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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 ก.ค. 2017
- On an island in the middle of the San Francisco Bay sits a series of abandoned wooden buildings, slumped over and sinking into the ground. They’re all that’s left of the town called Drawbridge - often referred to as the last ghost town left in the Bay Area.
Read more: www.kqed.org/news/11549263/th...
As a teenager, I went out with a friend to check the place out, on our motorcycles, somewhere around 1967. I guess it was Charlie who pointed us back out the way we came. Hahaha
Went there as a teen in the 70s
My dad used to go duck hunting there in the 60's. Once and a while he would take us out there with him. I can remember him telling us to go feed the ducks. Didn't find out until many years later, that the hunters were baiting the birds with the duck food that we put out there and it was very illegal.
@@kurkgarro2341 I’m gonna go there as a teen next weekend
"fewer than 5 residents"...so, there were 4 residents then? Or fewer? Don't tell me they couldn't be counted.
Rofl
go get yourself a copy of the 1960 and 1970 census and get back to us on that...
@@JamesAllmond okay guy. Good one. You sure told him off
4 and a half
You’d think they had enough time to get an accurate headcount
This is the only place in the Bay Area where you can buy a home under a million.
a Shack in Mt View sold for over $1.5 million.
@@markplott4820 - I know, right?!!
You should come to Antioch you can buy a great home for around 550k to 650k.
@@markplott4820 You should come to Antioch and it’s in the Bay Area and great homes go for 550k to 650k
@@emanuelcandelario815 - Still ridiculous. Especially when the median income is $78,500. Owning a home has been just a pipe dream for the average Californian for decades.
That line from Charlie about not being able to say exactly why he never left really resonated with me. I live in Alviso and I never get tired of walking out to the bird refuge or the marina even though I've been looking at the same waterways and marsh flats my entire life, it's just so peaceful listening to the wind move through the rushes and all the different bird calls.
Beautiful comment! It's a call you can't quite put into words any more than you can describe the wind....
@@stevenfranks3131 thank you. Yes, so hard to accurately describe, just seems to be something my blood.
I've never known anyone that lives in Alviso. It's so different from the rest of the bay area. I've only been there a couple times but was very intrigued.
@@melodiefrances3898 definitely different. Most of the families on the old side (yes, even though we are a tiny community we have old/new parts of town) have been here forever, close to 100 years or more. For a long time it seemed to be a lawless area just like in Drawbridge but since the majority of the community has been here for so long it's rather tight knit. If you're interested I believe there's a book available about Alviso, part of a series about images of America I think.
I lived in Alviso for a short while. I miss walking around there, so peaceful and it feels really different from the rest of the bay area.
Have seen the remains of that little towns many times from the Amtrak Coast Starlight, without ever knowing that it was once indeed a town.
Yeah me too. Always thought that was a strange place to build houses. Never thought about duck hunting.
@@LuckyBaldwin777 I thought they were fish camps.
@@greggross8856 Yeah that makes sense. I didn't think of that either lol
I had heard something about this town by the time I rode through on the train. Fascinating stuff!
Greg - my Parents used to go to Drawbridge for Gambeling and Hookers.
"bay areas last ghost town"
*breathes heavily in google office development
lmaoo
Lol, Google probably gonna move to Austin like the rest of Silicon Valley
@@KariIzumi1 On paper only. You really think they'll let go of their buildings?
They are building more I’ll tel you that. I’m in one rn
I enjoyed learning about this little unknown town .
it's well known to the locals.....
me too.
and you can buy a run down shack in Draw Bridge for a mere 800K!
neckarsulme genuinely made me laugh.
Lol
Thats still a hellova lot cheaper than a studio apt in San Francisco XD
That’s a steal. That might get you a reserved parking spot up the tracks in San Francisco.
😹
Even though the remains of this village aren't really accessible by foot, if you want to walk around the area, it is located at Alviso Marina County Park in San Jose, which has a bunch of trails that cut through the marshlands and the bay.
I was wondering if it was near Alviso, which is a trip in itself.
