Coronado's Most Read Newspaper & Community Website

Coronado Car Ferry

To a kid (and in this instance, in the 1950s and 1960s), the ferryboat meant an escape to adventure. Those of us fortunate to have ridden the ferryboats in our youth remember jumping from Dad's car even before it came to a stop, running up the metal stairs, and exploring the upper deck of the ferry from one end to the other, peeking inside the lifeboats, and up into the pilot house, before a honk on the horn meant it was time to get back in the car. Remember the adrenaline that built up in your little body as you heard car engines starting before you had descended the stairs?

1 member likes this

View Full Size

Tags: ferry, history
Albums: Coronado History

Comment by Statia Stanford Carey on September 27, 2009 at 2:36am: Course, I remember it along with all my classmates, CHS, Class of '58. Ah, the good old days!

Comment by Kevin Queen on October 1, 2009 at 12:09am: Back in the late 50's - early 60's, we used to ride the ferry as pedestrian's for a nickel all day long. We would ride to San Diego and then run upstairs and hide under the seats when the ferry was coming into the dock and then go back downstairs to ride in the front until running back upstairs to hide again, over and over again. There was a big celebration the day before the bridge opened and we got certificates for riding on the ferry on the last day (I still have mine). It was a sad day for me as a kid to see the ferry's stop running and Coronado was changed forever. How about the old passenger walkway that you walked up on directly to the top of the ferry. It was so old and creaky that they stopped using it and then you had to walk on after the cars were already on the ferry. Remember the creaking of the logs and the swaying of the ferry to and fro as it came into the dock and the deckhands throwing ropes off the front and tying the ferry to the dock with big ropes...and that wonderful, wonderful, smell of the logs. Thank you for bringing back some great memories of my chidhood.

Comment by Bruce Johnson on February 11, 2010 at 11:07pm: Kevin was cheating. It cost a dime round trip. But for a quarter you could ride all day as long and as many times as you wanted. There was a candy store on 2nd & Orange with huge jars of penny candy. So the trick was to scrape up some change, fill your pockets with candy and head off to high adventure. Going to downtown San Diego was high adventure. Sailor bars. Tatoo parlors. Lots of car lots on Broadway. Hanging around the downtown waterfront was dangerous and exotic - or so we thought. It was such a different world back then. A much smaller world. Any event was worth repeating and talking about - like the time my Uncle had one nip too many and misjudged his approach a little and drove his car right off the ramp into the bay. Seems like the Ferry was already 30 feet away from the dock - but hey it coulda happened to anybody....at least that's what the grownups told us.

Comment by Jeffrey Atencio on August 9, 2010 at 10:54pm: I remember it too as a kid. It was a great adventure and then came the bridge. Now, looking back. I think the bridge hurt Coronado more than it helped it. Sure, NASNI traffic could get to work faster but in the end, the ferry was always a better deal than the bridge. I got lots of memories on those boats.