Drawbridge: The Bay Area’s Ghost Town

Drawbridge, Ca. It all started in 1876. A tiny cabin was built on Station Island 2 1/2 miles north of Alviso for a drawbridge operator for the South Coast Pacific Railroad’s line connecting Newark and San Jose. Before long, the drawbridge operator’s friends began to join him for some whiskey drinking, hunting, and fishing. Passersby riding the train saw all the fun to be had out in the secluded marshlands, and soon it became a regular train stop. By the 1880s, the tiny town would see 1,000 visitors flocking to its tucked away paradise on weekends for hunting and fishing.