by Helen J. Doyle
I love the SF Crosstown Trails because they’ve taken me to parts of the city I’ve never visited or visited a long time ago when the city and my outlook on it were different. One of my passions is nature in urban settings. I love opening people’s eyes to the nature around them, piquing their curiosity and sparking their joy in nature. So for my June walk I selected sections of the original Crosstown and new Double Cross Trails that feature different habitats, some wilder than others. I did some research on the city’s natural history, before colonization by the Spanish, at the San Francisco History Center at the main public library. I also collected old photos from the Open SF History archives, curated by the Western Neighborhoods Project, to help tell the story about what these areas looked like a century or so ago (click on photo or use QR code for larger version and more information).
We started with 30 people at the Glen Park BART station. This photo, taken in 1905 from about where the BART station is now, shows a railroad bridge built over Islais Creek, at what is now Diamond and Bosworth.
Glen Canyon
Islais Creek, also known as Islay Creek from the Ohlone name for holly-leaf cherry, originates in several springs on Twin Peaks and once flowed freely down to the Bay. It’s easy to imagine the Yelamu people who lived on this land before Spanish colonization using and stewarding its abundant resources since time immemorial.
Islais is one of just a handful of creeks that flows above ground within the city, at least within Glen Canyon. From here it flows through pipes before entering the Bay near Cesar Chavez and 3rd Streets. With steep, rocky sides, Glen Canyon is one of the wildest places left in San Francisco, with grassland, woodland, and creekside (riparian) habitats that support many native species that compete with, and sometime win over, nonnative species introduced for grazing and farming.
After the devastating 1906 earthquake and fire, city leaders had plans to dam the creek to create the San Miguel Reservoir, likely to store water for fighting fires.
We’re fortunate that this plan never came to fruition and we still have these wild areas to explore. On a narrow bridge crossing the creek, we came upon a fly-encrusted part of a carcass, likely left by a coyote we’d just been warned about by a trail runner.
Twin Peaks
After climbing out of Glen Canyon, we left the Crosstown Trail route to head up Twin Peaks, San Francisco’s iconic mountain in the center of the city, which is part of the Double Cross Trail. We had amazing views on this warm, clear June day. Surprisingly, it was almost too hot to be in the sun on the treeless mountain.
Twin Peaks and other hills in this part of the city formed a natural barrier to development of the westside, in contrast to the densely populated downtown seen in this 1906 photo taken just weeks after the earthquake and fire. The fencing in the foreground suggests Twin Peaks itself was then used for grazing and farming.
Twin Peaks and the city’s westside became more accessible when Twin Peaks Boulevard was built in 1916. The opening of the road was celebrated by a parade of cars. Note the undeveloped landscape in the background. This was one of many city infrastructure projects completed under City Engineer Michael O’Shaughnessy, whose name also graces the controversial dam that created the Hetch Hetchy reservoir to provide fresh drinking water to San Francisco.
Mt. Davidson
We step away from the official Crosstown and Double Cross Trails to explore Mt. Davidson, San Francisco’s highest peak at 928 feet, just a bit higher than Twin Peaks. This 1903 view of Twin Peaks from Mt. Davidson, decades before Twin Peaks Boulevard was built, shows how undeveloped this area was, with farm and grazing land, few buildings, and, most likely, dirt roads.
Two decades later, more infrastructure is underway, larger paved roads like Twin Peaks Boulevard and Portola, and the Stanford Heights Reservoir in what is now the Miraloma neighborhood. Still, compared to the densely populated downtown in the distance, the area is largely undeveloped. Note Yerba Buena Island just visible in the Bay in the 1924 photo – a decade or so before the construction of Treasure Island and the Bay Bridge.
By 1926, Mt. Davidson hosted a Christian cross, which in this photo is likely a wooden cross that destroyed by arson and replaced by a cement version in the early 1930s. Later, the cross became a memorial to the millions killed in the 1915 Armenian genocide. It’s also worth noting Mt. Davidson’s half-bald, half-forested landscape, the latter primarily Eucalyptus trees planted by Adolf Sutro. A wealthy land owner and San Francisco mayor, Sutro planted many trees on vast expanses of land in this area for his speculative timber business, including on Mt. Sutro near Twin Peaks. These wooded areas tend to be overrun with introduced and invasive plant species, yet also support a variety of birds and other wildlife. The less-disturbed grass and shrubland habitat supports many native shrubs and wildflowers–and of course, poison oak, typical of more sun-exposed areas.
This 1938 aerial view centered on Mt. Davidson and looking towards the Pacific Ocean shows the rapid development of San Francisco’s westside. Just to the right of Mt Davidson is Edgehill, the final peak of our hike. Towards the bottom right of the photo, I believe we can see Islais Creek flowing through steep Glen Canyon.
Edgehill Mountain
Photos from the 1920s taken from Edgehill, which is on the Double Cross Trail, look west towards what is now West Portal and back towards Twin Peaks, where we hiked earlier. In the photo on the right, the forested Mt. Sutro is also visible to the left of Twin Peaks (of course without its iconic tower). Edgehill was once quarried for rock, resulting in a very steep slope, prone to landslides, on the side facing Mt. Davidson. From the one-way road circling the top of Edgehill, you can also see Mt. Tamalpais in Marin and Mt. Diablo in the East Bay. (Read more about Edgehill and nearby neighborhoods in this blog post.)
West Portal
By 1920 the westside was undergoing rapid development, following the opening of the Twin Peaks subway tunnel in 1917 or 1918. Photos of the construction of the tunnel show how undeveloped this area still was.
This ambitious, multi-year infrastructure project–at 2.5 miles, allegedly the longest transit tunnel in the world at the time–ultimately connected the westside to the Castro, Market Street, and downtown by train in just minutes (or sometimes longer, as contemporary Muni riders know!). Instead of train tracks, there was once a creek that ran near what is now West Portal, ending at Pine Lake just beyond Stern Grove.
Sadly, the original Twin Peaks Tunnel opening facade shown here was destroyed in the 1970s when the new West Portal Muni Station was built.
By the 1960s, though, the Philosopher’s Club next door to the Muni Station was in full swing. We ended our walk there, sharing our adventure and old pictures with the current bartender and owner. Thanks to everyone who joined our Crosstown Trails June Anniversary Walks!
More Information
Open SF History Photo Archives – freely available photos many with documentation, curated by the Western Neighborhood Project
San Francisco’s Natural History: Sand Dunes to Streetcars, by Harry G. Fuller (2017)
Seep City – cool maps and history of San Francisco’s hydrology and topology
San Francisco’s West Portal Neighborhoods, by Richard Brandi (2005)
Mt. Davidson Cross – history of the cross from the Council of Armenian Americans of Northern California