1985 Map of San Francisco

About this map

San Francisco and its surrounding coastal geography are captured in this experimental satellite image map produced using Landsat-5 imagery. The visualization highlights the dense urban core of San Francisco contrasted against the deep blues of the San Francisco Bay and the vast Gulf of the Farallones. This specific edition represents a shift in cartographic technique for the era, utilizing a silver ink overprint for feature names to balance label legibility with the visual integrity of the thematic mapper data. Researchers can observe the mid-1980s urban footprint extending toward Lorenzo and the county boundaries of Alameda, while the western portion of the sheet remains open Pacific Ocean with a designated area where imagery is not shown. The False-color infrared rendering allows for a clear distinction between metropolitan development and the surrounding vegetation patterns of the peninsula.