PHOTOS: Military base ferry service to end
At the crack of dawn, jet fighter pilot Ryan McLaughlin, 35, rides the ferry Cabrillo across foggy San Diego Bay to North Island Naval Air Station on Coronado. After a decade, the free boat service from the Broadway Pier for military and civilian employees at the base will end Friday because of security concerns. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Timothy Woodruff naps on the ferry at the Broadway Pier before the 6:45 a.m. departure to North Island Naval Air Station. Since the Nov. 5 fatal shooting of 13 people at Ft. Hood, Texas, the Coronado base commander has decided the ferry no longer can be allowed to dock there because it is an unacceptable security risk. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class John Crist, 25, rides the ferry into foggy North Island Naval Air Station. A chemist on the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan, he will continue his daily commute by bicycle from the ferry dock. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
Commuters get off the ferry Cabrillo at North Island Naval Air Station, some finishing their trip to the base by bicycle. The state government had been subsidizing the ferry service as a way to take a few cars off the often-clogged roads leading to the sprawling installation, where 35,000 sailors and civilian employees work. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
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Shannon Waldron, 23, is the last to board the 6:45 a.m. ferry to Coronado. She is headed to work on an organic vegetable farm at the southern end of the island. Waldron is a civilian, but most of her fellow commuters are military employees who get off at the North Island Naval Air Station stop. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
A passenger on the ferry Cabrillo takes in the San Diego skyline at dawn on the return trip from Coronado. The city has received about $152,000 a year from the state so the commute could be kept free of charge for everyone, military or civilian, tourist or resident, regardless of destination. The ferry service provided four round trips in the morning, five in the afternoon. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
The view from the ferry includes a Navy support ship shrouded in the early morning fog near the North Island Naval Air Station. About 130 daily riders (40 to 50 more when both aircraft carriers are home) will have to make other plans when the five-minute ferry ride ends. A bus goes directly to the gate; there are van pools; and there is always the option of commuting over the San Diego-Coronado Bridge. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
