Editing San Francisco Bay (section)

==History==
[[File:1781 Cañizares Map of San Francisco Bay.pdf|thumb|Cañizares Map of San Francisco Bay]]

{{see also|San Francisco Bay Discovery Site}}
{{see also|Timeline of the San Francisco Bay Area}}
The indigenous inhabitants of the San Francisco Bay are [[Ohlone]].<ref name="foundSF">{{cite web |last1=Olmsted |first1=Nancy J. |title=Water on the Land—The Coast People |url=http://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Water_on_the_Land%E2%80%94The_Coast_People |website=FoundSF |access-date=June 4, 2018 |archive-date=December 4, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191204063505/http://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Water_on_the_Land%E2%80%94The_Coast_People |url-status=live }}</ref> The first European to see San Francisco Bay is likely [[N. de Morena]] who was left at [[New Albion]] at [[Drakes Bay]] in [[Marin County, California]], by [[Sir Francis Drake]] in 1579 and then walked to Mexico.<ref>{{cite book | title=REPORT OF FINDINGS RELATING TO THE IDENTIFICATION OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE'S ENCAMPMENT AT POINT REYES NATIONAL SEASHORE | last=Aker | first=Raymond | year=1970 | url=http://www.winepi.com/Drake%20Book/Drake-Book-05.pdf | pages=338–340 | access-date=April 19, 2016 | archive-date=April 15, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160415223721/http://www.winepi.com/Drake%20Book/Drake-Book-05.pdf | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | journal=The Land of Sunshine, the Magazine of California and the West | title=Narrative of the Pilot Morera, who passed through the North Sea to the South Sea through the Strait | pages=184–186 | url=http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044099873853;view=1up;seq=204 | issue=February | year=1900 | editor=Charles F. Lumis | access-date=April 19, 2016 | archive-date=May 11, 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170511130814/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044099873853;view=1up;seq=204 | url-status=live }}</ref>

The first recorded European discovery of San Francisco Bay was on November 4, 1769, when Spanish explorer [[Gaspar de Portolá]], unable to find the [[Monterey, California|Port of Monterey]], continued north close to what is now [[Pacifica, California|Pacifica]] and reached the summit of the {{convert|1200|ft|m|-1|adj=mid|-high}} [[Sweeney Ridge]], now marked as the place where he first sighted San Francisco Bay. Portolá and his party did not realize what they had discovered, thinking they had arrived at a large arm of what is now called [[Drakes Bay]].<ref>{{cite journal| title = The representations of San Francisco (California): a portable harbor in the fragile geography of the North Pacific.| year = 2011| doi = 10.5433/1984-3356.2011v4n8p461| last1 = Albert| first1 = Salvador Bernabeu| last2 = Redondo| first2 = Jose Maria Garcia| journal = Antíteses| volume = 4| issue = 8| pages = 461–492| s2cid = 128670900| doi-access = free}}</ref> At the time, Drakes Bay went by the name ''Bahia de San Francisco'' and thus both bodies of water became associated with the name. Eventually, the larger, more important body of water fully appropriated the name ''San Francisco Bay''.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}

The first European to enter the bay is believed to have been the Spanish explorer [[Juan de Ayala]], who passed through the [[Golden Gate]] on August 5, 1775, in his ship the ''San Carlos'' and moored in a bay of [[Angel Island, California|Angel Island]] now known as Ayala Cove. Ayala continued to explore the [[San Francisco Bay Area]] and the expedition's cartographer, José de Cañizares, gathered the information necessary to produce the first map of the area. A number of place names survive (anglicized) from that first map, including [[Point Reyes]], [[Angel Island (California)|Angel Island]], [[Farallon Islands]], and [[Alcatraz Island]].{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}

