Reber Plan

Proposed barriers in the San Francisco Bay

The Reber Plan was a late 1940s plan to fill in parts of the San Francisco Bay. It was designed and advocated by John Reber - an actor, theatrical producer, and schoolteacher.

San Francisco Bay Project[]

Under the plan, which was also known as the San Francisco Bay Project, the mouth of the Sacramento River (from Suisun Bay) would be channelized by dams and would feed two vast freshwater lakes within the bay, providing drinking and irrigation water to the residents and farmers of the Bay Area. The barriers would support rail and highway traffic and would create the two freshwater lakes. Between the lakes, Reber proposed the reclamation of 20,000 acres (81 km²) of land that would be crossed by a freshwater channel. West of the channel would be airports, a naval base, and a pair of locks comparable in size to those of the Panama Canal. Industrial plants would be developed on the east.^[1]

The San Francisco Chronicle endorsed the plan's concept of a causeway to replace or supplement the San Francisco Bay Bridge, stating:

There are a great many difficulties to be surmounted, just as there were for the Bay and Golden Gate bridges, but they can be surmounted by application of the same kind of drive and technical know-how that brought the present great spans into being.^[2]

Feasibility tested[]

In 1953 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recommended more detailed study of the plan and eventually constructed a hydraulic model of the Bay Area to test it. The barriers, which were the plan's essential element, failed to survive this critical study.^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6] The scrapping of the Reber Plan in the early 1960s was one sign, perhaps, of the end of an era of grandiose civil works projects aimed at totally restructuring a region's natural environment, and the birth of the environmental era.^[7]

References[]

^ "Bridging the Bay, Bridging the Campus: Salt Water Barriers". UC Berkeley Library. Retrieved 2006-08-21.
^ unsigned editorial (August 17, 1946). "Causeway to the Future". The San Francisco Chronicle.
^ "The Man Who Helped Save the Bay by Trying to Destroy It". 15 April 2015.
^ California State Assembly, First Report of the Interim Fact-Finding Committee on Tideland Reclamation and Development in Northern California, Related to Traffic Problem and Relief of Congestion on Transbay Crossings (Sacramento, 1949), 23–25, 27
^ John L. Savage, Report on Development of the San Francisco Bay Region (San Francisco, 1951), 1–2, 24–78
^ W. Turrentine Jackson and , The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta: The Evolution and Implementation of Water Policy (Davis: California Water Resources Center, 1977), 63–65.
^ https://psmag.com/environment/the-fitness-of-physical-models-38084 December 5, 2011 The Fitness of Physical Models

External links[]

"Debate Site New Bridge Across Bay". Madera Tribune. August 13, 1946. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
"Reber Plan Is Offered To Solve Bridge, Fresh Water Problems Of S. F. Bay Area". Sausalito News. October 16, 1947. Retrieved 2 July 2019.

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[1] "Bridging the Bay, Bridging the Campus: Salt Water Barriers". UC Berkeley Library. Retrieved 2006-08-21.

[2] unsigned editorial (August 17, 1946). "Causeway to the Future". The San Francisco Chronicle.

[3] "The Man Who Helped Save the Bay by Trying to Destroy It". 15 April 2015.

[4] California State Assembly, First Report of the Interim Fact-Finding Committee on Tideland Reclamation and Development in Northern California, Related to Traffic Problem and Relief of Congestion on Transbay Crossings (Sacramento, 1949), 23–25, 27

[5] John L. Savage, Report on Development of the San Francisco Bay Region (San Francisco, 1951), 1–2, 24–78

[6] W. Turrentine Jackson and , The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta: The Evolution and Implementation of Water Policy (Davis: California Water Resources Center, 1977), 63–65.

[7] ttps://psmag.com/environment/the-fitness-of-physical-models-38084 December 5, 2011 The Fitness of Physical Models

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v t San Francisco Bay watershed
Outline	Hydrography Ecology List of tributaries List of lakes
Subdivisions	Major San Francisco Bay Suisun Bay San Pablo Bay Minor Golden Gate Grizzly Bay Richardson Bay San Rafael Bay Richmond Inner Harbor San Leandro Bay Former Yerba Buena Cove Mission Bay
Waterways	Rivers San Joaquin Sacramento Napa Guadalupe Petaluma Creeks (discharging into the Bay) Alameda Baxter Cerrito Codornices Coyote (Santa Clara) Coyote (Marin) San Leandro San Lorenzo Schoolhouse Temescal Sausal Redwood San Mateo Sonoma Corte Madera Arroyo Corte Madera del Presidio San Rafael Miller Novato Tolay San Francisquito Pacheco Alhambra Adobe Rodeo Refugio Pinole Garrity Rheem Karlson San Pablo Castro Wildcat Fluvius Innominatus Marin (Alameda County) Strawberry Easton Mission Creek Reservoirs Calaveras Reservoir Lafayette Reservoir Straits and estuaries Clifton Court Forebay Carquinez Strait Oakland Estuary Raccoon Strait Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta Stockton Deepwater Shipping Channel Watersheds Laguna Creek Watershed Guadalupe watershed
Parks and protected areas	Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge Eden Landing Ecological Reserve Hayward Regional Shoreline Hayward Shoreline Interpretive Center Crown Memorial State Beach McLaughlin Eastshore State Park Emeryville Crescent State Marine Reserve Point Isabel Regional Shoreline César Chávez Park Brooks Island Regional Preserve Point Pinole Regional Shoreline Antioch Dunes National Wildlife Refuge Coyote Point Recreation Area Middle Harbor Shoreline Park National Estuarine Research Reserve China Camp State Park San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park SF Bay Trail Oyster Bay Regional Shoreline Big Break Regional Shoreline Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve
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Wetlands	Baylands Chelsea Cordelia Crissy Field Hoffman Meeker Mowry Napa Sonoma Point Molate Salt ponds Seal Stege Suisun Westpoint
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