Original Coastline in Downtown, via foundsf.org
San Francisco exists because of Water. Without the Bay, our fair city simply wouldn’t have gotten off the ground. Before the discovery of the Golden Gate, settlements had been made at any semi-decent cove along the coast. But San Francisco’s possibilities easily surpassed the likes of Monterey and Bodega Bays. The original anglo settlement was near the current downtown. To be more precise, Montgomery was was the coast, as well as First Street south of Market. As I mentioned in the last post, many changes were made to flatten and otherwise develop the new city. As the map shows, existing piers soon became land. Ships were abandoned during the gold rush. A seawall was constructed along the Embarcadero, and the deep-water piers we know today resulted. The early history of San Francisco’s water-based development is similar to the treatment of hills. It moves from an attempt to conquer, towards a slow understanding of natural processes that define our environment.
It would be quite an extensive list to describe all of the areas of our city that have been filled for new land. Areas such as North Beach, South Beach, Mission Bay, and Hunters Point were all part of the attempt to provide as much area along the sheltered bay for ships to anchor and unload. Other areas were simply controlled because they were a nuisance, or because a ‘better’ use was envisioned for them. Islais Creek would often overflow its banks, and flood nearby houses. While the Marina and Treasure Island were created for the Panama Pacific International Exposition and Golden Gate International Exposition. The map at the bottom does a far better job of explaining than words can ever do.
The ostensible goal behind this series is about the awkward shapes that exist in San Francisco’s streets, and how they got there. Now I’ll discuss some particular examples as illustrative of themes.
- The most famous deviation from the curve is San Francisco’s Mission Street. Mission Dolores existed well before downtown was laid out, and the road between settlements followed a more or less direct route. Originally serving as a toll road, the path went over wetlands and marshes, often built on a causeway next to the Mission Creek. The original creek had a bend where the road does now, which was also the inlet from another creek flowing from the Panhandle region. The road actually stopped near a small freshwater lake that served as the water source for the original settlement. Roads downtown began their orientation based on the coast (Montgomery Street), and went orthogonally after that.
- As other regions of San Francisco strayed from the grid, few had more reason than the southern regions. The ultimate precedent came when Islais Creek was placed in a culvert. During the 20s-30s the channel was placed underground, to try and control the seasonal fluctuations in the water flows. This alone is not unique, but notably this ‘low path’ through southern San Francisco was once creek, then road, then rail, then highway. When it finally daylights on the eastern side of 280, it is only a shadow of its once mile-wide delta.
-
Original Southern Coastline, via owenswatershedplanning.com
Also of note are the areas where the grid simply shouldn’t exist. Similarly to Mission and Islais Creeks, Precita and the Potrero Creeks were filled in. The most stunning example is a published map showing the street names of yet to be created land in Bayview/Hunters Point. Thankfully much of the infill was stopped, but it’s still an interesting exercise to imagine what might have been.
The Grid over the Bay, via owenswatershedplanning.com
- The most obvious area where a grid doesn’t exist is the Marina district. At least this has a simple explanation, in that the streets were leftover from the Beaux-Arts design of the Exposition. The broad diagonal boulevards and seemingly random intersections now framed by multi-million dollar homes in place of exhibitions from all around the world.
In summary, we expect the natural coast line to have great effects on our landscape. But the original treatment inflicted on wetlands and creeks has created a lasting mark on San Francisco’s build landscape. Even this is to be expected of any modern city to some extent. Just remember, that at one point the Army Corps of Engineers had a proposal to completely fill the bay to create more sprawl and highways. Then you can truly be glad to know what has been the motivation behind the unique twists and turns of San Francisco’s streets.
Original Coastline and Creeks, via http://www.joelpomerantz.com
Comments
Leave a Reply
Rail Rumbles In : San Francisco Transit Oriented Design on 06.17.2009
[...] Silver Ave, and then Potrero. You’ll also notice that the train line marks the end of the Islais Creek culvert covered previously. The train slices through the resulting infilled marshes/industrial [...]
Water Becomes Land | San Francisco Travel - Culture and Recreation on 08.01.2009
[...] More here sftod.com [...]