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San Francisco History continued...
Thousands of years before European explorers landed in San Francisco, Native American tribes dominated the area. It was not until 1579 that European explorers began to show interest in the area that is now San Francisco. In that year, Sir Francis Drake, an English sailor on a ship called The Golden Hind, landed near the area. He anchored in what is known today as Drake's Bay, which is actually several miles to the north of San Francisco. Some sixteen years later, sailing under the Spanish flag, Sebastian Cermeno anchored at Drake's Bay and named it La Bahia de San Francisco, after the founders of the Franciscan order and Saint Francis of Assisi.
Two centuries later, explorers began journeying into the bay. The first European to enter the Golden Gate was Juan Manuel de Ayala. He was followed by Captain Juan Bautista de Anza. These early explorers believed the bay to be the same bay that Cermeno had discovered in 1595. Therefore, they named the by the Bay of San Francisco. Then, in 1775, the mistake was discovered when Juan Manuel de Ayala mapped the area. Despite the mistake, the name stuck and the bay discovered by Cermeno was named after Francis Drake in 1792.
Juan Bautista de Anza built a presidio (fort) above Golden Gate, on the northern tip of the peninsula. He also established the Mission Delores, which is located in what is now the heart of the Mission district. As a result of these two establishments, a small village sprang up known as Yerba Buena, which is Spanish for Good Herb. San Francisco did not develop as a city until much later. In 1822, an English whaler named William Richardson settled what is now the downtown area.
Yerba Buena remained just a small village until the start of the Mexican-American War. In 1846, a naval force under the command of Commodore John D. Sloat took the town and claimed it for the United States. On January 30, 1847, the town was renamed “San Francisco.”
The next big event in the history of San Francisco was the gold rush. In 1848, gold was discovered in the nearby Sierra Nevada mountain range. The news of gold quickly spread and the prospectors began to flood in. Over 100,000 prospectors made the long journey, some by land and some by sea. The prospectors became known as 49ers, for the year that they made their voyages, 1849. The city's population immediately exploded from 500 to 25,000 within a year. The economy thrived and businesses began to make their starts. During this rush, California also became an immigration city for the Chinese and the Japanese. Thousands of immigrants left poverty in Asia for the hard life on the railroad. The railroads were needed to connect San Francisco to rest of the country. During this time, the immigrants were subjected to cruel discriminatory laws. The Chinese settled in what became known as Chinatown and the Japanese in Japantown. Today, the Chinatown district is still one of the largest in the country. Some of the businesses that had their beginnings during the gold rush are still present today. Among them are Levi Strauss clothing, Ghirardelli Chocolate and Wells Fargo Bank.
In 1850, following all of the prosperity of the gold rush, California became the 31st state. By 1854, the booming town had 500 saloons and 20 theaters to entertain the high-spending miners. In these prosperous years, San Francisco became somewhat of a wild town. So much so that it soon earned the nickname “Barbary Coast,” after its resemblance to the pirate-plagued coast of North Africa. Not everything in San Francisco was bad. In 1855, the University of San Francisco was founded. It was one of the first universities in the western United States.
By 1859, the initial gold rush fever had subsided in San Francisco. Then, a second rush took place, this time for the even richer wealth of the silver near Reno, Nevada. However, by the 1870's, the boom years of the gold and silver rushes had dried up. Nevertheless, the city grew steadily and by the turn of the century, its population was approaching 350,000 people. The Spanish American War in 1898 and another gold rush, (this time it was the Klondike Gold Rush in Canada's Yukon Territory), helped to establish the city's importance as a port. Also, the numerous banks that opened in the city helped to establish its importance as a financial center.
Amidst all of this prosperity, devastation struck the city in 1906. There had been major earthquakes in San Francisco in 1812 and 1865, but none would match the “big one” in 1906. Although the Richter scale had not yet been invented, modern scientists believe that the quake would have measured around 8.3, a magnitude still unmatched in the city. While the earthquake destroyed many of the city's homes and buildings, it was the resulting fires that did the most damage. The fires were caused by toppled chimneys and fed by ruptured gas lines. Hundreds of residents were killed (although some believe the number was in the thousands). By the time the fire had burned itself out, half the city laid in ruins.
The rebuilding of the city began almost immediately. In 1915, the city hosted the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. This event was to officially celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal. But to San Franciscans, it had another purpose. They used the exposition to showcase the completely rebuilt city, less than a decade after the major earthquake. Once again, though, the happiness would not last long. On July 22, 1916, a bomb exploded during a Preparedness Day parade, killing 10 people and injuring 40.
