Yerba Buena Cove was a
cove
A cove is a small type of bay or coastal inlet. Coves usually have narrow, restricted entrances, are often circular or oval, and are often situated within a larger bay. Small, narrow, sheltered bays, inlets, creeks, or recesses in a coast are o ...
on
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland.
San Francisco Bay drains water f ...
where the Mexican pueblo of
Yerba Buena was located. It lay between
Clarks Point to the north (southeast of
Telegraph Hill, near the corner of Broadway and Battery Streets) and
Rincon Point to the south (near the corner of Harrison and Spear Streets). The beach of the cove was set back as far as what is now Montgomery Street between Clay and Washington Streets.
Between the beginning of the
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California f ...
and 1860, the cove was filled in, and the downtown of the city of
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...
built over it. A number of ships were sunk in the cove, including some that were intentionally scuttled to allow the owners to claim the land around the sunken ship. Wrecks known to remain buried include the ''
Apollo
Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...
'', the ''
Niantic'', and the ''Rome'', the latter of which was discovered in 1994 during construction of the
Muni Metro
Muni Metro is a light rail system serving San Francisco, California, United States. Operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni), a part of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), Muni Metro served an average of 15 ...
Turnback Tunnel.
References
External links
Map of San Francisco, Showing Business Section and Waterfront, 1851-52from ronhenggeler.com, accessed March 31, 2015.
Yerba Buena Cove, from foundsf.org accessed March 31, 2015
*
1846 watercolor of Yerba Buena and Yerba Buena Cover Maps of Yerba Buena and Yerba Buena Cove Yerba Buena Survey Area
San Francisco Bay
Landforms of the San Francisco Bay Area
Landforms of San Francisco
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