Stand at the foot of Broadway today and look across the water toward Coronado. The bridge is there, arching 200 feet over the bay, four lanes of traffic moving in both directions. For most of San Diego's history, that view was just water — and the only way across was a boat.
The first commercial ferry named Coronado entered service on August 19, 1886, just as the Hotel del Coronado was being built to attract buyers to the new island community. John D. Spreckels — who at various points controlled the hotel, the ferry company, the island trolley, the water system, and most of the land on Coronado — turned the crossing into a reliable institution. The city's daily life organized itself around the ferry schedule in ways that are hard to imagine now.
The ferry that served the Navy base on North Island charged five cents a ride and earned itself a nickname: the Nickel-Snatcher. Navy personnel crossed on it daily, civilians crossed for shopping and recreation, and the boats carried automobiles as well as passengers once the automobile became common. In 1964 alone, the ferries carried more than 3.4 million vehicles across the bay.
The crossing was short — barely a mile of water — but it shaped everything. Coronado retained a distinct character partly because of the barrier of the bay. Real estate on the island developed differently than on the mainland. Businesses calibrated their hours around the ferry schedule. Residents planned their days around it. The ferry was not just transportation; it was the organizing fact of Coronado life.
The Coronado Bridge opened on August 3, 1969. The ferry made its final crossing on August 2 — the night before the bridge opened to traffic. The boats that had run this route for 83 years were retired. Spreckels had actually proposed a bridge as early as 1926, but the War Department blocked it on the grounds that it would interfere with military shipping. The bridge that finally won approval, in the 1960s, required an arch high enough to clear the Navy's largest aircraft carriers — which is why it rises 200 feet over the bay and bends 80 degrees across it.
Two of the original Coronado ferry boats were named to the National Register of Historic Places in 2026. The Broadway Pier where they departed — today a cruise ship terminal — still juts into the bay at the foot of Broadway, exactly where the ferries tied up for eight decades.
The bay looks different without a fleet of ferries on it. When you sail past the Broadway Pier, the water between downtown and Coronado is clear, open, unscheduled. For eighty-three years it was anything but.
Sources: Coronado Historical Association, "The Ferry Landing"; KPBS, "2 San Diego Ferries Named to National Register of Historic Places," January 2026; Flagship Cruises, "1915–Today: 100 Years on San Diego Bay."
Hear this story where it happened. JADA sails past this very spot. Join the San Diego Bay History Sail →