The San Francisco Citizen

This old map from the old Governor’s office in Sacramento, CA shows a layout of streets for the Marina District from about 100 years ago. So, from the south we have Lombard, Chestnut, Francisco, Bay, North Point, Beach, and Jefferson as expected, but also Tonguin and Lewis streets.

What’s up with that?

Click to expand.

It appears we ended up with the Marina Maze of streets (such as Cervantes, Casa, and Avila) and the Marina Green instead of the grid shown above. You cartographers out there may wish to compare this map with a Google Map. (The “s” in Jefferson Street above marks the intersection of Jefferson and Scott, which is an actual place.

The planned Tonguin street is Marina Boulevard and Lewis is Marina Green Drive. You can guess that Meriwether Lewis (of Lewis and Clark fame) inspired the name of one of these streets, but what about Tonguin?

Best guess it that it comes from the formerly nearby Tonquin Point, which was named for the U.S.S. Tonquin, which was named for the Gulf of Tonquin, which we know today as the Gulf of Tonkin.

What would the rents be on Lewis Street be today, had it ever been built out? Probably pretty high.