San Francisco Historical Timeline Info

Even by “New World” standards, San Francisco was a late discovery. Several explorers sailed past the “golden gate” before the first Spanish missionaries arrived overland and colonized the peninsula in 1775. San Francisco was first known as Yerba Buena for the herb found there. Two Spanish institutions were the seeds of San Francisco: the Mission San Francisco de Asís (now Dolores) and The Presidio military garrison. Richard Henry Dana described the usually-quiet and sanguine days of San Francisco's and California's early 19th century in his maritime chronicle, "Two Years Before the Mast" (1834-36). 

San Francisco and Alta California became part of Mexico when Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821. The small trading post of Yerba Buena, as it was known then, was beginning to attract a confluence of non-Hispanic peoples as well, drawn by the lure of the frontier. Americans increasingly settled in Spanish-speaking California. In 1846, President James Polk started the war with Mexico, which ended in 1848, with annexaton of Texas, and the sale of California and New Mexico. In California in 1846, Marines from the warship, the Portsmouth, seized the Mexican flagpole and raised the American flag at the central plaza, which now bears the warship's name. Yerba Buena was rechristened San Francisco in 1847, and the previous name reserved for the cove on which the town was built.

In January 1848, gold was discovered at John Sutter’s Mill on the American River in Coloma. With that discovery, 150,000 fortune seekers from around the world and by 1849 -- "49ers" -- swept into San Francisco and swarmed the hills of California, forever changing the fate, face and character of sleepy San Francisco.

Following the Gold Rush were years of riches and ruin. The influx of capital and the new railroad -- courtesy of Huntington, Hopkins, Stanford and Crocker (The Big Four) -- helped build what many considered to be "the Paris of the Pacific”.  However, this wealth also fueled the vice and debauchery of the infamous Barbary Coast . This lawless neighborhood and red-light district (occupied by the present-day Financial District and North Beach) was the playground of the nouveau-riche miners and those who preyed upon them. Drunken revelers who loitered were “shanghaied” or kidnapped to be crew for abandoned trading ships. (All sailors/49ers who could, raced for the gold mines once they reached port, leaving behind hundreds of sailing vessels, most of which are still buried under San Francisco’s since-extended waterfront -- always grist for present-day news stories when a builder exhumes one upon breaking ground for a modern high-rise.) Later, there was the gentleman robber Black Bart, who held-up stagecoaches, leaving behind poetry for the Wells Fargo detectives. "Vigilantes" were a major force in extra-legal "law enforcement" in the 19th century, summarily meting out frontier justice, hanging accused thugs and criminals on the spot.

The prosperity, growth and excesses spurred by the Gold Rush were literally wiped off the map on April 18, 1906, and the ensuing days. San Francisco was devastated by a massive earthquake and subsequent fires that destroyed nearly the entire city. Yet this catastrophe was surmounted by San Franciscans. In just nine years, a rebuilt San Francisco was able to host its own world’s fair, the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915. A vestige of this is the triumphant and flamboyant Palace of Fine Arts, which stands today at the foot of the Presidio. Other vestiges of the post-earthquake days are the massive connections -- at Aquatic Park and other sites along the waterfront -- for San Francisco's unique saltwater earthquake firefighting system, ever-ready to be hooked up to San Francisco's fireboat fleet, in the event of another "Big One".

While The City did rise again, nearly all of its original buildings were destroyed, making it difficult for today’s visitor to get a sense of pre-1906 San Francisco. The following locations will give history buffs a window into those early years: The Maritime Museum at the Aquatic Park details The City’s role as a major seaport. The Wells Fargo Museum (420 Montgomery St.) exhibits early banking and gold rush artifacts. And the Barbary Coast Trail (a self guided tour that begins the Old Mint at 5th and Mission St.) leads you to bronze sidewalk plaques at 20 historic sites of The City’s frontier days. The sole watering-hole from the Barbary Coast days to survive the fires of 1906 is The Saloon (est. 1886) located at 1232 Grant Ave.

A major historical theme in San Francisco in the early 20th century was the contentious -- sometimes riotous and bloody -- waterfront labor movement. Today, nearly all port activity is containerized, mechanized, and long-since moved to Oakland.  San Francisco's waterfront Embarcadero, once the scene of drama and the start of many a Pacific voyage -- as well as an ugly multi-level freeway viaduct -- now stands renovated and refreshed, and served by a fleet of  antique streetcars that connect Market Street, the Ferry Building and Fisherman's Wharf.

The magnificent Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge are two San Francisco and international icons to emerge from the Depression era. Today, the cantilevered section of the Bay Bridge is being replaced because of seismic concerns -- history in the making.

Throughout its history, San Francisco has been defended: first by the Presidio (which served as the 6th US Army headquarters in the mid-20th century) then by Fort Point, then by World War I, World War II, and cold war - Nike nuclear missile - installations. The abandoned infrastructure is plain to see, climb and explore along the San Francisco, Marin County and Angel Island bluffs. Much of this land has since become known as the Bay Area's "Emerald Necklace", primarily managed as the Golden Gate National Recreational Area, headquartered at Fort Mason, which was once the major depot supplying U.S. military activity in the Pacific.

The unique term "The City" (always initial caps), - and never, ever, never  San Fran - used on this and other "Inside" pages, is common usage in San Francisco. Those who do not know San Francisco's history might believe that "location, location, location" is the reason. San Franciscans know that the term is also hard-earned.