San Francisco’s landscape has changed drastically over the years since its first founding. While San Francisco now is packed with rows of Victorians and numerous parks, many parts of SF used to be covered in sprawling sand dunes.
Before people rushed to California for the Gold Rush, much of the SF peninsula was covered in miles of sand dunes. Some even reached 80 feet tall (or higher), and the dunes were extensive even for the California coast.
A woman standing in the Sand Dunes, 1910.
Due to the strong coastal winds, the sand dunes were known to migrate, making it difficult for early construction efforts. While some dunes would slowly move with the wind, others were held in place by vegetation.
Eventually, though, the city began to win over the shifting sand, and the neighborhoods and buildings that stand today started to form. Even when buildings were able to conquer the stubborn dunes, early San Francisco residents often complained of the wind carrying the coarse sand everywhere. The Sunset District was one of the neighborhoods that were previously covered in sand until its rapid transformation during the first half of the 20th century. Western neighborhoods of the city, such as the Richmond and Sunset, were called the “Outside Lands” due to the few buildings and roads and sand dunes that made the areas hard to habitat.
That didn’t stop industrious San Franciscans. Builders began moving tons of sand to add more land to the coastline and, therefore, more land to sell for development. Yerba Buena Cove was filled in with sand, along with the Marina District, now one of the city’s most thriving neighborhoods.
Construction on Sunset Boulevard, 1930.
Today, while the sand dunes might feel like a distant memory, there’s still some remnants left. You can see somedrifting sand dunes forming along the great highway, and dunes filled with shrubs sit at the border of Ocean Beach.