Eureka, National Historic Landmark steamboat in San Francisco Maritime Park, US

The Eureka is a wooden-hulled ferry built in 1890 that once carried people and vehicles across San Francisco Bay on regular routes. The vessel preserves its original machinery and multiple decks that served passengers and automobiles throughout its working years.

Built in 1890 in Tiburon as the Ukiah for the San Francisco and North Pacific Railroad, the ferry carried passengers by day and rail freight cars at night. After sinking in 1907 it was raised and refitted with a lower deck for automobiles. Rebuilt after World War I and renamed Eureka, it ran the Sausalito commuter route until ferry service ended with the Golden Gate Bridge's opening in 1937.

The ferry represents what water transportation meant to San Francisco's everyday life, when crossing the bay by boat was simply how people moved around. Walking through its decks shows how passengers once lived with this vessel as part of their routine.

Eureka is moored at Hyde Street Pier, where visitors board and move through the decks, engine room and passenger spaces on their own. Access to the upper decks is by stairs and ladders, so plan for uneven footing and low doorways. Allow time to cross the pier and reach the gangway.

The ferry is one of the largest wooden-hulled passenger boats still standing and looks much as it did during its working years. Its fully intact machinery gives a real sense of how these vessels actually operated.