Glass Beach, Sea glass beach in Benicia, California, US

Glass Beach lies on the Carquinez Strait shoreline in Benicia, Solano County, California. Its surface is a dense bed of small, smooth glass pebbles, mostly green with white, brown and clear pieces mixed in, lying loose on the ground. A few larger tan and brown stones rest among the glass, and at the upper edge the pebbles meet the water, where larger rocks, some carrying green algae, sit partly submerged.

Benicia's shoreline was shaped by the city's own past: founded on May 19, 1847, by Robert Semple, Thomas O. Larkin and Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, it served as California's capital from February 11, 1853, to February 25, 1854. Later it became a wheat-shipping port and the site of the Benicia Arsenal, and from 1879 the Central Pacific ran a train ferry from here to Port Costa. The glass pebbles in the photograph lie where this working waterfront met the Carquinez Strait.

The name Benicia honors Francisca Benicia Carillo de Vallejo, wife of General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, who donated the land; her first name was dropped after Yerba Buena became San Francisco. The city, incorporated in March 1850, was California's capital from February 11, 1853, to February 25, 1854, and its restored city hall is the only surviving pre-Sacramento capitol building.

Glass Beach lies on the Carquinez Strait shoreline in Benicia, Solano County, on the north bank of the strait east of Vallejo and across from Martinez. The glass pebbles sit at the water's edge among larger algae-covered rocks, so expect a wet, uneven surface underfoot. Benicia is reached from the Benicia-Martinez Bridge, completed in 1962.

Benicia's Glass Beach lies on the Carquinez Strait, not in Fort Bragg; the coordinates 38.05409, -122.16806 place it in this Solano County city, which was California's capital from February 11, 1853, to February 25, 1854. The glass pebbles in the photograph are mostly green with white, brown and clear pieces, resting beside larger algae-covered rocks at the water's edge.