San Francisco Drydock, California

Also known as BAE Systems San Francisco Ship Repair, San Francisco Drydock is the largest commercial shipyard in San Francisco. It occupies the facilities from the Bethlehem Steel Company and the Union Iron Works and is owned by BAE Systems, Inc. (formerly United States Marine Repair Company), the U.S. subsidiary of British global defense giant BAE Systems PLC, which owns four major shipyards around the country. This industrial area is the largest intact industrial port site in San Francisco, and one of the oldest continuously operating civilian shipyards in the country. Union Iron Works was founded in 1850, and moved to this 23-acre yard in 1881, at which time they employed 1,300 people, building ships, bridges, mining machinery, and weapons for use in developing the West. The yard was later bought by Bethlehem Steel which built dozens of destroyers and repaired submarines here during World War II. Though BAE Systems San Francisco Ship Repair still repairs ships at the site, many of the original shipyard buildings are vacant or are under-utilized. In 2014, the San Francisco Port Commission entered into an agreement with Orton Development, Inc., to begin restoration of a number of dilapidated buildings along this portion of waterfront, as part of a larger proposed redevelopment effort.