San Andreas Lake

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San Andreas Lake
San Andreas Lake -
Location San Mateo County, California
Coordinates 37°34′50″N, 122°24′36″WCoordinates: 37°34′50″N, 122°24′36″W
Lake type reservoir, natural lake
Basin countries United States
Max. length 4.8 km
Surface area 550 acres (2.2 km²)
Surface elevation 453 ft (138 m)

San Andreas Lake (from Spanish: Laguna de San Andreas) is the name of an upland lake on the San Francisco Peninsula south of the city of San Francisco, California and west of San Bruno and Millbrae. The notorious San Andreas Fault received its name from this small lake, which in turn takes its name from an archaic Spanish language variation of the name of Saint Andrew, the Apostle.

Contents

[edit] History

Originally a small natural sag pond, the lake was expanded in the 1870s with the construction of the earthen San Andreas Dam to form a 550-acre (2.2 km²) reservoir for the City of San Francisco.[1] The dam survived the 1906 earthquake despite the fact that the fault runs directly under the dam.[2]

The Gaspar de Portolà expedition camped on the shores of the lake on November 4, 1769, just prior to their discovery of San Francisco Bay; the discovery site is on Sweeney Ridge immediately west of the lake.[3]

In 1895, Professor Andrew Lawson of the University of California, Berkeley conferred the name of the lake on the earthquake fault he discovered in its vicinity.

[edit] Public access

Since the lake is a public water source, it is closed to the public. However, hikers and bicyclists may travel along the eastern shores of the lake on a paved trail that runs just west of Skyline Boulevard from San Bruno Avenue to Millbrae Avenue. A connecting trail, called the Sawyer Camp Trail, crosses the rift valley on the San Andreas Dam. This 6 mile (10 km) trail eventually reaches the eastern shores of the Lower Crystal Springs reservoir and the Crystal Springs Dam.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ SAN ANDREAS, California Department of Water Resource.
  2. ^ Robert Iacopi, Earthquake Country (Menlo Park: Lane Publishing Company, 1964)
  3. ^ San Mateo, California Office of Historic Preservation.

[edit] External links

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