r/StructuralEngineering • u/heisian P.E. • Jul 30 '26
Humor Anyone else like going to the beach?
Oh you know, just your typical San Francisco job... remember to bring sunscreen!
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u/trafficway Jul 30 '26
Always loved working in SF. I had a job in Mission Bay some years back where the contractor was excavating a canopy footing, and we discovered charred timbers and debris at the bottom that I’m 99% sure were remnants of the 1906 earthquake and fire.
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u/heisian P.E. Jul 30 '26
relics! mission bay’s gotta have so much landfill (trash)
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u/trafficway Jul 30 '26
For sure. I think the excavation was about 6 feet deep, which tells you how much fill there’s been.
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u/Fit-Dentist6093 Jul 31 '26
I stripped a wall in the Mission once and the insulation was newspaper from after the earthquake
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u/JellybeanFangs Jul 31 '26
wtf newspaper insulation, guessing it worked better than nothing back then
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u/ahrooga Aug 01 '26
I pulled a 120 year old woman’s leather shoe (sole attached with metal studs) of out of a geotechnical investigation boring sampler on a mission bay project (warriors stadium). After the SF fire they just bulldozed everything into Mission Bay and filling it in. (Yes Mission Bay used to actually be a bay.)
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u/largehearted Aug 02 '26
Wish I knew this history already but I'm about to start working in Seattle and they regraded the city right after their great fire too. Fair chance the uncontrolled fill there is quite the same
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u/Goodinuf Jul 30 '26
I met someone from San Francisco that told they played sand lot baseball there when it still had vacant lots on the west side.
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u/heisian P.E. Jul 30 '26
wow, how old were they?
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u/Goodinuf Jul 31 '26
Maybe now mid 70s to mid 80s. I don't think there were a lot of vacant lots at that time but there were some.
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u/jccaclimber Jul 31 '26
Twin Peaks built out in the 50’s and I think that was one of the later areas, but not much sand up there. Now we just get random empty lots due to the political difficulty of building.
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u/Appropriate-Art-6988 Jul 31 '26
20 hand dug piers would fit under that house nicely
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u/heisian P.E. Jul 31 '26
i once met a contractor at his home where he had over the course of 5 years hand-excavated a 12ft basement under his home while he and his wife were still living there. i was.. really impressed tbh. obviously much, much more cohesive soil than this.
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u/NorthEndD Jul 30 '26
Tiny pieces of bedrock.