Bay Model
- Good for Kids: Yes
18 reviews
Neighborhood: UC Campus Area
"oh what is there to say about telegraph except that you have to go there at least once in your life. it's that memorable."
12 Reviews for Bay Model
It's free; but wait, there's more!
This is on the A-List of non-touristy things to do with your tourist friends. It's large, and it's odd. A Full scale working model of the Bay Area's waterways, and a bunch of information on plaques (as you'd expect).
Ride bikes to the place and then take the ferry home from Sausalito! It's a really easy ride from SF.
What sets this place apart from other info museums is the expansive space -- the giant warehouse and all the twisty ramps gives you license to let loose in a way you can't at, say, the Natural History museum.
My first trip to the Bay Model and the model is DRY for Repairs from June 26 - Mon June 30, 2008. It's closed on Mondays so you can't go then anyways.
From their website: It's the only working hydraulic model (only one of it's kind in the world) of the SF Bay & Sacramento - San Joaquin River Delta System.
Very cool sounding! Darn it, now I gotta go back. FREE Anyways!
What I saw:
Videos on the Bay Area's water
Hands on things to push & read
Marinship exhibit
Art from local artist
Dry Model!! - would be cool when they fill it up & it's running. Go Tues-Sun!
Small giftshop
Separate bathrooms by the model & across from main entrance.
Close to Fish. (the restaurant).
http://www.yelp.com/bi...
website:
www.spn.usace.army.mil...
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The Bay Model is all that the previous reviewers said it is. Take your visitors.
IT IS SPECTACULAR AND NOT TO BE MISSED!
Plus, once a month the TIBURON FILM SOCIETY shows a film here for the general public . . . . from their extensive archives.
FREE! FREE! FREE! FREE! FREE!
Did you get that? It is FREE!
Once a month a free film. No popcorn is available, but the opportunity to see films you won't see anywhere else is . . .
Go to their website (www.tiburonfilmfestival) and click on the FILM SOCIETY link. If you get on their mailing list they will send you a reminder telling you WHEN & WHAT the next FREE film is going to be at the Bay Model.
CHECK IT OUT!
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This by far one of the coolest things I have seen in the California! I wish they could take this idea and incorporate it into a natural history museum of the Delta and Valley!
I will always take visitors here whenever I am in the area.
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It's a nifty concept if you're at all interested in geography, cartography, or uh, bay-wavegraphy. But call in advance, to make sure the damn thing is actually working. I went once as a kid and the mechanism that moves the tide was broken, and I went yesterday and the damn thing was dry.
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Worth a peek if you're in the neighborhood or looking for something different to do when you're in Marin. We ended up here after eating ice cream on the main Sausalito drag and wandering around looking for free stuff to do. It's like a cool science fair project made by giants! I actually learned a lot about the bay- the tides and such. Did you know that when it's high tide at the Golden Gate Bridge it's actually low tide in areas like the far corners of the Delta? That's how big the bay is! Who knew? The guys who built the model did.
Also, in the summer there are sometimes jazz performances on the patio outside the visitor center and we were able to listen to some jazz and sneek a few appetizers from an obviously private event when no one was looking!
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The Bay Model was used from the 1950's to 2000 as a research center to study the movement of water around the bay, and calculate the effects humans had on it. Now, that work is done by computers and the Bay Model has been opened to the public as an education center.
It's not glitzy or very exciting (unless you are really into hydraulics), but you will probably learn something when you visit.
The model was built by the Army Corps of Engineers who still have the mandate to keep the real bay's floor navigable by the large ships going to Oakland's port. You see, the average depth of the bay is around 18 feet, so "lanes" had to be trudged up by the engineers to allow for large ships to go through. You'll be able to see those in this large model (two football fields large). You'll also see that there is some sort of weird roundabout near Alcatraz.
The model is no longer in use for research, although they still do reverse the "tide" every 14 minutes (100 times faster than real life) so you can watch the water flow in and out. OK, I said it wasn't that exciting. One caveat, too. The time scale is not the only scale that's exaggerated, the depth scale is too. The floor doesn't drop off as drastically at the Golden Gate as it does in the model, but it's all explained at the video you see when you first walk in.
It was pretty much deserted when I went and I opted for the self guided tour (free) rather than the audio tour (suggested donation, $3). I think I would have gotten more out of it if I had taken the audio tour and even more if I had gone on a guided tour. There are videos you can watch and some interactive exhibits but they are a bit lame for adults. What I enjoyed the most was seeing a bird's eye view of the bay and learning more about the way it's laid out.
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The whole thing's built to scale. They use it to simulate things like oil spills and dumping of toxins in tributary waterways. (They do this by dropping dye in the water at selected points, and observing its propagation.) I haven't been there in years, but remember being impressed by the (lack of) depth of the water: it's like one inch deep, versus a football field of Bay.
Bonus: It's good to know that experience playing with train sets as a kid can lead to a fulfilling career!
P.S. Someone here said, "There's no City at all." They used to have a bunch of cardboard buildings. If that thing is gone, I've got three words for you: Beach Blanket Babylon.
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From the website:
The Bay Model is a three-dimensional hydraulic model of San Francisco Bay and Delta areas capable of simulating tides and currents. The Model is over 1.5 acres in size and represents an area from the Pacific Ocean to Sacramento and Stockton, including: the San Francisco, San Pablo and Suisun Bays and a portion of the Sacramento - San Joaquin Delta.
From my own experience:
What an incredible model. Truly fantastic oldschool. And terrifying to think that the Golden Gate Bridge straddles an abyss. Ride you bike over here and have a great time. Ask around, you'd be surprised how many people you know have already experienced this.
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What were they thinking when they built this thing? What a depressingly old and decrepid elementary school field trip destination. Smells like a school swimming pool and just as humid. The only reason I went here was to see a cool model of the San Francisco Peninsula, but the whole area that it would be in is walkways! It really is a BAY model. There's no City at all. My imagination was lightly sparked, hence the 2 stars.
If you go here, walk out to the end of the piers and enjoy the views of Belvedere Island, Tiburon, San Francisco and the fog slipping over the hills and 101 to the West.
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The size of two football fields, you can explore the whole bay area in model form. It is still fully funtioning. They move the water in and out of the "bay" to simulate 24 hours of water motion in the bay, every few minutes.
I thought it was pretty amazing and they must have put in so much work to get it to this point. The only reason it is not still used for research is that computers are cheaper and faster now.
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This is one of the most interesting thing I have ever seen. It is a three dimensional hydraulic model of the bay, totally to scale, complete with tides and everything. They give you a little video tutorial then let you cruise around the model which is about the size of a football field. It is just so cool. It's definitely a different and worthwhile way to spend a couple hours. It's kind of like a little mini specialized science museum. I plan on taking all my visitors here when trying to figure out what to do for the day.
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