Treasure Island

The camera stands at the island’s edge, a few feet above flat water, and this is a very narrow band of a panorama - a horizontal strip and nothing else, which is exactly what the place offers. Along one part of it the Bay Bridge comes in from the left on its towers and cables and runs away towards the city. San Francisco itself is a low serrated silhouette on the far shore with the sun behind it, so the buildings read as shapes rather than surfaces and one or two windows are catching fire. Swing round and the bay opens out completely: still water taking the whole colour of the sky, low brown headlands on the far side, and the sun down near the horizon turning everything from orange through to grey. Behind the camera the island itself is nothing much - rock, a rail, a bit of scrub - which is why nobody comes here for the island.

Treasure Island is a manmade island located in the San Francisco Bay. It was created in the 1930s for the Golden Gate International Exposition. A World’s Fair event, this exposition was held on the island in 1939 and 1940 and it helped to showcase the city’s two new bridges— Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge. The latter, which is commonly referred to as the Bay Bridge, is partly anchored to the natural Yerba Buena Island, which in turn is linked to Treasure Island by a small isthmus.

The federal government actually built the island. Imported fill was used during the construction process, and the island sits on top of natural shoals.

The intent after the World's Fair was to use it as an airport, but this plan didn’t last long. Not long after the Golden Gate International Exposition, the Navy overtook ownership of the artificial landmass. This airport on the mainland peninsula is now the San Francisco International Airport. The Navy converted the island into the Treasure Island Naval Base, with World War II serving as a main impetus for this action. Many Navy sailors who were destined for Pacific destinations during the war departed from the island, and it was also a major communications center.

In 2008, Congress awarded the publicly-held island of Treasure Island to the city of San Francisco. No fee was paid, even though the city had offered the Navy some $40 million to buy it at one point. The Navy officially ended their operations on the island in 1997, and general development began around that time. Today, some 3,000 people call Treasure Island and the connected Yerba Buena Island home, and the area is an up-and-coming place to reside.