I tried going out there once. It looks like the only way to get there and stay dry is to walk across a slightly long and quite busy railroad bridge - and the closest easy pedestrian access is half a mile before the slough.
@@elwoodblues9613 I made it there once back in 2010 or so, I used a canoe. There's not really much there anymore but it's still very interesting. Definitely bring your mud boots though.
I used to live in alviso and yes its its accessible by foot we'd go by there often in trails for jogging purposes
Never heard of this place before.
sewage, sulfuric acid, and flooding - that's why people left
People pay millions for that exact living situation in san Fran
& the ocean is expected to rise 27 feet, san jose is a valley under sea level......my geography professor who works for the usgs told me in 2040 suspect san jose to be estimated around 15 feet underwater. Recently i saw a report saying now it will be by 2035, 5 years sooner! So much for silicon valley it will fill up lile a cereal bowl.
Most people wont move until they have these same problems as these people who left drawbridge.
@@SkuldXHimura but with Joe Biden now maybe we can slow down the effects of climate change, maybe even stop it altogether
I, too, watched the video
@@michaelescobar9317 lol
Thank you for posting this. I grew up in Fremont. When I was about 10, a friend of mine and his father took me to Draw Bridge. I’m 65 now. It was a great experience. It’s great to know it is still there.
My dad used to hike with me when I was very young around 1961 or so in that area.
I lived in Fremont, California in the 70,s I used to go to the salt flats at the south end of the San Fransisco Bay Area to hunt for old bottles that ended up there. I found lots of old beautiful bottles there.
@@py1284 Hi I didn't go to hi school in Fremont I lived on Stevenson Ave. In the Irvington District. I worked part time at Me and Ed's Pizza as a bartender in the mall.
@@py1284 When I moved to Fremont in 1970 the sign that shows the population as you entered town was 52,000 it was a great place to live back then.
@@py1284 i was so sad to hear when they closed that bowling alley down 🤦🏼
I was lucky to have visited Drawbridge in the early 2000s when the wildlife refuge gave tours. Unfortunately they not longer do so but it was really interesting. I remember when the train came by and whizzed right by us!
I've walked the tracks into Drawbridge to take photos before. It was fun, but all I can say is if you decide to do the same, be extremely careful. I almost died.
And how did you almost _d_i_e_?
I can't speak for YITT Mashups, but I can see people dying by being hit by a train because there's no place for them to get out of the way.
what happened??
There is no room to spare on either of the bridges and little room along the tracks if a train comes hauling through at 75mph.
@@946towguy2 Now that is scary!
That is fantastic reporting of our bay. Thanks for taking us through the history.
Great video! Thank you for making this available to us.
Source of the Milpitas smell
Ive been to Drawbridge. Walked the train trestle to get out there, had to time it. I remember a pretty nice old piano in one cabin. There was still stuff in some houses.
Damn been away from the Bay Ten Years now (Raised in Hayward 93-2010).
Never knew this place existed.
Same here lol
Two corrections to this story:
1. Lye is Sodium Hydroxide. Adding it to water creates a strong alkali solution, not Sulphuric acid. I'm not saying it was ok to pollute, just correcting the chemistry.
2. This and other sources say the last resident (Charlie Luce?) left in 1979. I went to Drawbridge in 1975 and explored it completely. There was nobody there and none of the structures were habitable. They had already sunk several feet into the mud and most had little or no roofing left. So whenever it was that the last resident left had to be before then.
Thank you for doing this.
Born in the early 60’s, I grew up in Newark and I knew Drawbridge was close by, but I never knew any details. It’s nice to get this history. Thanks.
Great show...thanks...
What a great little story thank you.
Great story Jessica! Cool info
I live in Bay area for last 21 years and always wondered about these broken ghost houses whenever I pass by. Thanks google to recommend this video. I learned something new. And thanks to the makers of this video.
Love this narrator's voice. What a smooth charming alternative to the usual nasal Brit or strident male Yank.
It's an ai
Aaaah. Stop complainin' Limey. You Brits mangle the English language pretty well all on your own.
