Nike Missile Site

During World War II, new fast, high-flying jet planes made traditional weapons ineffective, leading to Project Nike as a last-ditch line of air defense for places such as the Bay Area. The urgency increased in 1953 when the Soviet Union developed long-range bombers capable of dropping nuclear warheads on the continental United States. Although the army had left Angel Island in 1946, it returned in 1954 to build a Nike missile site there, with radar control on Mount Ida, now Mount Livermore, and three sets of four Nike Ajax missiles placed underground. These missiles were not armed with nuclear warheads but were intended to destroy planes carrying nuclear weapons. As weapons delivery technology advanced, the Ajax missiles became obsolete, and the army removed them in 1966, ending ninety-nine years of military presence on Angel Island. The Nike Ajax missiles on Angel Island were never launched.

Tiburon, California · United States