Mile Rock Beach

Mile Rock Beach holds a somber place in maritime history as the site of a disaster that reshaped how ships navigate the Golden Gate. In nineteen hundred and one, the passenger steamship City of Rio de Janeiro struck a submerged reef in heavy fog just off this coast. The vessel sank in less than ten minutes, claiming over one hundred lives in what remains the deadliest shipwreck in the history of the Golden Gate. This tragedy acted as a direct catalyst for the federal government to construct a permanent, manned lighthouse on the treacherous, wave-swept Mile Rocks, finally replacing the unreliable bell buoys that had failed to protect earlier mariners.