This color home movie shows a trip to the Golden Gate International Exposition located on Treasure Island in the San Francisco Bay. The film begins with shots at an unidentified airport (possibly Grand Central Airport in Los Angeles) where a TWA DC-2 emblazoned with “The Lindbergh Line” is seen landing at :33 seconds. At 1:00 there are shots from the interior of the plane including a stunning sunset at 1:10. At 1:40, a sign welcomes us to the entrance to Pan American Airlines’ new Treasure Island seaplane base. At 1:55 Alcatraz prison is seen in the distance and at 2:04 the Oakland Bay Bridge.

At 2:12 views begin of the fair itself including floral gardens and fountains. At 3:30 the “Redwood Empire” is seen. This was a special exhibit space where natural resources, recreational attractions and economic development of nine California counties were graphically presented in diorama and photographic form

At 5:24 the famous Gayway is seen at night. This was one of the fair’s centerpieces. Gayway sights included sideshow-style attractions, such as little people in a Western setting and a racetrack featuring monkeys driving automobiles. At 5:36 an animated Bank of America sign is seen.

At 6:02 is very rare footage of Pan Am Clippers / Flying Boats moored at the seaplane base. At 8:43 the 400 foot Tower of the Sun is shown. The tower was crowned with a 22 foot golden phoenix that symbolized San Francisco’s rise from the ashes after the 1906 earthquake and fires. A carillon of 44 bells were borrowed from Grace Cathedral and placed within the tower. At 9:19, more images of the Bay Bridge are seen. At 10:49, more images of the Tower. At 11:00, a plane is shown at an unknown airport — possibly the Oakland Airport near Alameda, California. The rest of the film shows a trip to the beach, presumably in Southern California. We could not identify the beach shown at 13:35 although it is quite distinctive — maybe you can figure it out!

The Golden Gate International Exposition (GGIE) (1939 and 1940), held at San Francisco’s Treasure Island, was a World’s Fair celebrating, among other things, the city’s two newly built bridges. The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge opened in 1936 and the Golden Gate Bridge in 1937. The exposition opened from February 18, 1939, through October 29, 1939, and from May 25, 1940, through September 29, 1940.

Treasure Island, a flat, geometrically-shaped, artificial island attached to Yerba Buena Island, was built for the Exposition near where the Oakland span and the San Francisco span of the Bay Bridge join. The dredging of Treasure Island started on February 11, 1936. 19,000,000 cu yd (15,000,000 m3) of fill were required for the 385-acre (156 ha) site. Initial schedules called for the completion of dredging by the end of 1936.

Built by the federal government, Treasure Island was intended to serve as the municipal airport for San Francisco, an idea which had first been advanced in 1931. Air service would have included Pan American’s transpacific flying boats, like the China Clipper. Due to wartime needs, it was taken over by the US Navy as Naval Station Treasure Island from 1941 to 199.

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com