Sunday, August 15, 2010
SF-88L is the only restored Nike Missile launch site in the country* and is located in San Francisco, California. SF-88L was the launch battery of the 2nd Battalion, 56th Artillery. It was here that the Missile body and guidance system were assembled and tested. The warheads were attached in the warhead building prior to being wheeled over to the launch area and lowered into the underground storage bunker magazine known as the pit.
SF-88L has two magazines, each with the capacity to store 6 missiles. The magazines are 49' long and 60' wide. At the end of each magazine, located behind blast doors, was the control room. From the control room, the crew could launch the missiles as well as raise or lower them to and from the magazine.
This is technically just the launch battery. The radar Integrated Fire Control, or IFC (named SF-88C) was located just down the road. SF-88C is abandoned and I planned to visit it on this trip. However, to my surprise, the roads were gated and I only had with me printed street maps to the location. To make it on foot would have taken roughly several hours round trip. Since I only had about 24 hours in San Francisco, I had to make the painful decision to not visit it in order to make time for other locations that I had planned.
*The other most restored Nike site in the country is NY-56's IFC, which I visited about a decade after this trip occurred. So if you want to see a complete Nike Missile base, which includes both the Launch area as well as the Control section, you just need to go to both New York (for the Control section) and San Francisco (for the Launch section). Piece of cake. Alternatively, you can see them both via my blog posts.
Trip Report - Part Two
In August of 2010, I had the opportunity to visit San Francisco, California. This post is Part Two of a Three-Part trip report. See Pt. III [ALCATRAZ] here.
Historic Photos of Nike Missile Base SF-88L
End Historic Photos
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