The Panhandle

The Panhandle owes its peculiar, narrow shape to a group of squatters in the late nineteenth century. When city planners originally mapped out the land for Golden Gate Park, they intended for a wide, rectangular space reaching further east into the city. However, the occupants of the land refused to relocate, forcing the city to compromise on a thin, three-quarter-mile-long strip. This sliver of land became the formal carriage entrance to the main park, welcoming visitors who arrived by horse-drawn vehicle to travel through a tree-lined path toward the city's western wilderness.