It was along this shoreline, named Steamboat Point in 1851, and extending from 500 feet west of Third Street to the Foot of Second at Townsend, that the most able shipbuilders of the times built and repaired every type of vessel, from the largest class of "floating palace" riverboats and ferryboats designed to carry railroad cars, down to brigantines and yachts. Shipbuilders, John North, Henry Owens, Patrick Henry Tieman, and H.B. Tichenor made Steamboat Point famous from 1851 to 1868 as the place to haul out vessels on marine railways for caulking, coppering, and below water repairs. At a time when San Francisco depended totally on sea and river lanes for all the necessities and luxuries of life, as well as her communications with the world, the shipwrights of Steamboat Point built and maintained her watercraft at their boatyards and this narrow beach.
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