Sausalito is a city in the San Francisco Bay Area situated in Marin County, California, United States. The population was 7,330 as of the year 2000 census. Viña del Mar, Chile, home to "Sausalito" stadium and "Sausalito" lagoon, is a sister city of Sausalito, which features a plaza called "Viña del Mar."
What is now Sausalito was once the site of a Coast Miwok settlement known as Liuaneglua. The branch of the Coast Miwok living in this area were known as the Huimen.
In 1838 during the Mexican era, an Englishman by the name of William A. Richardson, who became a Mexican citizen and married the daughter of the Commandant of the Presidio of San Francisco, established a large ranch from which the later town acquired its name, the "Rancho Del Sausalito". Sausalito is Spanish for "little willow grove."
In the 1870s, the North Pacific Coast Railroad (NPC) extended its tracks southward to a new terminus in Sausalito, where a rail yard and ferry to San Francisco were established. The NPC was acquired by the North Shore Railroad in 1902, which in turn was absorbed in 1907 by the Southern Pacific affiliate, the Northwestern Pacific.
By 1926, a major auto ferry across the Golden Gate was established, running to the Hyde Street Pier in San Francisco. This ferry was an integral part of old U.S. Highway 101. It ceased operation shortly after the Golden Gate Bridge opened in May of 1937.
During World War II, a major shipyard of the Bechtel Corporation called Marinship was sited along the shoreline of Sausalito. The thousands of laborers who worked here were largely housed in a nearby community constructed for them called Marin City.
The soil which supports this area is dredgings from Richardson Bay that were placed during World War II as part of the Marin shipyards for the United States Navy.[4] A total of 202 acres were condemned by the government. A portion of this total area was formed in the shape of a peninsula and this peninsula became known as Schoonmaker Point.
Following World War II a livly waterfront community grew out of the abandoned ship yards. By the late '60s at least three house boat communities occupied the waterfront along and adjacent to Sausalito's shore. But begining in the '70s, an intense struggle erupted between house boat residents and developers. It was dubbed the "House Boat Wars." Forced removals by county authorities and sabotage by some on the water front characterized this struggle. This long fight pitted the water front against the "Hill People" or the rich on the hill looking down on the water front. Today two house boat communities still exist: Gallilee Harbor in Sausalito and Waldo Point / Gate 6 just outside the city limit.
In 1965, the City of Sausalito sued the County of Marin and a private developer for illegally zoning 2,000 acres of land to build a city named Marincello right next to Sausalito. The city won the lawsuit in 1970, and the land was transferred as open space to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
Located at the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge, Sausalito receives a steady stream of visitors via the bridge and a ferry service from San Francisco. It retains one of the few ungated marinas in the Bay Area that attracts visitors.
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