Treasure Island, California

From Freepedia

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Treasure Island is an artificial island in the San Francisco Bay between San Francisco and Oakland. It is connected by a small isthmus to Yerba Buena Island, a naturally formed island. It was created in 1939 for the "Golden Gate International Exposition" by dredging up dirt from the bay.

Treasure Island is wholly within the City and County of San Francisco, which territory extends far into San Francisco Bay and to the tip of the island of Alameda.

The Administration Building, a Streamline Moderne-styled remnant of that World's Fair, is one of the few buildings remaining from the exposition. Today it serves largely as offices for The Villages, a private apartment-rental agency. The former housing for officers and their families is rented out to the general public, pending redevelopment and reconstruction of buildings on the island slated for 2008.

After the World's Fair exhibition, the island was scheduled to be used as an airport when the navy stepped in and offered to exchange Mills Field on the San Francisco Peninsula near the city of Burlingame for the island. The City and County of San Francisco accepted the swap and the airport was built at Mills Field.

During World War II Treasure Island became part of the Treasure Island Naval Base, where it served largely as an electronics and radio communications training school, and as the major navy departure point for sailors active in the Pacific theatre of the war.

In 1996 Treasure Island and the Presidio Army Base were decommissioned and opened to public control, under stipulations.

Treasure Island is now part of District 6 of the City and County of San Francisco, though it continues to be owned by the navy.

A substantial part of the island is undergoing environmental cleanup by the federal government.

The island has no gas station, and is served by a single bus, the San Francisco Municipal Railway 108. It has a job training center and is home to many low-income San Franciscans.

The island has a raised walkway which circumnavigates almost its entire bulk, which is popular for recreation. Sea lions can be observed in the water from the shoreline, and construction of the new eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge can be observed from the eastern part of the island.

Treasure Island's old aircraft hangars also served for three years as the site of Comedy Central's Battlebots television show.