Pacheco Creek (Contra Costa County)

Waterbird Regional Preserve is a 192 acres (0.78 km2) regional park located in Contra Costa County, California, adjacent to the city of Martinez. It is part of the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD). It primarily consists of an area known as McNabney Marsh, which lies alongside Interstate 680 near the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and between two large and active oil refineries. The marsh drains into Suisun Bay via Peyton Slough. The area provides habitat for a wide variety of waterfowl and shorebirds for resting and feeding.

The Yuba City bus disaster occurred on May 21, 1976, in Martinez, California. A chartered school bus transporting 52 passengers on an elevated offramp left the roadway, landing on its roof. Of the 52 passengers (not including the driver), 28 students and an adult adviser were killed in the crash.It remains the deadliest highway disaster ever investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) since its creation.

The National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF) consists of ships of the United States, mostly merchant vessels, that have been mothballed but can be activated within 20 to 120 days to provide shipping during national military emergencies, or non-military emergencies such as commercial shipping crises. The NDRF is managed by the U.S. Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration (MARAD). It is distinct from the United States Navy reserve fleets, which consist largely of naval vessels. NDRF vessels are at the fleet sites at James River, Virginia (James River Reserve Fleet); Beaumont, Texas (Beaumont Reserve Fleet); and Suisun Bay, California (Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet); and at designated outported berths. Former anchorage sites included Stony Point, New York (Hudson River Reserve Fleet); Wilmington, North Carolina; Mobile, Alabama; Astoria, Oregon; and Olympia, Washington. Through the 2010s, the oldest, most decrepit hulls at Suisun Bay were stripped of toxic materials, then broken up in Texas, California, or Asia. Twenty of the most polluting mothball ships were recycled by 2012, and another 32 by 2017. At its peak, in 1950, the NDRF had 2,277 ships in lay-up. In 2003, it had 274. In July 2007, it held 230 ships, primarily dry-cargo ships, with some tankers, military auxiliaries, and other types. In December 2021, the number of ships was down to 91.

The Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet colloquially known as the mothball fleet, is located on the northwest side of Suisun Bay (the northern portion of the greater San Francisco Bay estuary) in Benicia, California. The fleet is within a regulated navigation area that is about 4+1⁄2 miles (7.2 kilometers) long and 1⁄2 mile (0.80 km) wide. It begins just north of the Union Pacific Railroad Bridge and runs northeast, parallel to the shoreline. Water depths range from about 46 feet (14 meters) at Mean Lower Low Water (MLLW) at the foot of the anchorage, to about 26 feet (8 m) MLLW at the shallowest berths towards the northern end of the anchorage. As of December 2022, eight ships remain in the fleet.

The Walnut Creek mainstem is a 12.3-mile-long (19.8-kilometer) northward-flowing stream in northern California. The Walnut Creek watershed lies in central Contra Costa County, California and drains the west side of Mount Diablo and the east side of the East Bay Hills. The Walnut Creek mainstem is now mostly a concrete or earthen flood control channel until it reaches Pacheco Creek on its way to Suisun Bay. Walnut Creek was named for the abundant native Northern California walnut trees (Juglans hindsii) which lined its banks historically. The city of Walnut Creek, California was named for the creek when its post office was established in the 1860s.

Mococo is a former unincorporated community, now annexed to the city of Martinez, located in Contra Costa County, East Bay region, California. It became known as Mococo following the 1905 arrival of a smelting works, operated by the Mountain Copper Company (Mo Co Co). It lies at an elevation of 10 feet (3 m), south of the Carquinez Strait in eastern Martinez.

The Benicia–Martinez Bridge refers to three parallel bridges which cross the Carquinez Strait just west of Suisun Bay in California; the spans link Benicia on the north side with Martinez on the south. The original 1.2-mile (1.9 km) deck truss bridge opened in 1962 to replace the last automotive ferry service in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 1962 bridge has seven 528-foot (161 m) spans and 138 feet (42 m) of vertical clearance, now carrying four lanes of southbound traffic, as well as a path for pedestrians and bicyclists. It was named the George Miller Jr., Memorial Bridge in 1975 after California state legislator George Miller Jr. A 1.7-mile (2.7 km) bridge was built alongside and opened on August 25, 2007 with five lanes of northbound traffic. In 2007, it was named the Congressman George Miller Benicia–Martinez Bridge after U.S. Congressman George Miller, Miller Jr.'s son. The cost of the 1962 span was US$25 million and US$1.3 billion for the 2007 span. (Adjusted for inflation, equivalent to $242 million and $1.83 billion respectively.) The bridge is part of Interstate 680, a major transportation link connecting other heavily traveled freeways. Between the two vehicle bridges is a Union Pacific Railroad bridge, the first bridge at this location, built between April 1929 and October 1930 by Southern Pacific. It is used by Union Pacific and BNSF (trackage rights) freight trains and 36 scheduled Amtrak passenger trains each weekday. Passenger trains include the long-distance trains California Zephyr and Coast Starlight and commuter-oriented Capitol Corridor services.

USS APL-24 is an APL-17-class barracks ship of the United States Navy.

Suisun Bay ( sə-SOON; Wintun for "where the west wind blows") is a shallow tidal estuary (a northeastern extension of the San Francisco Bay) in Northern California. It lies at the confluence of the Sacramento River and San Joaquin River, forming the entrance to the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, an inverted river delta. To the west, Suisun Bay is drained by the Carquinez Strait, which connects to San Pablo Bay, a northern extension of San Francisco Bay. Grizzly Bay forms a northern extension of Suisun Bay. Suisun Bay is between Contra Costa County to the south and Solano County to the north. The bay was named in 1811, after the Suisunes, a Patwin tribe of Wintun Indians. The Central Pacific Railroad built a train ferry that operated between Benicia and Port Costa, California, from 1879 to 1930. The ferry boats Solano and Contra Costa were removed from service when the nearby Martinez railroad bridge was completed in 1930. From 1913 until 1954 the Sacramento Northern Railway, an electrified interurban line, crossed Suisun Bay with the Ramon, a distillate-powered train ferry. On April 28, 2004, a petroleum pipeline operated by Kinder Morgan Energy Partners ruptured, initially reported as spilling 1,500 barrels (264m³) of diesel fuel in the marshes, but, this was later updated to about 2,950 barrels. Kinder Morgan pleaded guilty to operating a corroded pipeline (and cited for failing to notify authorities quickly after the spill was discovered) and paid three million dollars in penalties and restitution.

Vine Hill is a census-designated place (CDP) in Contra Costa County, California, United States. The population was 3,761 at the 2010 census. It is located 2.25 miles (3.6 km) east of downtown Martinez.

The Belknap-class cruiser was a class of single-ended guided-missile cruisers (their missile armament was installed only forward, unlike "double-ended" missile cruisers with missile armament installed both forward and aft) built for the United States Navy during the 1960s. They were originally designated as DLG frigates (destroyer leaders; the USN use of the term frigate from 1950 to 1975 was intended to evoke the power of the sailing frigates of old), but in the 1975 fleet realignment, they were reclassified as guided missile cruisers (CG).

Ryer Island is an island in Suisun Bay at the mouth of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in Solano County, California, eight miles east-northeast of Benicia. It is administered by Reclamation District 501, and is in the Suisun Resource Conservation District. At the time of statehood it was known as Kings Island, and is labeled as such on an 1850 survey map of the San Francisco Bay area made by Cadwalader Ringgold as well as an 1854 map of the area by Henry Lange. It is labeled, along with Deadman Island, Joice Island, Grizzly Island, Simmons Island, and Roe Island, on a 1902 USGS map of the area.