Treasure Island
A man-made island in scenic San Francisco BayWhen thinking of Treasure Island, images of pristine beaches and lush tropical forests may come to mind thanks to the Robert Louis Stevenson novel it was named after, but the real one is an artificial island built atop a landfill in the San Francisco Bay.
Originally constructed as an airport for Pan Am's line of Trans-Pacific "flying boats," Treasure Island has been quietly reinventing itself for decades. While the flying boat airport never quite worked out, the island was a hit as host of the 1939-1940 World's Fair, and still showcases some outstanding art deco architecture from that time period.
This combination of strategic placement and intriguing buildings attracted strange bedfellows during the second half of the century, as the United States Navy used the island for training missions while Hollywood filmed scenes from blockbuster movies. Buildings and sound stages from the island can be seen in films ranging from "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" to "The Matrix."
More recently, Treasure Island has become an emerging residential neighborhood. As the island changed hands from the Navy to the city of San Francisco, new purposes were imagined for it, and any available real estate was quickly snatched up by developers.
Today the island tries to lure visitors with a large and eclectic flea market, warehouse workspaces and stores for artists, and event venues with views of the San Francisco skyline.
Concern remains, however, for the stability of the island. Its man-made foundation is a combination of silt and landfill, feared to be unable to maintain its integrity during an earthquake. This raises speculation that another large-scale quake along the lines of the one that rocked San Francisco in 1906 may send the island back into the sea from whence it came.
Read more about Treasure Island on Atlas Obscura...
Category: Watery Wonders, Anomalous Islands, Architectural Oddities
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Edited by: Mark_Casey, Dylan, rebeccaclara