Adventures in Urban Exploration: Bayshore Roundhouse

Recently i've taken up a interest in photographing and exploring abandon buildings, towns and sites. This has led me to some pretty amazing, thrilling and crazy places. Research on the web has revealed quite a few places in and around the bay area that are sitting in decay. Here's one of many to come...

On San Francisco's southern border an old abandon train roundhouse sits in decay. Just after the end of the work day and before the sun fell i made my way to the Bayshore Roundhouse for some urban exploring. Gated and prohibited, i rode my bike down the street and crawled under a fence. Skirting around behind the building i found little obstacles blocking my path. Full of dirt, graffiti, garbage, and burnt remnants of a portion of the building i made my way around observing what's left of this century old building.

Here's an excerpt from www.sanfranciscotrain.org.
"A brick roundhouse and 90' steel turntable were finished at Bayshore around 1910. They served to stable the steam-powered freight engines used on the peninsula. Locomotives required constant maintenance, and most of this work took place in roundhouses. Engines were serviced, and kept warm in such places between runs. Additional shops were later built to perform heavy maintenance on locomotives, passenger cars, tenders, and all other manner of railroad equipment."

Gomorran Social Aid and Pleasure Club

Who: Gomorran Social Aid and Pleasure Club
Where: Bottom of the Hill, SF
When: Friday Aug. 14th

A bit of burlesque, dancing and friday night antics.

Here's the full story at SF Weekly

Mission Garage Doors

Slide Show and Story at SF Weekly

Adventures in Urban Exploration: Drawbridge CA-The Bay's Last Ghost town

My friend Justin and i set out to explore an old abandon town in the south bay. The sun was beating down on us when we arrived in Alviso at close to 2pm. Parking next to the rail tracks we set out due north following the tracks into a horizon of salt flats and diked sloughs. About a half mile along the tracks we found a dead dog laying in the middle of the tracks with bullet holes in it. Not really sure what to think we continued, left and right of us were foul smelling sloughs, dried fields of packed mud and train debris. After several miles, several trains flying past we crossed a rail bridge onto Station Island and started to explore the abandon the buildings of Drawbridge CA.

Below is a historical description of the town courtesy of www.ghosttown.info-

"Drawbridge is an abandoned town on the outskirts of San Jose and is slowly sinking into the sloughs of San Francisco Bay. It was created on Station Island in 1876 and consisted of a single dwelling to house the operator of two drawbridges owned by the Southern Pacific Railroad that crossed the Mud Creek Slough and Coyote Creek Slough to connect Newark with Alviso and San Jose. It eventually grew into a small town consisting mainly of hunting cabins, hotels, and gun clubs (the San Francisco Bay, before salt evaporation ponds and sewage dumping, was a hunting and fishing paradise). During Prohibition, taking advantage of its location in no man's land between Santa Clara and Alameda counties, it housed numerous speakeasies and brothels. In addition, the police were reluctant to enter as nearly everyone in Drawbridge was armed.
Starting in the late 1920's, the surrounding communities began to pump fresh water out from the sloughs causing the land to sink. Two salt evaporation ponds around Drawbridge prevented the tides from cleaning the waters and the pumping in of raw sewage fouled what remained.
At its peak in 1926, Drawbridge had 90 private residences and two hotels. The train stopped five times daily. In 1979, the last remaining resident left, leaving behind a dozen or so wooden shacks."

Michael Rose @ The Independent

A little Thursday night reggae never hurt anyone. Here's the story and pics from a fun show last night at the Independent. Story @ SF Weekly.