I actually thought her vocal fry was a bit annoying. But I’m glad others appreciated it.
@@connormccullough2226 what?
Great story about a piece of the Bay area that I didn't know about. Thank you.
Thank you for the history lesson. Way cool🤙🏽
Worked at FG Wool packing cannery off Senter rd in early 70’s as a teen.
Great memories
Cheers
I'm from the Bay Area...never heard of this place. Thanks for the video.
I live in Fremont and had never heard of this until this video was in my recommended. Interesting history
Thanks for sharing
I've been there!! Cool to see a video on it
What was your experience like?
Sad history. Fascinating
I hike out to this place all the time!! It’s crazy to see what it used to look like in its prime!
First heard about this place on KFJC on Robert Emmet's Cool Secret Places segment of his show.
Those shacks could be rented to people probably for $1,000 a month...
kinda low....maybe $1,800.00
It's probably worth $2,300 now. 😋
If you remodel them with some builder-grade materials....
@Jerry Andersen - Yeah I know. But it was a joke to begin with. I grew up in SJ (and still live in the Los Gatos/ Santa Cruz Mountains area). Alviso still exists too. Fremont has grown a lot. My Godparents (and some friends) lived their in the 1990s/ 2000s. But they eventually moved to Tennessee.
Maybe more -- I paid $2200 for a studio next to the freeway in Palo Alto in 2001
Man I always wondered about this ! I have Lived in Sonoma County my hole life I heard about the abandoned city but never looked into it!
Wow thank you so much for making this video I have years of passing draw bridge never knowing the history
I remember being on the train that goes through this ghost town and always wondered what it was
Cool i always wondered what those little houses were
Same
Cool video, thanks. A much younger friend went there a while ago, but I understand it’s hard to get to and one risks arrest if they are caught there.
If you walk along the tracks you can still get out there. Be ready to dive out of the way of trains into a nasty swamp so don't wear nice shoes. Walking around the buildings is also very wet and swampy and you will sink if not careful.
Trespassing on Railroad property
Really interesting!
I used to ride my bike there back in the 80's!
@Jerry AndersenI also remember my uncle and his friends, used to hang out there fishing supposed to good area. Back in the 70's of course. Not sure what's like these days, I live out of state these days.
Eah, I used to ride a bike out there in the early 1970's😳
I used to ride my bike there in the 1880's!
That was my usual route to school in the late 1920s
Nice wonder how it feels for you to see the world change a lot
Thanks for the pictures of John 🤪
I went there 40 years ago. It was a great night time visit. Spooky
We used to hike out there in the 1970s. I was a interesting place. I had a feeling that there was some residence still there.
I commented on a previous video about same subject more than ten years ago. I visited this so-called ghost town in 1968 as a field study project for a cultural geography course I was taking at Cal State Hayward. I may still have the report, then of course written on an electric typewriter.
I've always heard about it, but never knew exactly where it was at.
I need to add this to my research now too
good little excerpt
I have been here, it was really hard to get to but it was worth it. It really looks like a scene out of a scary movie.
Morton and Leslie Salt were there I believe.Near Decoto ,Dumbarton Bridge.San Mateo bridge was a good place for sturgeon fishing.Turk Island was one landfill for Fremont and then Russell City and Hayward.Growing up in that area there were millions of redwinged blackbirds before all of the houses. Cornfields and crops everywhere.Fruit trees in abundance.Little farms on 2 acre plots.A paradise after ww2 and before.Jobs aplenty if one wanted work.
There are plenty of ghost towns still around in the Bay Area. Holy City next to Lexington Hills in Santa Clara county, Purissima in San Mateo County, and I would argue that China Camp in Marin County also qualifies as a ghost town. There's also Port Chicago in Contra Costa county
I got to see this for the first time just last month when I was riding the train
Hey there, any chance we can get some music credits? That would be swell!
i remember going there last year with my friend after school to take pictures
Taking the Amtrak from Fremont to Levi's stadium it's an awesome site.
