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The beginning of San Francisco

The beginning of a great adventure...

During the years 1500's ...all began...

The navigator Francis Drake landed a little farter in the North of San Francisco in the bay which will carry its name. He planted there the British banner, but nobody paid really attention to it.

The earth which will be called much more later, San Francisco, was already populated by the Indian tribe of Ohlone. After the discovery of this new earth by Francis Drake, it will be necessary to wait until 1769 before than a Spanish expedition steered by Gaspar de Portola, arrives by earth, in the bay of San Francisco. They built a presidio ( barracks) and a mission which should convert and educate the Indians.

A dozen years later, towards 1780, first colonists arrived.

The first boat which entered the bay was San Carlos, on August 5, 1775. It was commanded by the Spanish lieutenant Juan Manuel de Ayala.

Mexico was freed from the Spanish custody in 1821, which allowed it to go out of this earth by the North, in the direction of California. The Mexicans built several missions throughout their journey leading them to San Francisco. Years after years, the lands of the church were distributed to the colonists who constitute immense domains. The Indians were not able, naturally, to take advantage of these lands and met themselves shared between two civilizations, as usually.

On July 9, 1846, while the United States are in war with Mexico, the USS American sloop Portsmouth exceeded the Golden Gate.

The Captain John Montgomery planted the American flag on Plaza, renamed Portsmouth Square. Today, in the financial district, a street was immortalized with the name of this national hero.

San Francisco was called at first " Nova Albion " Christianized by Francis Drake. Then when John Montgomery arrived on the lands of California, the city was renamed " Yerba Buena. It was called San Francisco since January 30, 1847.

The peace was signed on February 2, 1848 between the United States and Mexico, in Guadalupe Hidalgo.

Some days later, on January 24 exactly, gold was found in California. The gold rush could begin...

It is James Marshall who, the first, found some gold in the American River. That brought the first gold-diggers between Sacramento and the lake Tahoe, far from the civilization. The boss of Marshall, John Augustus Sutter, disclosed the story in the city. First of all, the inhabitants of San Francisco took this announcement with scepticism.

Sam Brannan, arrived in city with a bottle full of nuggets in the hand, what started a rush on its stock of shovels and pickaxes! He was the first millionaire of San Francisco which became THE American capital of the West.

Everybody wanted to come to San Francisco to make fortune by finding some gold. People arrived by boat of everywhere. Since New York, the sailors followed the coasts of the Latin America to back up to the North and left their boat to go away towards goldmines.

All this influx of people made climb the population of San Francisco from 2'000 to 20'000 inhabitants, in a few months. In 1849, 38'000 men arrived by the sea and 42'000 by the ground. These men will be called "The Forty-Niners" because we were on 1849. The majority of these men were underprivileged son, adventurers or even more unwanted politicians.

In the downtown of San Francisco, nobody found gold, but the neighborhood of the city made some happy guys. Naturally the other men arrived with some ideas which made them rich...

The expansion of the town:

In 1850, California obtains its status of American state. The gold began to miss, but the money was still there. San Francisco became an overpopulated city with, as major problems, the crime and the corruption. The honest population grouped together to make reign the law and the order, and succeeds in it as well as it could do.

The arrangement of the streets of San Francisco goes back to the time when the city was still named Yerba Buena. In 1839 Jean-Jacques Vioget a Swiss colonist, was engaged to design the plans of the city. He was inspired by the places of big cities in Spain.
In 1847, Jasper O' Farell, an Irish geometrician, drew Market Street and the big blocks of the South.

A direct telegraphic line connected the East with the West in 1860, and ten years later, the railway was inaugurated between New York and San Francisco, what brought thousands of east inhabitants, fleeing salaries and unfavourable economy. The railroad line was built thanks to the knowledge and the good work of the Chinese workers on a mountainous and difficult ground. Representing 80 % of the mass worker, the Chinese were unemployed after the end of the construction of the line. They lived together in a district of San Francisco, what created the current Chinatown.

