![]() These historic places remain today as an indelible imprint of this time and remind us of the dramatic changes brought on by the Bay Area's participation in World War II. During World War II, tens of thousands of Bay Area women challenged common perceptions about their capabilities, and for the first time were faced with the problems of being working parents-finding daycare and housing. The converted Richmond Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant prepared tanks for shipment overseas to the Pacific War, and the Benicia Arsenal manufactured the munitions for these and other weapons. Mare Island Naval Shipyard provided well-established repair and shipbuilding facilities. During the war, men and women working in Bay Area shipyards, like Kaiser's Richmond Shipyard Number Three, built 1,400 vessels-a ship a day, on average-like the SS Red Oak Victory. The San Francisco Bay Area's major contribution to victory during World War II was shipbuilding. Inside the bay, bases abounded including Fort Mason, the principal Pacific Port of Embarkation, the Presidio, Fort Miley, and Hamilton Army Airfield. ![]() Forts Baker, Barry, and Cronkhite ringed the tip of Marin County, while Fort Point mounted guard on the Golden Gate Straits. Preparations for mobilization to create "Fortress San Francisco" were massive. The communities that ring the San Francisco Bay were irrevocably altered by that wartime era and still bear its visible marks in the remains of military bases and coastal defense fortifications, ships and shipbuilding facilities, worker housing and day-care facilities. ![]() World War II dominated the social, economic and political landscapes of the mid-20th century, setting in motion momentous events that still shape the world we live in today. Photo by Christian Mehlführer, User:Chmehl - Own work, CC BY 3.0, China Town in San Francisco, CA overlooking the Bay Bridge. ![]()
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