Ocean Beach, with The Cliff House in the distance. The Great Highway runs below the bluff.
Ocean Beach is a 6-mile stretch of beach along The Pacific that runs south the the San Mateo County border. Breathtaking beauty and distinctive vantage points reward those who visit this special part of The City. The unpaved road between the Cliff House and what became Sloat Boulevard that was carved out in the 1860's, was designated as the Great Highway in 1874. The retaining walls that you see to the right were built in the 1930's by the Works Progress Admininstration (WPA) to control the drifting sands.
Murphy Windmill, 1905
In 1903, the Dutch Windmill (right) was completed to pump fresh water from oceanside springs to help irrigate Golden Gate Park. It had a capacity of 30,000 gallons per hour. It was such a success that a second one was planned and donated by a wealthy banker named Samuel G. Murphy. Both windmills were used until 1913 when electricity was abundant and reliable enough to make the windmills obsolete.