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The Carquinez Strait (; Spanish language: Estrecho de Carquinez) Univision Área de la Bahía - Múltiples sismos sacuden el este de la Bahía; el mayor fue de magnitud 3.8 con epicentro en San Ramón "El temblor en el Área de la Bahía es la advertencia más reciente del alto peligro sísmico en esa zona", sandiegouniontribune.com. Accessed December 21, 2022. (in Spanish) is a narrow tidal strait located in the Bay Area of Northern California, United States. It is part of the tidal estuary of the Sacramento River and the San Joaquin rivers as they drain into the San Francisco Bay. The strait is long and connects Suisun Bay, which receives the waters of the combined rivers, with San Pablo Bay, a northern extension of the San Francisco Bay.
The strait formed in prehistoric times, near the close of one of the past ice ages, when the Central Valley was Lake Corcoran. Melting ice from the Sierra Nevada raised the water level while seismic activity created a new outlet to the Pacific Ocean, draining the lake into the ocean and exposing the valley floors.
The strait forms part of the county border between Solano (to the north) and Contra Costa (to the south), and it is approximately 15 mi (25 km) north of Oakland. The cities of Benicia and Vallejo lie on the north side of the strait, while Martinez, Port Costa, and Crockett sit on the southern coast. The Napa River joins the strait, via the short Mare Island, near its entrance into San Pablo Bay. Its watershed covers , approximately 40 percent of California's total surface.
Interstate 780 connects the two highways on the northern slope of the strait. State Route 4 connects these highways south of and inland from the strait.
A rail bridge just east of the Benicia–Martinez Bridge is used by the Capitol Corridor, California Zephyr, and Coast Starlight trains.
A rail ferry, with the ferries Contra Costa and Solano provided service across the strait from 1878 near the location of the current rail bridge until the rail bridge was built in 1930.
Tall pylons carrying cross the strait as well. The Carquinez Strait Powerline Crossing was the world's first powerline crossing of a large river.
By the early 20th century, farmers in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, who depended on irrigating their fields with fresh water from the two rivers noticed an increase in salinity farther inland than before. It became obvious that fresh water was being pumped out of the Delta faster than it could be replenished by rain and snow during the wet season. Farmers, businessmen and politicians complained that allowing fresh water to flow to the ocean was wasteful. While many solutions were proposed, few appeared practical. A political consensus formed that damming the Carquinez Strait should solve the seawater intrusion problem. Bowen, Jerry."A dam across Carquinez Strait?" Historical Articles of Solano County Online Database. Posted August 12, 2001. Accessed July 21, 2017
In September 1923, the California Legislature appropriated $10,000 (equivalent to $ today) for a saltwater dam survey. The Federal government added a $20,000 contribution ($ today) through the US Reclamation Service. Under Reclamation Service rules, another $10,000 needed to be raised from local supporters of the project. The necessary money was raised by March 1924, and the first of three site surveys was announced.
The first survey was at Army Point, near Benicia, which was the preferred site based on preliminary studies. The second choice was Dillon Point, near Southampton Bay, while the third survey was at Point San Pablo, near Richmond. The three surveys were completed by the end of 1924. However, it took four years to complete the decision-making process that officially named Army Point as the future dam site. Still more wrangling in the legislature was required before the "Salt Water Barrier" was officially adopted in May 1929, and made part of the state water conservation project.
On January 24, 1930, with the Great Depression taking hold, President Herbert Hoover cancelled the Carquinez Strait project, saying that it was too costly. All efforts to revive the project failed. Years later, the Central Valley Project attempted to mitigate the effects of seawater intrusion by constructing other dams much farther inland and canals to send fresh water to the San Joaquin Valley.
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