Slip 4 (closed) (San Francisco, California)

 closed, slipway

This is the most intact and visible of many launching slips that were distributed around the bayside edges of the shipyards. Ship hulls were assembled here from plates and equipment fabricated in the workshop buildings of the yard. When the hulls were complete, they were launched down the shipway, which was carefully sloped to let the hull gently enter the water. Ship launches were almost always occasions for festivities, complete with broken champagne or wine bottles.

The two cranes visible beside the slip could be moved up and down the length of the slip to allow placement of the large metal parts into the hulls.

After launching, hulls were towed to the berthing piers nearby to complete construction.

pier70sf.org/mappage/mappage.htm