Nice to hear this place is still standing l, because I heard this in place have been demolished.
0 dislikes. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine why someone would seek out and then dislike a video like this.
Let's change that
With the amount of people fleeing the bay area, there's soon to be more ghost towns
Justin Noker you wish. Jealous.
Mike Buttfild literally if you look it up, the amount of people leaving the bay area is creating a U-haul truck shortage, with an actual statistic of 60% of people going out compared to 40% coming in. They're losing more people than they're gaining
Justin Noker going back to the rat holes they crawled into. You going?
Mike Buttfild if by "rat hole" you mean a place that you can actually afford to live in and don't have overly liberal policies, then yes, I do plan on joining them.
Justin Noker good, don't come back.
Can you do a background story of Tubbs Island in the north bay?
Wonderful-looking barn wood on the houses. Used by artists, sign makers, "country" sayings, etc.
Who else is watching this video from Drawbridge in 2020
Watched this from Alviso in 2021
from San Jose Nov 2023
I went duck hunting and salmon fishing out there back in the 1980's. We took a row boat from East Palo Alto or Alviso. The
Guadalupe River and Coyote Creek spills into that area. With the heavy
rains last winter I expect salmon runs are above normal...???
I had a chance to see this place once thanks to some railway work I was involved in.
Nice piece of property
Search for "California's Gold with Huell Howser- Drawbridge" and or "Drawbridge: The Forsaken City" to watch better videos about the town of Drawbridge California.
There used to be millions of duck actually.
The Duck hunters use to trade Their kills for services at the Local Brothel there! it was 2 Ducks for a Fuck!
I thought this had to be Wingo. Another ghost town, in Sonoma County. Similarly in the marshes.
Anyone have an idea on the name of the song in the background from 2:28-3:49? Thanks!
beautiful birds!
Kinda reminds me of Cribb Island which is now part of the Brisbane Airport
Lived here in Fremont my entire life and no one knows about this place at all. A few mates and I explored it back in high school pretty fucking sick
What about the sheep man legend I have been hearing about. Was that real or was it made up to scare kids from going to visit the ghost town
I always wondered why there was random buildings in that area...
Is this near Hetro Staights or Ohmo Gae?
What about skaggs island in vallejo
Hiked there and almost got arrested by state fish and game...
rlly?
Is this the milpitas ghost town or is it different im told of a ghost town run down ruins with not electricity end of alviso milpitas area, i saw a newpaper saying Fremont's so is this the same place or a different place?
5 people used to live here.....now it’s a ghost town
2:49, oh nice Khaki King. Now I have to go listen to her again
Interesting.
There used to be a New York, past Concord, Pittsburgh & Antioch, in the 1800s.
How have I lived my entire life in Bay Area and never heard of this place??!!!
Nice use of kaki king
Lye and sulfuric acid are opposites - lye is a base with a very high PH and sulfuric acid a strong acid with a very low PH.
Who'd want to live in a tent underneath an overpass when you have prime real estate like this, just an Amtrak ride away. prefab construction included with that ticket lol. I know where I'm goin when the going gets tough
One of the most haunted places in California. Abandoned Camarillo State Mental Hospital, California ( aka Hotel California).The Children's Ward. th-cam.com/video/i1lBFUesXjk/w-d-xo.html
Links to my other videos of Camarillo State Mental Hospital are at the bottom of this video description. Please enjoy and subscribe for more haunted places, abandoned buildings and Manson Family location.
Places like this all over the country... A group of people find some location interesting bunch more people come and live for a while and then all of a sudden things happen and then the town goes downhill everybody leaves and it becomes a ghost town.
I see this but I often wonder about it 🧐
Decks???? Ohhhh..DUCKS!
My grandfather used to own the land adjacent to Great America in the South Bay. One day he and my uncles were duck hunting on the property. The police showed up because park guest were alarmed by the sound of gun fire just a short distance away.
So Drawbridge was popular during Duck season. My question is, how popular was it during Wabbit season?
the movie.. spirted away