Where Little Cable Cars

Settlement – Chapter 3

The City, as locals will call it (and they despise "San Fran" or "Cisco") was established in 1776, the same birth date as the United States, recently freed from British rule. San Francisco was a part of Spanish Territory.

San Francisco was home to a large population of indigenous people at the time of Spanish settlement. A Catholic Mission was set up (Mission Dolores) in the area in an attempt to proselytize the Natives. This building still exist today.

In 1821 San Francisco became part of Mexico and then a part of the United States in 1849.

The California Gold Rush of the mid-1850s brought a population boom for the city. In one year they rose from about 1,000 residence to 25,000 (The Gold Rusher's were also the originators of sourdough bread, for which San Francisco is famous for). Because of the Gold Rush, San Francisco became a banker's city and highly urbanized (Bank of America was born here).

In 1906 the City experience their worse earthquake to date that leveled it to the ground and set the city on fire for days. The population at that time was 400,000 and over half lost their homes. However, within less than 15 years the City rebuilt and was stronger than ever. So strong in fact, that when the stock market crashed in 1929, not one bank fell victim.

As small as San Francisco is, it represents many different races and cultures. Its Chinatown settlement is the oldest of its kind in the nation, with the first Chinese immigrants to arrive in 1849. The City also contains a Little Italy, Japantown, Russians near Golden Gate Park, and Latinos in the Mission district just to name a few. Many of these areas have had economic ups and downs. Some thrive more than others, and then others get revived for a time. Only the very affluent areas such as the Financial District or Nob Hill remain constant.

State Flag information: http://www.ci.sf.ca.us/site/visitor_index.asp?id=8081

High on a Hill...

Physiography – Chapter 2

San Francisco is a tightly packed city, with houses stacked up against each other. There are many rolling hills containing such houses in addition to streets, electric street cars and subways. Despite the City's urban setting, there are substantial areas of land on this peninsula where one can escape from urban life such as Golden Gate Park, the Presidio, the beaches, in addition to the smaller parks located throughout the City.

San Francisco contains many hills. The neighborhoods are named after the hills they were built on: Nob Hill, Telegraph Hill, or Russian Hill. The highest hill within city limits is Mount Davidson, standing at 925 ft. This hill is located near Twin Peaks, located in the southwest area of the city. Twin Peaks however is not populated, but is a city park and tourist attraction. It is easily identified by its red and white radio tower.

Being a peninsula does not mean it is alone out in the ocean. There are a few smaller island that surround San Francisco. The most famous is Alcatraz ("Welcome to THE ROCK"), where the federal prison was until 1962. It is not a state park and tourist attraction accessible only by boat. Treasure Island is another well known island you can visit, located and accessible along the Bay Bridge which connects San Francisco to Oakland. This island is man-made, a result of dumped dirt from Yerba Buena Island, when they tunneled through it to create the Bay Bridge.

San Francisco lies along the Coast Range of mountains. These mountains make contact with two earth plates under the ocean. This contributes to two earthquake fault lines that run near the City: the San Andreas and Hayward Fault, both responsible for the 1906 and 1989 earthquakes.

The City's coast and beaches exist, but are not like that of Southern California. The ocean waters rarely warm up enough to swim in and dangerous rip tides prevent leisurely swimming.

The native trees are Giant Redwood conifers. There are no rivers or natural lakes that run through the city. The flora and fauna seen throughout the city for the most part is man-made. Thousands of non-native plants were planted in Golden Gate Park, which was once a barren, sandy dune.