About Sausalito, California (courtesy of Wikipedia)

Sausalito is a city in the San Francisco Bay Area situated in Marin County, California, United States. The population was 7,330 at the 2000 census.

Lying at the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge, picturesque Sausalito receives a steady stream of visitors who both cycle over the bridge or use the ferry service from San Francisco. It retains one of the few ungated marinas in the Bay Area that attract visitors.

A ferry to Angel Island runs from Sausalito.

The site of Sausalito was originally occupied by the Uimen indigenous people. In 1838 during the Mexican era, an Englishman by the name of William Richardson, who became a Mexican citizen and married the daughter of the Presidio of San Francisco, established a large ranch from which the later town acquired its name, the "Rancho Del Sausalito". Sausalito is Spanish for "little willow grove".

In the 1870s, the North Pacific Coast Railroad (NPC) extended its tracks southward to a new terminus in Sausalito where a rail yard and ferry to San Francisco were established. The NPC was acquired by the North Shore Railroad in 1902, which in turn was absorbed in 1907 by the Southern Pacific affiliate, the Northwestern Pacific.

By 1926, a major auto ferry across the Golden Gate was established, running to the Hyde Street Pier in San Francisco. This ferry was an integral part of old U.S. Highway 101. It ceased operation shortly after the Golden Gate Bridge opened in May of 1937.

During World War II, a major shipyard of the Bechtel Corporation called Marinship was sited along the shoreline of Sausalito. The thousands of laborers who worked here were largely housed in a nearby community constructed for them called Marin City.

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