Mission Bay (San Francisco)

Mission Bay is defined by its flatness and modern, glass-fronted architecture, a sharp departure from the steep, Victorian-lined hills found in the rest of San Francisco. This entire district is built on artificial land. Between eighteen sixty and nineteen ten, the city expanded its footprint by using steam shovels to level nearby sand hills, dumping rock, dirt, and rubble from the nineteen oh six earthquake into what was once a tidal estuary.