Here you go:
IOW:
The Port of Oakland showed respect for the SF City Limits – can you see how the landfill project in the upper right ends abruptly? That’s the border. But the US military just didn’t care and it kept filling until it was satisfied. (You can see how the SF part looks different – it’s a wetter / greener area.)
Ans here’s another way of saying it – see our little homeslice?
Anyway, lots of people still don’t believe me. But you do, right, Gentle Reader?
As seen from the Marina Green, back in aught-13:
Naval Air Station Lemoore, 93246
And he’s peeling off those dollar bills
Slapping them down
One hundred, two hundred
And I can see those fighter planes
And I can see those fighter planes
This is hard, this game of identifying the northernmost, southernmost, westernmost, and easternmost points of San Francisco.
If you guess, you’re going to make mistakes.
All right, in no particular order, here are the answers:
Seal Rock, aka Saddle Rock
Red Rock
North Farallon Islands
Alameda Island
I’m srsly.
1. Northermost: Red Rock Island. It’s about eight miles north of Fisherman’s Wharf. Seems as if it’s always for sale. You can get there by kayak and then hike to the top if you want – put that on your bucket list.
As seen from the mainland of San Francisco. The Richmond San Rafael Bridge and East Brother Island are in the background:
Red Rock at 600mm on a very clear day. Don’t try this with your iPhone camera – your shot might not come out so hot.
2. Southernmost: Seal Rock, South Farallon Islands. It’s south of Southeast Farallon Island. It can be seen on the left side here.
And here it is as seen from Twin Peaks:
840mm, on a very clear day.
3. Westernmost: North Farallon Islands.
Actually, it’s this islet in the upper left here, seen with North Farallon Island and St. James Island in the lower right. (I’m surprised that this unnamed rock hasn’t yet been named for a longtime local political strongman like Willie Brown or Rose Pak):
4, Easternmost: Alameda Island. Surprise! Work out your denial issues here.
As seen from the (old) Bay Bridge, the eastern span, the one that was never named for a local political strongman, like Willie Brown or Rose Pak:
Here are the four points, underlined, to sum up:
Oh, even better is if you let Google Maps highlight the county line in red. (If you zoom in on the linked page, you can also see a couple of places on Angel Island that Google similarly correctly ID’ed as parts of San Francisco.)
Thanks for playing!
UPDATE: Oh, man, you people are clever:
1. So what about SFO airport as southernmost? Well, that place is “owned and policed by the City and County of San Francisco, but is located in and entirely surrounded by adjacent San Mateo County.” So that’s why the San Mateo County Coroner was involved in the SFFD’s bungled handling of the Asiana 214 crash landing. Another situation would be with San Francisco’s O’Shaughnessy Dam up in Hetch Hetchy near Yosemite – a murder on top of that dam would be prosecuted by the Tuolumne County DA (or maybe the Feds – you all might be right, IDK), not by the SFDA. Don’t ask me about which DA would handle a stabbing at San Francisco Jails #5 or #6 down in San Bruno, San Mateo County. (Perhaps the counties have an agreement over prosecution? IDK.) OTOH, a crime on the western tip of Alameda Island would be handled by the SFDA.
2. And Candlestick Point (and the entire southern border of mainland SF)? It’s ever just ever north of the southernmost part of the Farallones – that’s a real close call.
O you can say that this map is wrong, but you can’t say that you don’t get the point, which is that that left piece of Alameda you can see on the wrong side of the line is part of the City and County of San Francisco:
Click to expand
I should go visit sometime…
Carry on.
Isn’t San Francisco’s green triangle of landfill over in the East Bay beautiful?
Why don’t we do something with it, like put in a casino or something? People’d take a ferry from Fishermans Wharf or South Beach.
Click to expand
And think of the revenues from all those America’s Cup richers.
Here it is a map showing the borders of San Francisco. And here’s the view of two East Bay peninsulas looking south from the Bay Bridge.
See? The nearer peninsula, the one with the big white crane, is part of the City of Oakland. It shows respect for the Alameda / San Francisco county border by stopping exactly where it should. But the farther one, part of the City of Alameda, simply juts all the way into San Francisco County.
How wude!
Here’s the borderline:
Anyway, it’s our land but it’s in the East Bay.
Somehow.
All the deets:
“Looking eastward from Twin Peaks, San Francisco. That’s Mission Bay / Dogpatch in the foreground with Oakland in the background.
Here’s your first choice. Does this line represent the border betwixt the counties?
Click to expand
And here’s your second, with the westernmost portion of Alameda in the City and County of San Francisco:
And here’s your third choice, right down the channel:
And here’s your answer, it’s photo #2, for some odd reason.
Now, you Better Know the Bay Area.
Thanks for playing!”
Looking eastward from Twin Peaks, San Francisco. That’s Mission Bay / Dogpatch in the foreground with Oakland in the background.
Here’s your first choice. Does this line represent the border betwixt the counties?
Click to expand
And here’s your second, with the westernmost portion of Alameda in the City and County of San Francisco:
And here’s your third choice, right down the channel:
And here’s your answer, it’s photo #2, for some odd reason.
Now, you Better Know the Bay Area.
Thanks for playing!
Yes indeed, San Francisco County covers a lot of territory. It even stretches across the bay to Alameda Island. Check the Wiki, which is almost always correct:
“Several islands—Alcatraz, Treasure Island, and the adjacent Yerba Buena Island, and small portions of Alameda island, Red Rock Island, and Angel Island are part of the city.”
So, here it is, from Twin Peaks. The foreground shows the eastern part of S.F. and the background shows where San Francisco has a sliver of the old Alameda Naval Air Station. It’s the area right by the boat, see? If there’s a fire there, that would be the responsibility of San Francisco. I’m seriously.
Click to expand.
Here’s a map showing the county line on Alameda in white. And Google shows where they stopped building a landfilled peninisula to the north of the NAS, so as to not encroach upon the City and County of San Francisco.
[UPDATE: Some better photos are here, under Category #4. The SFFD reference below has to do with something I saw in an SFFD manual, but yes, prolly firefighters in Alameda would help us out in an emergency. This shot from a different angle, from the now-defunct part of the Bay Bridge, shows things well. And yes, as Redditor Eugene says, the military went hog-wild with landfill and went over the pre-existing Alameda/San Francisco border. Like who was going to stop them?]
