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An Apollonaut travel guide
An aquarium on the shore.
An introduction to Cannery Row, where the Monterey Bay Aquarium stands at the water’s edge.
On this page
Read the coast from Cannery Row
The Monterey Bay Aquarium is at 886 Cannery Row, at the street’s western end, about 125 miles south of San Francisco. Nearly half of the building stands over the bay.
A city guide can give context without turning a neighbourhood into a backdrop. Notice how the old cannery buildings line the shore, and how the recreation trail follows the water.
Concrete, pipes and windows
The building echoes the cannery it replaced, with plain concrete walls, exposed pipes and ducts, many roofs and windows that let in the sunlight.
Begin with a detail and ask how it was made and maintained. A photograph alone cannot tell you how foundations were set at low tide or a window installed, or the conditions in which people worked.
An aquarium chapter
The Monterey Bay Aquarium shows one side of Monterey’s story: a street built on sardines that turned to the living ocean instead.
Look at the meeting of the two: an industrial waterfront, and the kelp forests and open sea recreated inside it.
Make room for context
Pair this coastal reading with the aquarium’s history and the Journal. This is an introduction for visitors, not a claim that our team manages these places or represents their makers.
Read at the source
Sources & further reading
Links lead to the original publishers.
