Mission Beach

Building on sand was a problem, so Mission Beach developed later than Ocean Beach to the south and Pacific Beach to the north. A new official subdivision in 1914 came after land sales in those neighbors and the opening of a wooden bridge to Ocean Beach. John D. Spreckels then offered small lots for sale. The wooden bridge closed to traffic in 1950 and was demolished in 1951.

The result is the most densely developed residential community in San Diego, with 36 dwelling units per acre across most of its land. Lots are the smallest in the city, from 1,250 square feet (116 m2) to 2,400 square feet (220 m2), and few have been combined. Many homes started as summer cottages built in the 1930s and '40s, and some are older, from the 1920s. A rare airplane bungalow on Manhattan Court was built in 1924. Many of the buildings have since been rebuilt as two-story homes.

Belmont Park, in South Mission Beach, began as the Mission Beach Amusement Center, built by John D. Spreckels in 1925 to stimulate real estate sales and promote his electric railway. It still has the original wooden Giant Dipper roller coaster, which is one of only two remaining oceanfront roller coasters operating on the west coast. Newer rides include a FlowRider, a carousel, and bumper cars. The other buildings from Spreckels' park were razed in the late 1980s.

The Mission Beach Plunge opened in May 1925 as the Natatorium, a 60-foot (18 m) by 175-foot (53 m) saltwater pool. Frank Walter Stevenson designed it, with a building styled after the Spanish Renaissance architecture of Balboa Park. The roof rolled open to make it an indoor and outdoor pool. Its changing rooms appear in the film Top Gun, and Esther Williams and Johnny Weissmuller are among those who swam there. A committee of residents put a measure on the ballot to save it from demolition, and San Diego voters approved it unanimously in 1987. The Plunge closed in 2014 because of disrepair. Plans to rebuild were approved in January 2016, and the pool reopened in July 2019.

Belmont Park opened on July 4, 1925, and it was meant to help Spreckels sell land in Mission Beach. It draws millions of people each year. The Giant Dipper is on the National Register of Historic Places, and the Plunge was originally the largest salt-water pool in the world. By the early 1980s the park had fallen into disrepair, and in June 1986 the City Council voted 6 to 1 to give a developer team the right to negotiate a lease that restored the Plunge. The redeveloped park and Plunge building reopened in the summer of 1988. The 2019 reopening of the Plunge followed a $12 million renovation. Attractions added since 2016 include a zip line, a three-level ropes course, a 7D theater and a laser tag arena, and San Diego Coaster Company runs the rides.

The beach suits sunbathing, surfing, cycling, skateboarding and beach volleyball and basketball, and it has courts for both. It is one of the calmest, easiest places to ocean swim in the San Diego area, and there are dive wrecks offshore. A local skating club, Skate This!, performs free on weekends, doing trick skating and dancing on rollerblades and traditional skates. A public recreation center stands on Santa Clara Place on the bay side. Mariner's Point was the original site of the over-the-line softball tournament on the beach.

Many beachgoers are college and university students, though tourists and residents come too, and weekly and monthly rentals are offered in summer. Drinking alcohol on the beach has been illegal since April 2008. Mission Bay Park surrounds the bay with miles of walking, biking and running trails, a large playground built partly like a pirate ship, and water for sailing, boating and swimming. The Mission Bay Aquatic Center on Santa Clara Place rents catamarans and other watercraft. SeaWorld San Diego, a marine animal theme park covering 200 acres, sits in Mission Bay Park.

Mission Bay is an artificial saltwater bay, made from about 2,000 acres of wetland, marsh and saltwater bay. It is part of Mission Bay Park, the largest man-made aquatic park in the United States. The park covers 4,235 acres, about 46% land and 54% water, which makes it the ninth largest municipally owned park in the country. Before Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo named the area Bahía Falsa, or False Bay, in 1542, it was a shifting mix of lagoons, estuaries and tidal marshes, and at least three Native American villages lived off it. The San Diego River once flowed into False Bay. The Army Corps of Engineers built a dike in 1852 to keep the river out of San Diego Bay, but the dike failed within two years, and in 1877 the city built a permanent dam and straightened the channel to the sea.

The name Mission Bay comes from a poem by Rose Hartwick Thorpe, first published in a San Francisco newspaper, The Golden Era, in 1888. In 1944 a chamber of commerce committee recommended turning the bay into a tourism and recreation center to diversify a city economy that was largely military. In the late 1940s dredging and filling began, and twenty-five million cubic yards of sand and silt were moved to shape the park. Development removed all but 40 acres of the wetlands. Restrictions, some of them adopted into the city charter by public vote, cap private leaseholds at 25% of the land area and 6.5% of the water area, so most of the park stays open to the public.

The bay has 27 miles of shoreline, 19 of them sandy beaches, with eight official swimming areas and 14 miles of paths. Sailing, rowing, wakeboarding, jet skiing and cycling are popular. The Mission Bay Yacht Club on the west side holds sailing races year-round. Fiesta Island, a large peninsular park inside the bay, has a leash-free dog park, hosts races and charity runs, and is home to rare and endangered birds and plants. The California least tern is protected at four nesting sites in the park from April through September. Mission Bay Golf Course opened on May 27, 1955, as a nine-hole course, and it is the only golf course in San Diego with night lighting. The first modern race to be called a triathlon was held on Mission Bay on September 25, 1974, with 46 participants. The San Diego Crew Classic brings more than 100 college, club and senior crews to the bay each spring.

The San Diego Crew Classic draws rowers from around the world to a regatta on Mission Bay on the first weekend of April. The Over The Line Tournament takes place each July. It is a locally invented sport, played by three-player teams with softballs, and it is known for being rowdy. The Fourth of July fireworks show over the bay is well known, with the water reflecting the display. In September, the San Diego Bayfair brings powerboat races and a beach festival to Mission Bay. The Mission Bay Boat Parade of Lights comes in mid-December, matched with the lighting of holiday lights on the SeaWorld tower.

From downtown and areas south, drivers take Interstate 5, then westbound Interstate 8, and exit at West Mission Bay Drive, which leads through Mission Beach. Ingraham Street and SeaWorld Drive also reach Mission Bay. From Ocean Beach, Sunset Cliffs Boulevard connects to West Mission Bay Drive. The overpasses and underpasses around the dry San Diego River can be confusing, and rush hours and busy weekends bring traffic.

Metropolitan Transit System Routes 8 and 9 connect the area to the Trolley station in Old Town. Route 8 follows Mission Boulevard through Mission Beach, and Route 9 crosses Mission Bay and stops at SeaWorld. Beach cruisers, roller skates and skateboards are popular ways to get around, and bike and skate rentals are easy to find.