Everybody wanted to win a lot of money in California!

The American dream.... In the year 2000, this dream is still present, and will be true for several generations!

San Francisco became richer and richer and was developed between 1870 and 1880. The idea of the Golden Gate Park originated in 1870, we inaugurated the first cable cars in 1873 which allowed to climb the famous hills of the city. The land prices climbedthanks to the accessibility of distant zones.

Banks developed thanks to tons of gold transformed into currencies, and the first stock exchange of the Pacific's Coast is based in 1875.

The Palace Hotel opened its doors the same year. It cost five million of dollars! The luxury was, naturally , present in the slightest details. With its 800 rooms on seven floors, it was the biggest hotel of the country. The high society crossed itself in its corridors. The architects had, naturally, not forgotten to strengthen this hotel against possible earthquakes...

Earthquakes :

The first big earthquake of the "new city" of San Francisco happened on April 18 1906.

The inhabitants of San Francisco was still sleping when the earthquake of an intensity of.8,25 on the Richter scale, hit the city at 5:12 and 5 seconds of the morning. All the city was "opened" in only 48 seconds. More than 28'000 houses were destroyed. The gaz mains were broken and the fires started. Fire brigades had a great deal of effort to put out the various fires, after the break of almost all the waterworks! For 24 hours, more than 26 shocks were again felt after the earthquake.

The famous Palace Hotel resisted to the earthquake, but not in the fire! Chinatown and several overpopulated districts, were taken by the panic, ransacked by the looters.

The San Franciscains took refuge in the Golden Gate Park after the tragedy. The earthquake made 250'000 homeless! Thanks to the help of the whole world, the reconstruction advanced really quickly and all the devasted zones were restored within three years. San Francisco recovered from this earthquake successfully and could celebrate its new revival.

October 17, 1989 is also marked by a black cross on the calendar of San Francisco. The ground began again to tremble much stronglier than the other earthquakes.

The seismic intensity of 7.1 on the Richter scale was the strongest since 1906. This earthquake did 67 victims. The modern houses survived, but older numerous houses collapsed, especially in the district of Marina.

A long section of the Oakland Bay Bridge and a part of the Embarcadero Freeway collapsed.

The city was once again reconstructed and several millions of dollars spent.

The crisis of the 30s:

After the fall of the stock market in 1929, the big depression of the 30s began. To create jobs, works of public utility were ordered. The inside of the Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill, was decorated by local artists. The Golden Gate Bridge and the Oakland Bay Bridge was also built and inaugurated.

San Francisco crossed the second world war with some accidents, notably with its Japanese population. The federal governor worried after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, condemned for isolation in internment camps, the Japanese of the city, including the Américano-Japenese. 30'000 of these Americano-Japenese wanted to show their patriotism by joining the American army. They obtained a great deal of decorations.

Hundreds of ships took out the workshops of the region what helped largely the economy of San Francisco.

After the defeat of Japan in 1945, the Charter of the United Nations was signed in San Francisco.

San Francisco and the "New ideas" :

Many of new movements began in San Francisco. Beat Generation had feet in North Beach's district. Baptized "beatiks", by the press, the followers of this movement got dressed as revolutionaries, drank some coffee while they were speaking about philosophy and writing poems.

In the 60s, hippies came to settle down in Haight-Ashbury's district (near the Golden Gate Park), after some cheap shops opened in this area. They were much less enticed by philosophy but much more by drugs, avoided to wear shoes, and advocated the love and the peace in the world.

At the end of the war of Vietnam, San Francisco was known for its different demonstrations against this war. The homosexuals also demonstrated in the streets to assert their rights. A district, "Castro", is also known as being the district of the homosexuals where the relaxed and pleasant atmosphere is immediately felt.

All the various parts of the history of San Francisco feel the effects in each districts of the city. San Francisco has an atmosphere where life is very enjoyable....

Some practical points on the city of San Francisco :

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