Bay Area Facts: How Deep, On Average, Is The San Francisco Bay?

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AuthorBy Bay Area News GroupPUBLISHED: November 25, 2015 at 8:30 AM PST | UPDATED: August 15, 2016 at 9:39 AM PDTGetting your Trinity Audio player ready...

“How shallow!” is an expression that can come up a lot when living in the Bay Area, but in no instance is it more appropriate than when talking about the beloved San Francisco Bay.

The average depth of the bay is about the same as that of a big swimming pool — an average of 14 feet deep, according to The Bay Institute.

Underwater channels are dredged to help prevent large vessels from running aground. Not all of the bay is so shallow, though.

Near the Golden Gate Bridge, the waters have depths of more than 300 feet, for example, and the depth is more than 100 feet between Angel Island and Alcatraz.

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