Saving the Bay is four one-hour episodes tracing San Francisco Bay from its geologic origins following the last Ice Age 10,000 years ago through years of catastrophic exploitation to the restoration efforts of today. It’s on local public TV broadcasting with many repeat showings.

Home page:  http://www.savingthebay.org
Broadcast schedule:  KQED/KTEH schedule

November 4, 2009 will be the 240th anniversary of the Spanish discovery of San Francisco Bay by a land expedition of Juan Gaspar de Portolà in 1769.

Artist’s conception of the Portolà expedition’s first sighting of San Francisco Bay from Sweeney Ridge in 1769

From Wikipedia.org:

The first recorded European discovery of San Francisco Bay was on November 4, 1769 when Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portolà, unable to find the port of Monterey, California, continued north close to what is now Pacifica and reached the summit of the 1,200-foot (370 m) high Sweeney Ridge, where he sighted San Francisco Bay. Portolà and his party did not realize what they had discovered, thinking they had arrived at a large arm of what is now called Drakes Bay. At the time, Drakes Bay went by the name Bahia de San Francisco and thus both bodies of water became associated with the name. Eventually, the larger, more important body of water fully appropriated the name San Francisco Bay.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Bay

National Park Service flyer on San Francisco Bay Discovery site (PDF)