Once an eccentric community, Drawbridge, the Bay Area's last ghost town, now sits permanently closed to the public, its remnants gradually ceding to nature and a major shoreline levee project. Despite efforts by dedicated volunteers, sanctioned visits are rare, leaving its history increasingly inaccessible.

On the quiet marshlands bordering Alviso, the weather-worn remnants of Drawbridge – the Bay Area's last ghost town – tell a story slowly fading from public memory. Once a vibrant, off-the-grid community, the site has been formally closed to the public for decades, its fate now further shaped by a major U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' levee project and the ecological priorities of the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge.

The town, a collection of peculiar shacks and structures accessible only by train or boat in its heyday, was fully abandoned by the late 1970s. However, its mystique lived on through the efforts of dedicated volunteers like Ceal Craig, who once led popular tours. These tours, the only sanctioned way to get a closer look, have become increasingly difficult to arrange and are effectively stalled.

The reason for this increased inaccessibility lies largely with the South San Francisco Bay Shoreline Project. This ambitious undertaking, a collaborative effort involving the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Valley Water, and the State Coastal Conservancy, aims to protect Alviso from flooding and restore thousands of acres of tidal marshland. Reaches 1-3 of the levee, built to a design elevation of 15.2 feet, were completed in Fall 2025. While these efforts are crucial for environmental protection and flood control, they have cemented Drawbridge's isolated status. "Drawbridge is permanently closed to the public," states the SF Bay Wildlife Society, "entry is illegal, deemed structurally unsafe, and subject to large federal fines." The site has been inaccessible to the general public since the late 1990s.

Today, the only legal way for the curious to glimpse the ghost town is from a designated vista point at the end of the Mallard Slough Trail Spur, a 0.5-mile walk from the Environmental Education Center parking lot in Alviso. Federal authorities have previously determined that maintaining or restoring Drawbridge's remaining structures is not feasible, citing high costs and conflicting ecological priorities within the refuge. No specific historical designation on the National Register of Historic Places has been confirmed for Drawbridge as a district or cultural landscape, further complicating its preservation as a historical site.

As the marsh reclaims the land and new levees reshape the coastline, the question remains: with its physical access restricted and its past unpreserved by formal designation, who will be left to tell the tale of the Bay Area's last ghost town?