What Is That Massive Tunnel on the Beach South of Fort Funston?

Bay Curious

KQED

History, Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.9 • 999 Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2025

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On a Daly City beach just south of Fort Funston there's a large tunnel carved into the cliff. Bay Curious listener Francisco Alvarado noticed it one day while walking his chihuahua, Little Bean, down the beach. The tunnel is large enough for a person to stand up and several feet wide, so of course Francisco's mind started racing. What could this mysterious tunnel be? Is it a remnant of life long ago? Or could it be something as mundane as a drain outlet? We head to Phillip Burton Memorial Beach, as it's technically called, with a geologist to find some answers. Additional Reading What Is That Massive Tunnel on the Beach South of Fort Funston? Read the transcript for this episode Sign up for our newsletter Enter our Sierra Nevada Brewing Company monthly trivia contest Got a question you want answered? Ask! Your support makes KQED podcasts possible. You can show your love by going to https://kqed.org/donate/podcasts This story was reported by Katrina Schwartz. Bay Curious is made by Katrina Schwartz, Gabriela Glueck and Christopher Beale. Additional support from Olivia Allen-Price, Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Alana Walker, Holly Kernan and everyone on Team KQED.

Transcript

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1:02.1	From KQED.
1:04.7	Francisco Alvarado likes to walk his chihuahua, little bean, on the beach near Fort Funston, right on the border with Daly City.
1:12.2	He is 13 years old, brown, big years. We've been going to the beach his entire life, but he loves
1:18.1	it down there. One day, they strolled along a beach that will look familiar to Northern Californians.
1:24.0	Dramatic bluffs covered in sand and succulents. But then Francisco saw something unusual.
1:30.3	It's a tunnel coming out of the hillside in the middle of the beach, kind of not close to anything.
1:37.3	If you stand on the beach at low tide with your back to the ocean, he says you'll see this elevated cave-like thing in the middle of a cliff. Its floor is around
1:46.5	head height. He climbed up to get a better look inside, and it was bigger than he thought, maybe
1:51.4	three feet wide, and its roof is smooth and flat. It's just a very mysterious tunnel. I want to know
	...

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