Adventures in Urban Exploration-The "Cannery"

After finding several blogs and galleries alluding to an abandon, graffiti filled, building referred to as "the Cathedral" I was intrigued and excited for an adventure. One sunny SF afternoon I set out to find graffiti in general and this so called “Cathedral”. Just off of 3rd, down on the waterfront, in the Dog Patch neighborhood, a fence surrounds a crumbling concrete structure. The windows are smashed out and slabs of metal block all obvious entrances.

The building sits on Islais Creek that feeds into the SF Bay and use to serve as a tuna processing plant until a botulism outbreak, which killed several people in the early 1960's. After which, it was shut down and has since sat withering.

Trying to find a way to get in I semi-circled the building until I ran into the corrugated walls that jutted into the water. Eager and fool-hardy I waded through the water around to the other side of the building to where I found a small hole just big enough for me to Houdini myself through and pull my camera bag in after me.

What I found was something quite breathtaking and fantastic. As I snuck around corners, through dark stairwells and dank shadows my adrenaline pumped. Every surface was painted and spray cans were everywhere (literally 1000's). There was asbestos blowing about, rusty pipes, broken glass on the ground and other random debris was everywhere. Even though it was the middle of the day, the building felt haunted, eerie and creepy. I kept expecting to be find someone or worse yet, someone find me.

Just my camera and me; I felt vulnerable.

(The pics that are not in the building are from the trip there.)