Suisun Bay

Suisun Bay (pronounced "soo-soon") is a shallow tidal estuary located at coord|38.07|-122.07gnis|253943|Suisun Bay] in central California, USA. It lies at the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, thus forming the entrance to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, an inverted river delta. Suisun Marsh is the tidal marsh land located to the north of the bay. It is the largest marsh in California.

The bay was named in 1811, after the Suisunes, a Native American tribe of the area. The word originates with the Patwin and is the namesake of Suisun City and the Suisun Valley.

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It is especially famous for hosting the anchorage of the "ghost" or "mothball" fleet, a collection of U.S. Navy and merchant reserve ships, created in the period following World War II. Many of these ships were removed for sale as scrap metal during the 1990s, but over 80 ships still remain at anchor in the bay including the WWII battleship "USS Iowa (BB-61)". . The "Glomar Explorer" has now been activated for other duties fitting its original "cover", which was deep ocean seabed mineral exploration and recovery.

from 1879 to 1930. The ferry boats "Solano" and "Contra Costa" were removed from service when the nearby Martinez railroad bridge was completed in 1930.From 1913 until 1954 the Sacramento Northern Railway, an electrified interurban line, crossed Suisun Bay with the "Ramon", a distillate-powered train ferry.

On April 28, 2004, a petroleum pipeline operated by Kinder Morgan Energy Partners ruptured, spilling an estimated 1,500 barrels (176 m³) of diesel fuel into the bay.

References

External links

* [http://www.kindermorgan.com/investor/kmi_press_releases.cfm Kinder Morgan Information Regarding Pipeline Release]