Drawbridge, CA

[euphonywho]

On Friday I took a much needed day off from work, and instead of sitting behind my desk staring with glazed eyes in my screen, I dragged my friend out to see Drawbridge instead. It is supposedly the only abandoned town in the San Francisco Bay Area, and was abandoned in 1979.



You can check out more pictures from the trip on my Flickr, or get the pictures and the story at my website.

Story
Pics

[lindyannajones]

What an interesting story and what a find. Strange to find this in your backyard, huh? By the looks of things, you and your friend may be among the last to see it before it sinks into the marsh. We have quite a few ghost towns in this part of the country and I find them fun to explore.

[kurtwall]

Interesting pictures. Did you get permission from USFWS to visit it? I ask because the Wikipedia article states, Drawbridge is now part of the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge and is no longer open to the public due to restoration efforts. If it isn't open to the public and you went without permission, it gives other photographers a black eye. If you managed to get legitimate access, on the other hand, I envy you greatly!

[euphonywho]

Originally Posted by kurtwall

If it isn't open to the public and you went without permission, it gives other photographers a black eye. If you managed to get legitimate access, on the other hand, I envy you greatly!

We did not have permission, but a place like this, where the history is just sinking away on land bought with public money I feel needs to be documented, appreciated, and shared. We were careful to walk along paths that were already there, and not go traipsing through the place haphazardly. We walked along the salt flats to there, along a service access road that looked like it hadn't been used in a while.

I consider myself lucky though, as I read (after I got back) that some people have been hit with $1000 fines, as it is federal property. We went fully aware that there could be consequences, and seemed to get lucky that on that day there were no patrols through the town.