[[Alaskan Native]] sea otter hunters using [[Aleutian kayak]]s and working for the [[Russian–American Company]] entered San Francisco Bay in 1807 and again over 1810–1811. Led by the Russian [[Timofei Nikitich Tarakanov]], these hunting raids probably wiped out sea otters in the bay. Thousands of sea otter skins were taken to Sitka, then [[Guangzhou]] (Canton), China, where they commanded a high price.<ref>{{cite book |last= Owens |first= Kenneth N. |title= Empire Maker: Aleksandr Baranov and Russian Colonial Expansion into Alaska and Northern California |date= 2015 |publisher= University of Washington Press |isbn= 978-0295805832 |pages= 211–231 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Xb_XCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA211 |access-date= 1 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title= Frontiersman for the Tsar: Timofei Tarakanov and the Expansion of Russian America |last= Owens |first= Kenneth N. |date= September 2006 |journal= Montana: The Magazine of Western History |publisher= Montana Historical Society |volume= 56 |issue= 3 |pages= 3–21, 93–94 |jstor= 4520817 |issn= 0026-9891 |url= http://www.jstor.org/stable/4520817 |access-date= 11 November 2023}}</ref>

The United States seized the region from Mexico during the [[Mexican–American War]] (1846–1848). On February 2, 1848, the Mexican province of [[Alta California]] was annexed to the United States with the signing of the [[Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo]]. A year and a half later, California requested to join the United States on December 3, 1849, and was accepted as the 31st State of the Union on September 9, 1850.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}

[[File:Shoreline markers 2012-09-15 16-52-23.jpg|thumb|left|San Francisco Bay Shoreline Tablet]]
In 1921, a tablet was dedicated by a group of men in downtown San Francisco, marking the site of the original shoreline. The tablet reads: "This tablet marks the shore line of San Francisco Bay at the time of the discovery of gold in California, January 24, 1848. Map reproduced above delineates old shore line. Placed by the Historic Landmarks committee, [[Native Sons of the Golden West]], 1921."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://delivery.library.ca.gov:8443/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE87889|title=Group of men standing around original shoreline tablet|work=delivery.library.ca.gov|place=San Francisco, California|date=1921|access-date=October 6, 2021|archive-date=October 6, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211006154031/https://delivery.library.ca.gov:8443/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE87889|url-status=live}}</ref>

The bay became the center of American settlement and commerce in the Far West through most of the remainder of the 19th century. During the [[California Gold Rush]] (1848–1855), San Francisco Bay suddenly became one of the world's great seaports, dominating shipping in the American West until the last years of the 19th century. The bay's regional importance increased further when the [[first transcontinental railroad]] was connected to its western terminus at [[Alameda, California|Alameda]] on September 6, 1869.<ref>Alta California, September 7, 1869</ref> The terminus was switched to the [[Oakland Long Wharf]] two months later on November 8, 1869.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://cprr.org/Museum/Southern_Pacific_Bulletin/From_Trail_to_Rail_17.html| title = Cprr.org| access-date = August 10, 2007| archive-date = July 9, 2011| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110709175326/http://cprr.org/Museum/Southern_Pacific_Bulletin/From_Trail_to_Rail_17.html| url-status = live}}</ref>

