Treasure Island – San Francisco | treasure island san francisco
WhenthinkingofTreasureIsland,imagesofpristinebeachesandlushtropicalforestsmaycometomindthankstotheRobertLouisStevensonnovelitwasnamedafter,buttherealoneisanartificialislandbuiltatopalandfillintheSanFranciscoBay.OriginallyconstructedasanairportforPanAm’slineofTrans-Pacific“flyingboats,”TreasureIslandhasbeenquietlyreinventingitselffordecades.Whiletheflyingboatairportneverquiteworkedout,theislandwasahitashostofthe1939-1940World’sFair,andstillshowcasessomeoutstandingartdecoarchitecturefromthatti...
When thinking of Treasure Island, images of pristine beaches and lush tropical forests may come to mind thanks to the Robert Louis Stevenson novel it was named after, but the real one is an artificial island built atop a landfill in the San Francisco Bay.
Originally constructed as an airport for Pan Am’s line of Trans-Pacific “flying boats,” Treasure Island has been quietly reinventing itself for decades. While the flying boat airport never quite worked out, the island was a hit as host of the 1939-1940 World’s Fair, and still showcases some outstanding art deco architecture from that time period.
This combination of strategic placement and intriguing buildings attracted strange bedfellows during the second half of the century, as the United States Navy used the island for training missions while Hollywood filmed scenes from blockbuster movies. Buildings and sound stages from the island can be seen in films ranging from “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” to “The Ma...