Richmond

About Richmond

Richmond stretches along the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay north of Berkeley, with more shoreline than almost any other city on the bay. It grew in the early 1900s as the western end of the Santa Fe Railway and the home of a large Standard Oil refinery, and the historic Point Richmond district still keeps its early 20th century hotel, shops and the 1926 Plunge swimming pool.

During World War II, the Kaiser shipyards here built 747 ships at record speed, and tens of thousands of workers, many of them women and African Americans, came to Richmond for jobs. Their story is told at the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park, along with the SS Red Oak Victory ship and the restored Ford Assembly Building.

Today Richmond offers miles of the San Francisco Bay Trail, regional shorelines such as Miller/Knox and Point Pinole, the hills of Wildcat Canyon, and ferries that cross the bay to San Francisco.