Sitting by the bay
"To me they will always be ... glorious birds."
Harold and Maude sit, bundled beneath a blanket, by the edge of San Francisco Bay as the sun sets. It follows a montage of scenes of the two of them having a day of outdoor fun and frolic. Harold tells Maude for the first time that he thinks she's beautiful.There's erroneous information that this scene was filmed along the Emeryville waterfront north of the Powell Street exit off I-80 and south of the Ashby Avenue exit. But I learned that it's on the Emeryville waterfront a tiny bit south of Powell Street. The area has changed quite a bit since 1971, with fishing shacks replaced by gas stations and skyscrapers, so at first it looked like identifying the exact spot would be impossible.
The first clue was the exit sign visible on the elevated highway, with the same text as in 1971: "Ashby Ave/University Ave/Gilman Street".
Of course, exit signs can move. Plus, the sign is completely visible in 1971 and partly obscured by the roadway in 2013, even though I think I was around 10 feet higher in the newer photo. However, I theorize that the roadway was reconstructed and raised, to make an underpass for Powell Street, an underpass which didn't exist in 1971.
A comparison of the skyline looking west confirms the location. The tower to the far left is 555 California Street, which just opened a couple of years before this scene was filmed. The rounded mound to the right of that is Yerba Buena Island, the island that represents the midpoint of the Bay Bridge. (Ignore the point of the Transamerica Tower in the newer picture; that opened about a year after the filming.) Then the next protrusion are the towers of the bridge's eastern span. (Again, ignore the taller bridge tower, of the replacement eastern span, currently under construction.) Finally, a distinctive clump of buildings on Russian Hill. (Coit Tower, on Telegraph Hill, is visible on the newer photo, in front of the rightmost building in that clump.)
Fun fact: This spot is about 3/4 of a mile from Pixar Studios.