Links for September 14, 2016

Buried Treasure: San Francisco's Waterfront is Built on Gold Rush Ghost Ships

This “forest of masts” was both a nuisance, and a business opportunity. Some ships were refurbished and set out to sea again. Others were broken up for scrap metal and wood… Eventually, many of the boats that remained were sunk, to secure water lot titles. Water lots were dispensed on condition that buyers fill them with land. This way, the city wanted to bring the shoreline closer to the deeper part of the Bay, facilitating the delivery of goods. The easiest way to claim a water lot was to scuttle a ship.... The reclaimed Cove now forms San Francisco’s flattest land – the Financial District and the Embarcadero.


Lost cities – 10-part series on ruined and vansihed cities: Babylon, Troy, Muziris, Pompeii, Merv, Angkor, Cahokia, Great Zimbabwe, and Fordlandia.


Disintegration Loop 1.1 (official)