Cold War Defense

In 1954 Angel Island became one of nineteen Nike missile sites in the Bay Area. Three underground magazines each stored 12 Nike-Ajax anti-aircraft missiles with a range of 25 miles, and hydraulic elevators raised them to the surface before they were pushed manually on rails to the launchers. A radar control station stood on Mt. Livermore, and three notches were carved in the hill to improve line of sight. With the development of ICBMs, Nike missiles became obsolete, and the Army dismantled the installation in 1962, ending a military presence on the island that had endured from the Civil War to the Cold War.

Tiburon, California · United States