbay Ports and marinas Port of San Francisco Port of Oakland Port of Richmond San Francisco Naval Shipyard Mare Island Naval Shipyard Port of Redwood City Berkeley Marina Oyster Point Marina/Park Clipper Yacht Harbor Foster City Marina (proposed) Other Discovery Site Humphrey the Whale COSCO Busan oil spill Delta and Dawn Golden Gate Biosphere Reserve California Clapper Rail Reber Plan San Leandro Oyster Beds Thicktail chub Delta smelt Richmond Shipyards U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Bay Model Guadalupe Watershed Clifton Court Forebay Conservation and Development Commission The Watershed Project Save The Bay Harold Gilliam Marincello Citizens for East Shore Parks Friends of Five Creeks Urban Creeks Council Cargill Salt infill Ferry service/SF Bay Ferry 1971 oil spill Greenbelt Alliance The Bay Institute San Francisco Baykeeper San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science Water Trail Estuary Partnership Leslie Salt Portal Category

Coordinates: 38°03′33″N 122°12′45″W / 38.05918°N 122.21260°W / 38.05918; -122.21260