[[File:Dumbarton Rail Bridge 2021 redux.JPG|thumb|alt=A rust-covered bridge crosses over calm water, with hills and mountains in the background.|The Dumbarton Rail Bridge]]
In 1910, the [[Southern Pacific Transportation Company|Southern Pacific]] railroad company built the [[Dumbarton Rail Bridge]],<ref name=ASCE1913>{{cite journal |url=https://archive.org/stream/proceedings39amer#page/n193/mode/2up |title=Construction Problems, Dumbarton Bridge, Central California Railway |journal=Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers |date=January 1913 |author1=Schneider, E. J. |pages=117–128 |volume=39 |number=1 |access-date=March 14, 2016}}</ref> the first bridge crossing San Francisco Bay.<ref name=EmoryGustaitis95>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sJwh6DQqojUC&pg=PA48 |title=San Francisco Bay Shoreline Guide |chapter=Dumbarton Bridge & Piers to Moffett Field |page=48 |author=Emory, Jerry |editor=Gustaitis, Rasa |date=1995 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley, California |isbn=0-520-08878-6 |access-date=March 15, 2016}}</ref> The first automobile crossing was the [[Dumbarton Bridge (California)|Dumbarton Bridge]], completed in January 1927.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/01/17/the-old-dumbarton-bridge-did-you-see-it-fall-into-the-bay/|title=The old Dumbarton Bridge: Did you see it fall into the bay?|date=January 17, 2017|access-date=July 9, 2021|archive-date=July 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709185900/https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/01/17/the-old-dumbarton-bridge-did-you-see-it-fall-into-the-bay/|url-status=live}}</ref> More crossings were later constructed – the [[Carquinez Bridge]] in May 1927,<ref>''The Barrier Broken'' – Vallejo Evening Chronicle, May 21, 1927</ref> the [[San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge]] in 1936,<ref name="Two Bay Area Bridges">{{cite web|title=Two Bay Area Bridges |publisher=U.S. Department of Transportation |date=January 18, 2005 |url=https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/2bridges.cfm |access-date=June 13, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091011014705/http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/2bridges.htm |archive-date=October 11, 2009 |url-status=live }}</ref> the [[Golden Gate Bridge]] in 1937,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.goldengate.org/bridge/history-research/moments-events/key-dates/|title=Key Dates - Moments & Events &#124; Golden Gate|website=www.goldengate.org|access-date=July 9, 2021|archive-date=June 29, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210629031546/https://www.goldengate.org/bridge/history-research/moments-events/key-dates/|url-status=live}}</ref> the Richmond–San Rafael Bridge in 1956,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=zCEhAAAAIBAJ&pg=2923%2C2231090 |title=Frisco Adds Another Bridge To Skyline |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=August 16, 1956 |newspaper=Sarasota Herald-Tribune |access-date=March 1, 2016 |archive-date=July 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709190544/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=zCEhAAAAIBAJ&pg=2923,2231090 |url-status=live }}</ref> and the [[San Mateo–Hayward Bridge]] in 1967.<ref name=CTSMHB>{{cite web |url = http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/esc/tollbridge/SM-Hay/SMfacts.html |title = San Mateo–Hayward Bridge Facts |author = <!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date = 1995 |access-date = January 14, 2015 |publisher = [[California Department of Transportation]] |archive-date = February 2, 2015 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150202183433/http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/esc/tollbridge/SM-Hay/SMfacts.html |url-status = live }}</ref>

[[File:Duck Hunt Marshy Shoreline San Francisco Bay Alameda County california.jpg|thumb|Duck hunting on the Bay, 1915]]
[[File:Dredger near the Dumbarton Bridge in California.JPG|thumb|''[[Mallard II]]'', a clamshell dredge built in 1936 and used into the 21st century to dredge levees for Cargill's salt ponds in the bay]]

During the 20th century, the bay was subject to the 1940s [[Reber Plan]], which would have filled in parts of the bay in order to increase industrial activity along the waterfront. In 1959, the [[United States Army Corps of Engineers]] released a report stating that if current infill trends continued, the bay would be as big as a shipping channel by 2020. This news led to the creation of the [[Save the Bay]] movement in 1960,<ref name="digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/218492">{{cite web |title=Sylvia McLaughlin: Citizen Activist for the Environment: Saving San Francisco Bay, Promoting Shoreline Parks and Natural Values in Urban and Campus Planning |url=https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/218492 |website=Oral History Center, [[Bancroft Library]] |publisher=[[University of California]] |access-date=February 28, 2023 |date=2009 |archive-date=February 28, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230228050439/https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/218492 |url-status=live }}</ref> which mobilized to stop the infill of wetlands as well as the bay itself, which had shrunk to two-thirds of its size in the century before 1961.<ref name=StB>{{cite web|title=History|url=http://www.savesfbay.org/dont-pave-my-bay/history|publisher=Save the Bay|access-date=July 14, 2015|archive-date=July 15, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150715102518/http://www.savesfbay.org/dont-pave-my-bay/history|url-status=dead}}</ref>  

On September 17, 1965, the [[California State Legislature]] enacted the McAteer-Petris Act, which created the [[San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission]].  Since then, the Commission has strictly regulated bay fill.  [[Foster City, California|Foster City]], [[Redwood Shores, California|Redwood Shores]], [[Paradise Cay, California|Paradise Cay]], and [[Emeryville, California|Emeryville]]'s western expansion were among the last developments along the bay shoreline before McAteer-Petris limited additional filling of the bay. 

The San Francisco Bay continues to support some of the densest industrial production and urban settlement in the United States. The [[San Francisco Bay Area]] is the American West's second-largest urban area, with approximately seven million residents.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bayareacensus.ca.gov/|title=Bay Area Census|website=www.bayareacensus.ca.gov|access-date=October 31, 2018|archive-date=January 2, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160102232702/http://www.bayareacensus.ca.gov/|url-status=live}}</ref>