[cloudmountain]

The area must need the bridges.

The greater San Francisco Bay Area has seven bridges at last count. Wikipedia lists only five but there are a ton of waterways that feed into the bay.

1. San Joaquin River
2. Sacramento River
3. Napa River
4. Sonoma Creek
5. Guadalupe River
6. Coyote Creek
7. Petaluma River
8. San Pablo Creek
9. Wildcat Creek
10. Oakland Estuary
11. Russian River
12. San Lorenzo River
13. San Lorenzo Creek
14. Gulf of the Farallones
15. Alameda Creek

Remembering my California history, the first ENGLISH explorers MISSED seeing the bay. Obviously they visited the area during the foggiest time, the summer, and missed seeing the entire region INSIDE the narrow bay entrance

[Verginius Rufus]

The first Spanish explorer, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, exploring in 1542, seems to have missed San Francisco Bay (but was enthusiastic about Monterey Bay). Where exactly Sir Francis Drake explored is debated--I've seen one book which argues that he was much further north (Puget Sound area).

Cabrillo has traditionally been labeled a Portuguese (sailing for Spain) but that is based on one source--apparently the "Portuguese" label belongs to another man in a list of names, not to Cabrillo. Most likely he was a Spaniard.