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Dr. Robert O. Tripp (founder of the historic Woodside Store) and Mathias A. Parkhurst initiated the first lumber operation using the waterways of Redwood Creek to float redwoods from Woodside to San Francisco in 1850. Tripp and his partner thus became the founders of Redwood City, which they established as a  lumber-shipping basin. (At the same time, S.M. Mezes, an agent for several prosperous rancho owners, surveyed the area in what is today downtown Redwood City, and named it after himself, Mezesville). The Corps of Engineers became interested in the Port of Redwood City in 1882, which was also known then as El Embarcadero. In that year, the Corp recommended the dredging of a seven-foot deep channel, which they accomplished between 1886 and 1889 when a channel 50 feet wide was dredge. In 1903, the Corps increased the channel's width to 100 feet and by 1911, they broadened it to 150 feet. In 1931, local and federal interests combined to deepen the channel to 20 feet and widen it to 200 feet for a distance of 13,360 feet. Also in 1931, local sentiment was mounting to formally create a Port through the City charter. The City Council commissioned Consulting Engineer H.W. Crozier of San Francisco to make a feasibility report. Five years later, on June 11, 1936, voters approved an amendment to the City Charter to establish a Port Department to control, operate and manage development of the Port of Redwood City.  The Port to this day is governed by the City Charter. On Sept. 9, 1937, the Redwood City Tribune, in an editorial recognizing the formal opening of the Port, wrote, in part: "The greatest single step in achievement ever recorded by this community has been completed. The Port of Redwood City, built as it has been through the combined efforts of the entire populace as guided by a few far-visioned leaders, is a monument to their insight and to cooperation..."
Port of Redwood City San Francisco Bay 675 Seaport Boulevard Redwood City, California 94063-2794 TEL 650 306 4150 - FAX 650 369 7636
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