Lands End (San Francisco)

The path you are currently walking follows the bed of a former steam railway that once bridged the gap between downtown San Francisco and this rugged, windswept coastline. In the late nineteenth century, millionaire Adolph Sutro commissioned the Ferries and Cliff House Railway to provide an affordable way for all city residents to reach his ambitious seaside developments. The train tracks were blasted directly into the unstable cliffsides, carving a route that offered passengers panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean and the Golden Gate. Frequent landslides and washouts eventually forced the permanent closure of the line in 1925, turning what was once a feat of transit engineering into the scenic coastal trail you see today.