Harbor Improvements – Jenner CA

Description

The federal Civil Works Administration (CWA) provided labor for the improvements of the harbor in Jenner, California.

“Beginning in the early 1930s, a series of private companies built a jetty at the mouth of the Russian River with the goal of keeping the river mouth open to allow shipping. Over the next two decades, material was added to the jetty but the effort was abandoned when the jetty failed to keep the river mouth open. Today, most of the jetty is buried under sand. …”

In the era circa 1920, a sizeable quarrying was conducted at Goat Rock, which activity produced the apparent separation of Goat Rock from the mainland. Quarry products were transported to the mouth of the Russian River via a now abandoned rail line; some of these materials were used to attempt the construction of a jetty in the mouth area, but that project was eventually terminated.

Russian River Jetty.
During this period there have been several severe storms during each of which some damage was done to the trestle. The last of these was on January 16th at which time the last span of the trestle deck was removed at the shore end, the entire trestle deck being now removed. Only about four of the steel piles were broken, the remainder being bent over after the support of the deck was removed, but it is believed that most of these can be straightened for use in connection with the construction of a temporary trestle, put forward as the work of placing rock advances. This trestle has been in use for placing rock since August 1931, a period of 28 months, The actual damage done by the storms is estimated at $6,000. During this period work has proceeded under CWA Project No. SLF 70, with 14 men. On December 19th the time was reduced from 30 to 15 hours per week and will continue on this basis until additional money is made available.