The most durable and desirable housing cluster was located in Candlestick Cove. The 992 families who lived there were those of skilled foremen and craftsmen who came from other Navy yards to form the core of the shipyard crew.

     At the end of World War II and into the Cold War, workers at the shipyard were responsible for cleaning up radioactive contaminated ships involved in nuclear weapons testing. The shipyard also became the home of the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, created to research radioactive decontamination methods. The Navy only recently is acknowledging the possible radioactive contamination left on the shipyard and in the bay.