did you know that just 5 miles from the shining skyscrapers, the overpriced single family homes, and the congested freeways of Silicon Valley is a real, bona-fide 19th century ghost town? 🧵 
it's called Drawbridge, California, and it was built around a railroad drawbridge located in wetlands out in the middle of the San Francisco bay.
it all started when the original drawbridge was built in the 1880s. in the days before remote control, a tender had to live onsite and operate the bridge, opening it for ships and closing it for trains.
the wetlands were home to countless waterfowl and became a popular hunting spot, and since the railroad had a stop next to the tender's house, it became a convenient place for hunters to embark. entrepreneurs began to build hunting lodges and gun clubs, and the town was born!
because the town was never formally incorporated, it never had police. it was like the wild west! in the 1920s, lots of illegal activities happened here in broad daylight.
the town was right on the county line, so Santa Clara county sheriffs didn't want to deal with it, but neither did Alameda county! it didn't help that the residents were armed to the teeth (for hunting purposes, naturally).
in the '30s and '40s people started to leave the town because...of the smell. at that time the city of San Jose was dumping raw, untreated sewage into the bay, and it stank! it also didn't help that the houses, which had to be built on stilts, were slowly sinking into the muck.
but the town didn't die right away--the last resident left in 1979!
if you want to read more stories about Drawbridge and see some neat old pictures, check out "The Soft Underbelly of San Jose" at sanjose.com/underbelly/unb…
someone else found an excellent video about it, with interviews and some great drone shots.
https://twitter.com/dwegmull/status/1375192061633208324
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