“San Francisco, a City Built on Ships.”
During California’s golden age, hopeful prospectors flocked to California from all over the world. As soon as they arrived, many sailors, including the captains, abandoned their ships, hoping to strike the city because they thought was rich in gold fields.
Because real estate in San Francisco was at a premium (even then!), the ships were repurposed as prisons, homes, or hotels. Some rotted and sank in the harbor or were burned in the fire of 1851. Therefore, entrepreneurs and builders continued to build, right on top of the sunken ships.
When digging tunnels for the Bay Area Railroad in 1994, crews discovered a completely intact ship, The Rome. Too big to move, they just kept tunneling, meaning the J, K, L, M, N and T trains travel right through the ship’s hull.
About 70 ships are located under some of the most expensive real estate in the world.
