One Photo—Many Borders

Several borders can be viewed from this picturesque hilltop in the Marin Headlands just across Golden Gate Strait from San Francisco, California.

Beyond the obvious borders of earth and sky or North American Continent and Pacific Ocean the coastline in this panorama also defines one border of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area which extends both north and south of the Golden Gate.

The GGNRA is the largest urban national park in the USA and one of the largest in the world. It includes many historical and cultural resources including Muir Woods National Monument, Alcatraz Island (visible in the photo beyond the north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge), Fort Point National Historic Site, the Presidio of San Francisco and the Marin Headlands.

Within the Marin Headlands Point Bonita Lighthouse is located on the very tip of Point Bonita—the green finger of land extending into the Pacific Ocean in the photo. Completed in 1855 Point Bonita Lighthouse was the third lighthouse built on the West Coast (after those at Alcatraz and Fort Point).

Point Bonita is also where another border makes a sharp turn.

The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary is a federally protected marine area that extends from Marin to Cambria. With a shoreline length of 276 miles and 5,322 square miles of ocean up to 10,663 feet deep extending an average of 30 miles from shore the MBNMS is the largest Marine Sanctuary in the USA. Established for the purpose of understanding and protecting the coastal ecosystem of central California, the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary border follows the coastline from a few miles north in Marin until it reaches the tip of Point Bonita where makes a sharp turn south west out into the ocean before again turning south, eventually turning east again and reconnecting with the coast below San Francisco then continuing to Cambria.

Another border—this one a county border—with Marin County to the north and San Francisco County to the south—follows Golden Gate Strait and bisects the Golden Gate Bridge.

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USA-Canada / USA-California

Lat: 37° 49' 31.8" N
Long: 123° 30' 59.24" W

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: Unknown / Undeclared.

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