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1939 Map of San Mateo

Name: 1939 Topographic Map of San Mateo
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1958
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1958

About this map

San Francisco extends its southern urban footprint into the peninsula during this late 1930s era, meeting the northern edge of San Francisco County San Mateo County. The map captures the rapid expansion of settlements like Daly City, South San Francisco, and Burlingame along the corridor defined by the Southern Pacific railroad and the Bayshore Highway. Significant land use is dedicated to large-scale infrastructure and institutional grounds, including the Golden Gate National Cem, Cypress Lawn Cem, and the St Josephs Military Academy.

To the west, the landscape is defined by the sharp transition from the Pacific coastline at Devils Slide and Rockaway Beach to the interior ridges of the Montara Mountain range. The critical water system of the Peninsula is visible in the alignment of San Andreas Lake and Lower Crystal Springs Reservoir along the Sawyer Ridge. Smaller coastal communities like Moss Beach, Princeton, and El Granada appear at the southern edge, illustrating the early development of the San Mateo coast before post-war suburbanization intensified.