The Hunter's Point crane is a

gantry crane A gantry crane is a Crane (machine), crane built atop a wikt:gantry, gantry, which is a structure used to straddle an object or workspace. They can range from enormous "full" gantry cranes, capable of lifting some of the heaviest loads in the wor ...

located at the

naval shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Compared to shipyards, which are sometimes more involved ...

Hunters Point, San Francisco Hunting is the Human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products (fur/hide (sk ...

. When it was built, in 1947 to repair battleships and aircraft carriers, it was the largest crane in the world. It has a capacity and was completed at the site by the

American Bridge Company The American Bridge Company is a heavy/civil construction firm that specializes in building and renovating bridges and other large, complex structures. Founded in 1900, the company is headquartered in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsb ...

. When it was first built, it was used to lift 630 tons, which the

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...

reported at the time was the heaviest load ever lifted. In 1959, it was used for Operation Skycatch, where dummy

Polaris missile The UGM-27 Polaris missile was a two-stage solid-fuel rocket, solid-fueled nuclear warhead, nuclear-armed submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM). As the United States Navy's first SLBM, it served from 1961 to 1980. In the mid-1950s the Navy ...

s were fired and caught via a string of arresting cables, before being lowered to the ground for testing. Previous versions of the test had the missiles flung out into the bay and retrieved from the ocean floor. A large trapezoidal frame was erected atop the gantry crane for the

UGM-73 Poseidon The UGM-73 Poseidon missile was the second US Navy nuclear-armed submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) system, powered by a two-stage solid-fuel rocket. It succeeded the UGM-27 Polaris beginning in 1972, bringing major advances in warheads ...

missile test facility; the structural members were lifted by Marine Boss in 1967. The addition of the frame brought the total height of the crane to nearly . The crane dominates the landscape in the area, as it is easily visible from miles around. Today, the site where the crane is located is a

superfund site Superfund sites are Pollution, polluted locations in the United States requiring a long-term response to clean up hazardous material contaminations. Sites include landfills, mines, manufacturing facilities, processing plants where toxic waste h ...

due to contamination by the military, and there is no public access.

References

{{reflist Cranes (machines)