I ABSOLUTELY LOVE this place. I was the first one through the door in the morning and luckily the museum director happened to walking through and greeted me, I asked a rather in depth question and got the most knowledgeable and in depth. Which lead to more questions, director gave me at least 30 minutes of their time. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Bay Model is a working hydraulic scale model of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta System. While the Bay Model is still operational, it is no longer used for scientific research but is instead open to the public alongside educational exhibits about Bay hydrology.

If you imagine that you were in a tiny boat, you could be here all day!

Pretty amazing place for what it is. It's free and there is free parking. It's incredible how large this is and great that they also talk about different aspects of maintaining the bay and the model. It's more for adults than kids I would say, and more engineering and sciency than most adults may appreciate. They do a good job of recycling the guided tour books too. Bravo! TIP: You get a good view of the bay and it's not far to downtown Sausalito so it could be worth a short stop.

Fascinating history. This huge working Model of the San Francisco Bay operated for decades until replaced by computer models. There's also a great little museum on this site which originally built ships for WWII, including many female workers. This center is free to visit, right on the Bay with a pretty native garden out front and a small gift shop. There was an art show there when we visited. Bring a picnic lunch.

This is a good gem I wasn't expecting. I came here for a private after hour event. After checking out some of the lobby information table, I went into the visitors center. There's a lot of information of building ships during the second world war. Then past this, you want into a map of the Bay area water ways. It's very different as the water ways is the focus point and not the land masses. I'll definitely comeback for another visit.

Really cool to see this massive model of the bay. I learned a lot about water flow and management. This is fun for kids to walk around. Lots of interactive displays.

Free museum. Free parking. Cool model and information. You could spend a quiet hour or maybe two here. Definitely worth a stop if you are in the area.

Really interesting place, very educational and tranquil. The video history on the gold rush and how it impacted the area is a must see. The model itself is amazing, and we walked around the whole perimeter. There are some areas of disrepair, but it somehow makes it even more real/impressive and connects the visitor to the history and age of the whole thing. The side exhibit on Marinship was also a nice surprise - a must see as well especially as there's little to no trace of all that amazing activity anymore. We spent our whole morning there, and lunched in the area. Will come back again periodically.

Since I'm an engineer, I thought this was awesome. Wish I could have spent more time here. Really neat to see the tidal waves.

Yeah, its an impressive size at 2 acres, but none of the powered exhibits are working and there's no water at all. When they advertise it as working and yet the middle of the day feels like closing time, there's very little point to coming over looking at pictures online.

Unexpected great find - I had no idea this existed. Very interesting, huge scale and well-explained. I only dropped in for 15 minutes but I could have spent an hour or more there. Worth a visit.

This museum was very informative & neat. It would have been better if the water was on but it’s still a cool place to visit

We went around 10am and wandered alone through this great space. The ranger was incredibly friendly, and the experience was fun and informative.

There is a huge amount of information presented both on the Bay Model itself and on the the Bay watershed at large, plus the history of the Marinship from WW2. If you're like me and what to try to absorb every bit of information presented allow 3-4 hours. It was unfortunate the model wasn't fully functioning when I was there but I'd like to visit again when it is just to see it doing its thing (and to catch a few things I ended up skipping due to time or that weren't functioning). The building and exhibits also are showing their age and would really benefit from a refresh. Most didn't detract from the exhibits but there were a few video setups that were offline. The nature of the information means it probably isn't for real small kids, but if you have a passing interest in the Bay, hydraulics and hydrology, or infrastructure/engineering you'd likely find it fascinating.

Cool historical model of the San Francisco Bay and Delta.

Love 💕 this interactive place<<> gives me a much better understanding of the enormity of the Bay Area waters !! Truely awesomeness 😎

Amazing place to visit and marvel at the engineering effort that went into it! A great destination if you're doing the golden gate bridge cycle.

Fascinating place to visit. We were all alone in this amazing place. Got here when they opened at 9am. Expect to walk a bit in this place-big as 2 football fields-and be impressed! We spent more than and hour here.

The visitor center is free and educates me about how fresh water meets salty water and how human activity has influenced the bay from time to time. I will recommend the video and it has translation in many languages.

Interesting model of the San Francisco bay and delta area tides. The model is the size of 2 football fields and every 15 minutes or so goes from high to low tide and back again. They also have a small display about the Marinship shipyard that was there in about 1942. Interesting short film and artifacts.