Pauline Frommer's San Francisco
Chapter One
A Distinctly
American City
The best the city has to offer
FEW MODERN VISITORS REALIZE IT, BUT SAN FRANCISCO HAS ALREADY
lived several lifetimes. The city today bears little resemblance to the place it was just
150 years ago. Back then, it was a rough-and-tumble, seaside shantytown that had
been cobbled together by refugees-mostly men-who came from the East (both
the East Coast and the Far East) to seek their quick fortunes. Much of it was literally
built atop the ruins of ships that brought them there, and the city's brothels
and saloons were notorious around the world. Gradually, the city gained esteem as
the most important banking center west of the Rockies. As America's westward
population exploded, San Francisco was poised to be its unofficial capital. The
bust-to-boom trajectory took less than two generations, and it typified the wild
success America enjoyed after Manifest Destiny and during the Gilded Age.
Then the quake and fire of 1906 struck. Overnight, it was over. The palatial
mansions and hotels of the grand city, the fruit of years of accumulated ... read full excerpt from Pauline Frommer's® San Francisco (Pauline Frommer Guides #22) ebook
