Suisun Bay

Suisun Bay is a shallow tidal estuary in Northern California. It is part of the San Francisco Bay and is where the Sacramento River and San Joaquin River meet. This area leads to the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, an inverted river delta.

To the west, Suisun Bay connects to San Pablo Bay through the Carquinez Strait. Grizzly Bay lies north of Suisun Bay. The bay is between Contra Costa County to the south and Solano County to the north.

The bay was named after the Suisunes, a Patwin tribe of Wintun people. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the Central Pacific Railroad used train ferries to cross the bay until a railroad bridge was built. Later, the Sacramento Northern Railway also used a train ferry called the Ramon to cross Suisun Bay.

In 2004, a petroleum pipeline broke and spilled fuel into the marshes. The company operating the pipeline was penalized for this incident.

Geography

Suisun Bay is a shallow area where water meets land. It is part of the larger San Francisco Bay in Northern California. The Sacramento River and the San Joaquin River flow into Suisun Bay, forming the start of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta. To the west, the bay flows out through the Carquinez Strait and connects to San Pablo Bay, another part of the San Francisco Bay.

See also: List of islands of California § Suisun Bay

Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet

The bay was home to the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet, a group of ships kept ready for the U.S. Navy and merchant reserve ships. These ships were stored after World War II. One famous ship, the USNS Glomar Explorer, was anchored here after it helped recover parts of a sunken submarine in the 1970s during Project Azorian. Many of these ships were sold for scrap in the 1990s. By August 2017, the last of the ships from the old fleet were removed. Some naval ships still remain in Suisun Bay, mostly part of the Military Sealift Command Ready Reserve Fleet.

The battleship USS Iowa and the "Ghost Fleet" were once in Suisun Bay, though the Iowa has since moved to the Port of Los Angeles to become a museum ship.