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Location and General Description

The port of San Diego is on San Diego Bay in southern California, about 96 and 455 nautical miles southeast of Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively, and just north of the United States-Mexico boundary line. By State law, the port area is under the jurisdiction of the San Diego Unified Port District and includes corporate areas of the cities of Coronado, San Diego, National City, Chula Vista and Imperial Beach.

San Diego Bay is a landlocked, crescent-shaped bay about 22.5 kilometers long and from 487 to 3,660 meters wide, with an area of about 46.6 square kilometers at half tide. It is separated from the Pacific Ocean by a low, narrow sandspit that extends in a northwesterly direction from the mainland and expands at its outer end (North Island) to a width of about 2.57 kilometers. The City of San Diego is on the north and northeastern side of the bay; National City and Chula Vista are south of San Diego on the east side of the southern part of the bay; and Coronado is on the southeasterly side of San Diego Bay. The opening to San Diego Bay from the ocean is between Point Loma—a high-ridged peninsula on the west—and North Island on the east. Vessels enter the bay through the Entrance Channel, which passes Ballast Point on the east side of Point Loma and a jetty extending southward from Zuniga Point of the southwest extremity of North Island.

When making the approach to San Diego Bay, useful radar targets are San Clemente Island, Los Coronados, the pleasure piers at Imperial Beach and Ocean Beach, the jetties of Mission Bay, Point Loma and Ballast Point.