The city of San Francisco suffered through the Great Depression along with the rest of the country. However, two major public works programs helped the city. The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opened in 1936 and the Golden Gate Bridge opened in 1937. These two magnificent bridges remain today as symbols of the city. During World War II, the city became a major military center. Because of its port status, San Francisco became an important launching pad, supply point and port of embarkation for the war in the Pacific. Gigantic shipyards began springing up all around the bay. Then, in 1945, the United Nations charter was drafted in San Francisco.
The 1950's saw the city give birth to the Beat Generation. Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, two students at Columbia University, fled New York City for San Francisco. They were joined by Gregory Corso, who was 17 years old and fresh out of jail. The three teamed up with a San Francisco poets' movement begun by poet and literacy critic Kenneth Rexworth. Just like that, the Beat Generation was born. Kerouac was the premier author of the group, Ginsberg was their poet and cool jazz became the sound of North Beach, which some dubbed the “hub of the new Bohemia.”
Then, in the 1960's, another movement took place. This time, it was the hippie culture. In the summer of 1967, thousands of people congregated in the Haight-Ashbury district of the city. The district bloomed as the new hotspot in the city and a center of rock music. Local bands like the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane set the tune for the movement. The summer of 1967 was coined “the Summer of Love” when thousands of hippies gathered in Golden Gate Park for a free concert. While the hippies were dropping acid and wearing flowers in their hair, Berkeley revolutionaries were leading worldwide student upheavals. The students were often fighting with cops and the university administration over civil rights. The neighboring city of Oakland was the scene for even more revolution. Eldridge Cleaver, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale started the Black Panthers, the most militant group of the black power movement.
In the 1970's the city experienced a homosexual revolution. Large numbers of homosexual people had moved to the Castro Street district and onto Folsom Street. Tensions rose in these areas of the city. In 1977, the election of gay activist Harvey Milk to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors was viewed as a major step in easing the tension. However, one year later, Harvey, along with the city's mayor George Moscone, was assassinated by former police officer and fellow supervisor Dan White. Their deaths, along with the first AIDS cases (at the time, thought of as a gay disease) brought an end to the homosexual revolution. In spite of this, the city's gay population remains near 15%. Evidence of this can be seen during the Castro and Folsom Street Fairs and the annual Gay & Lesbian Freedom Day Parade.
On October 17, 1989, the city was hit by its second “big one.” The Loma Prieta earthquake, which measured 7.1 on the Richter Scale, killed 67 people. The damage could have been far worse if it had not been for a baseball game. That year, the World Series was being played between the San Francisco Giants and the neighboring Oakland Athletics. When the quake struck, the game was about to begin at San Francisco's Candlestick Park. A large portion of the city's population was at home watching the game on television, rather than being out on the city's busy freeways during rush-hour traffic.
During the 1990's the city experienced yet another economic boom. This time, it was the dot-com revolution and the computer software industry. Young entrepreneurs and software companies moved into the cities, making it an increasingly expensive place to live. The rising rents forced many people and businesses to leave. Like all of the economic waves that had hit the city in the past, this one was destined to come to a crashing halt. By the turn of the century, it had, but not before billions of dollars had changed hands.
Today, the city of San Francisco remains a city of many cultures with a rich history. The economic booms and recessions that shaped the city's history have given character and charm to the “city by the bay.”
The key industry for the city today is tourism, which nets billions of dollars each year. Although still recovering from the dot-com crash, the city is still home to the Silicon Valley, which holds much of the computing business in the world. Levi Strauss, Ghiradelli, SEGA of America, Wells Fargo and Macromedia all have their headquarters in the city.
The city of San Francisco is home to many fine cultural and educational institutions. Among the museums located in the city are the Asian Art Museum, The Exploratorium, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the California Academy of Sciences. Among the colleges and universities in the city are the University of San Francisco, San Francisco State University and the University of California at San Francisco.
The city of San Francisco is also home to professional sports teams and tourist attractions. The San Francisco 49ers of the NFL make their home in the city as well as the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball. The bay itself is home to 14 small islands. These islands include Alcatraz, Angel, Yerba Buena and Treasure. Among the city's more popular tourist attractions include the Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Wharf, Chinatown and Alcatraz Island.
With all of its charm and its rich history, San Francisco is one of a kind. Along with all of its attractions and its professional sports teams, San Francisco has a mild climate all year long. San Francisco, California truly is a city that has it all.
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