Del Coronado Bay

Del Coronado Bay (or just Coronado Bay) is a coastal body of water located west of Night City, in the Pacific Ocean. Found on the coast of Northern California, Del Coronado Bay has been a recurring location in the series.

1990s - 2022
Del Coronado Bay was conceived during the construction of Coronado City, in the former area of Morro Bay, on the coast of central California. This renaming of the area was done to avoid the stigma of the Morro Bay Massacre.

During the early 1990s, Richard Night and his associates altered the whole landscape around Morro Bay to accommodate their new city project. This meant they had to dredge some areas to form natural harbors, and fill others to make space for the metropolis. The northern coast — east of Morro Rock — was dredged, creating a small bay which they named Del Coronado. On the oposite side to the south they did the same, creating another one which they called San Morro Bay, in honor of the former bay and township.

During the next years, the city's name would change to Night City, and ships would come and go from its ports. There were maritime routes to the neighboring city of North Oak across the bay to the north, and a large bridge known as Del Coronado Bridge was built over it, allowing the two settlements an easier connection by road. The Central Night City harbors in Upper and East Marina were the main maritime hubs for decades, but as the city expanded, they saw a decline in use.

By 2020, the new harbor in South Night City had taken over the position of the city's main port, killing much of the businesses in the Marinas, and leaving Del Coronado Bay in an abandoned state, with toxic waters and full of waste. The United States Navy based at the NORPAC Naval HQ operated in the waters of Del Coronado.

2023 - 2040s
Everything would change during the Fourth Corporate War and the AHQ Disaster of 2023. The nuclear explosion in the Corporate Center threw much rubble onto the bays, and it also toppled much of the filled areas of the city. Moreover, the detonation and the war severely damaged the seawalls and breakwaters that kept the bay and the outer Pacific Ocean from overwhelming the fill the majority of Central Night City stood on. Shortly after the AHQ Disaster, Samantha Stevens accessed the Hot Zone, recovering the unexploded Arasaka nuclear device, and tossing its contents into the depths of the bay.

In following decades, Night City saw massive reconstruction. The corporations, nomads and Night Citizens begun to clear the rubble and rebuild what they could. Many things needed to change, and once again the terrain was rearranged. Much of the radioactive rubble was tossed into Del Coronado Bay as fill, and by 2045, the two bays were even smaller, while the old Del Coronado was now referring to the much bigger bay to the west, occupying all the area until merging with the Pacific Ocean.

2070s
At the late stages of the Unification War, Arasaka sent a supercarrier to Del Coronado to support Night City's autonomy against the NUSA. This event led to the end of the war and the return of Arasaka to North America.

By 2077, people still refer to the waters surrounding Night City as Del Coronado Bay. Most of it is closed in by a huge seawall that keeps it free of the rogue self-replicating mines that Arasaka shortsightedly contaminated the world's oceans with during the Fourth Corporate War. The Arasaka aircraft carrier Kujira, which transported Saburo Arasaka and Hanako Arasaka to Night City from Tokyo, was moored in Del Coronado during their stay. Kerry Eurodyne also sank his manager's yacht in the bay.

2020

 * Del Coronado Bridge
 * Morro Rock
 * San Morro Bay

2045

 * Broken NCART tunnels
 * Harbor Canal
 * Morro Rock

2077

 * Kujira
 * Morro Rock

Trivia

 * The original smaller Del Coronado Bay would be located around the area east of Morro Rock, in the real life town of Morro Bay. At some point, Del Coronado was expanded west to refer to the whole larger bay area which is known in real life as Estero Bay.