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Port of Oakland
Northern California's main container port on San Francisco Bay
The Port of Oakland is the principal container port for Northern California, lining the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay across the water from the city of San Francisco. It was one of the first ports in the world to build for container ships in the 1960s, and its giant cranes are a familiar sight on the Bay skyline - they famously helped inspire the design of the walking machines in Star Wars.
Oakland is a major export gateway, sending Central Valley farm goods - nuts, fruit, wine, rice - across the Pacific to Asia. It sits beside the Bay Bridge and the busy approaches to one of the great natural harbors of the West Coast.