Ocean Beach

Ocean Beach sits at the western edge of San Francisco, a three-and-a-half-mile stretch of sand that served as a natural barrier between the ocean and the city. For much of the nineteenth century, the area was a wild, shifting landscape of dunes that remained largely untouched due to its unforgiving fog and powerful winds. The city often referred to this region as the Outside Lands, a name that captured its isolation from the developing urban center. It was only with the arrival of steam-powered railroads in the eighteen-eighties that the beach began its transformation into a destination for city residents.