Abandoned Nike Hercules radar site photos

[yak_v]

Couple of weeks ago a friend of mine and I found an interesting place in the Marine Headlands just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. It's an abandoned Nike Hercules radar site SF-88C. One of 12 that ringed the Bay Area from mid 50s to 1974, it was linked with the SF-88L launch site (that site has been restored and is now a museum). In 1974 these sites have been stripped of all useful hardware and abandoned. Many have been converted to other uses, but SF-88C was in a very inconvenient place (no to mention that the road to it has collapsed in several places) and has been left as is. There is a tourist trail to it, but as it is a very strenuous 2 mile hike uphill not too many people make it up there. The elements have not been very kind to it, as is it wet and windy on the top of the mountain and one of the platforms is in the process of collapsing. But none the less an interesting place.

 

 

The rest of the photos can be found here:

http://svsm.org/gallery/SF88C

 

Valdimir

Edited June 19, 2008 by yak_v

[Marek Tucan]

Is it THIS?

Edited June 19, 2008 by Tuccy

[yak_v]

Is it THIS?

 

Yes. It was taken before the tall platform collapsed, which seems to have happened within last two years.

 

This is the SF-88L launch site that has been turned into the museum.

 

And here is another radar site SF-87C that was built on top of the old coast defense battery.

 

The whole coast is covered in various military installations - http://svsm.org/gallery/SF-Coastal-Fortifications

 

Vladimir

[Archie Pellagio]

What a view!

[PCallahan]

Growing up in central Connecticut, there were several abandoned Nike sites within a couple of miles of my house. Being a teenager, I was generally ignorant of their historical value, but they were a great place to drink and hang out with girls.

[binder001]

In Nebraska at least one NIke site was converted to a high school near Raymond, NE. I believe it was primarily an administrative site for the local batteries. There was also a firing battery near Crete, NE that was finally bulldozed a few years ago for a housing development.

 

Gary

[Josh]

Growing up in central Connecticut, there were several abandoned Nike sites within a couple of miles of my house. Being a teenager, I was generally ignorant of their historical value, but they were a great place to drink and hang out with girls.

 

Currious, I live in southern CT. Where were the sites up there? There was one I think in Branford that has long since been paved over.

[Colin]

I was google earthing around that area, amazing how many forts and batteries there are.

[rmgill]

I'd love to have an old site like that turned into a home. It'd take a bit of insulation for keeping down the condensation off the interior walls, BUT at least the site would be reasonable stable thermally.

 

I'd love the underground parking for my vehicles though.

[rmgill]

There has been a couple like that in the UK that have been converted into houses. One had the entire roof removed and glass put in (removes most of the benefits of living in a bunker if you ask me) while this one at Ullenwood, not far from me,

http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/u/ullenwood/

 

has also been converted into a house, though I get the impression perhaps not quite so dramatically. Hopefully there was room to fit the retractable bridge and glass tank full of piranha...

 

Apparently there are some old Atlas and other deeper ICBM sites here in the US that were converted as well. Unfortunately, they're all rather remote.

[Mk 1]

He he he.

 

I remember coming upon some of these same sites when I was in college during the late 70's. They were much fresher, then.

 

A buddy and I, both students at Berkeley, were out hiking around the Marin headlands. We crossed over a ridge and looked down on what was quite obviously a missile site. Not knowing if we were in a "no-no" area, we cautiously snuck around until we got near to a gate with a sign that said: "Marine Mammal Rehabilitation Center". I remember cowering behind scrub as a car came past us on an access road only 2 or 3 yards away. We could hear the "ooohr, ooohr" sound of seals barking in the distance. We went home convinced that we had come upon some secret installation, and that the Army or the Air Force had set up bogus signs and was playing a recording of seals as a counter-espionage tactic.

 

Maybe a year or two later I saw a story on the local TV news about some sick sea lions, that showed the gate and one of the pools that the seals were kept in. Seems they had re-purposed the facilities soon after de-militarization, using the concrete basins that had housed the missile launchers as pools for ill or injured seals, dolphins, sea otters, etc. that occasionally washed up on the beaches of California. But all the facilities were still fresh, and it sure looked like an active missile battery to me.

 

Once we found out that the missile base was inactive, we came back and explored many of those old facilities several times in the ensuing weekends.

 

That's a set of synapses that haven't fired-off in a lot of years...

 

-Mark 1

[rmgill]

A buddy and I, both students at Berkeley, were out hiking around the Marin headlands. We crossed over a ridge and looked down on what was quite obviously a missile site. Not knowing if we were in a "no-no" area, we cautiously snuck around until we got near to a gate with a sign that said: "Marine Mammal Rehabilitation Center". I remember cowering behind scrub as a car came past us on an access road only 2 or 3 yards away. We could hear the "ooohr, ooohr" sound of seals barking in the distance. We went home convinced that we had come upon some secret installation, and that the Army or the Air Force had set up bogus signs and was playing a recording of seals as a counter-espionage tactic.

 

Wrong kind of seals.

 

Now I want to see some of the SF types swimming around going OOohr Ooohr to fool some local spies into thinking they're the other type fo seal.

[JOE BRENNAN]

Currious, I live in southern CT. Where were the sites up there? There was one I think in Branford that has long since been paved over.

The Bridgeport defense area had 6 Nike Ajax sites, only one of which was upgraded to Nike Hercules in that smaller system. BR-04 Ansonia, BR-15 Westhaven, BR-17 Miford, BR-65 Fairfield, BR-73 Westport and BR-94 Shelton. The control and launch sites for some of those still exist or there's partial evidence of them still visible, per "Rings of Supersonic Steel" by Morgan and Berhow which is a summary of the US strategic SAM systems but mainly a listing of Nike sites including current status of most.

 

When I was a kid in suburban NJ, NY-80, one of 24 sites in NY defense area, was still operational, upgraded to Hercules and only closed down in 1974. Now the control site is a public park on top of a hill, but with the buildings and towers intact. The launch site at the bottom of the hill was covered over in an industrial development: typical situation. There were at least 58 Nike Ajax battalions with multiple batteries (ie. sites). Remnants of sites can be found near all significant cities (as of then) in the US.

 

Joe

[Jeff]

Apparently there are some old Atlas and other deeper ICBM sites here in the US that were converted as well. Unfortunately, they're all rather remote.

Here's a deluxe model with runway and Atlas-F missile silo.

 

http://www.missilebases.com/new/index.html

[PCallahan]

Currious, I live in southern CT. Where were the sites up there? There was one I think in Branford that has long since been paved over.

 

JUA --

 

There were two that we hit regularly -- one in Glastonbury (I think) SW of Hartford (tougher to get to) and one in Manchester (e/se of Hartford). The Manchester site was easy to get to -- there were at least two roads that went through it or into it. The manchester one (at least in the 1980s) still had many buildings standing, although I never got a great look at them (I was generally only there at night!)

 

Oddly enough, where I am in Great Falls, VA, my house is built on a former Nike site (some of the facilities are still visible at the other end of the street).

 

Pat

Edited June 20, 2008 by PCallahan