PIER 39

This guide to PIER 39 in San Francisco follows the sea lions that hauled themselves onto dock K in September 1989 and never left, and the marina staff who wanted them gone. It traces the debate that followed, including a rumor linking their sudden arrival to the Loma Prieta earthquake weeks later, and reaches back to Warren Simmons, the man who spent years fighting government agencies to open the pier in 1978. Simmons once bet the mayor she'd wear a bikini here if he hit his deadline, and she did.