In the past, San Francisco was Yerba Buena (Good Grass), a Spanish fisherman’s village with 400 inhabitants, a natural harbor. Approximately 75 years later, in 1849 when the western coastal region became US territory,
In the past, San Francisco was Yerba Buena (Good Grass), a Spanish fisherman’s village with 400 inhabitants, a natural harbor. Approximately 75 years later, in 1849 when the western coastal region became US territory, the city was called San Francisco, after the old Franciscan mission nearby. The city expanded rapidly – the gold rush of 1849 gave birth to a migration so rapid, that seekers almost fell into the Pacific in search of a new life. The population grew to over 300,000 inhabitants.
They came from the west, and east – thousands of people fleeing the famine in China to work hard on the railroad, which was built to link the remote town and the rest of the country, a project completed in 1869. Meanwhile, Chinese workers were suffering great injustice. Immigrants have arrived in Japan, but they have created a separate colony, opened their own business in the Western Addition district, later known as Japan-town.
Chinatown and Japan-town are now the largest Asian enclaves outside Asia, and today the city is proud of the diversity of population and political tolerance.
The devastating earthquake of 1906 changed the city’s horizons, the Victorian wooden houses bursting into flames- only a few survived and is now famous four its “Painted Ladies” of Alamo Square.
But San Francisco was rebuilt. Replacing horse-drawn wagons crossing the Russian and Nob hills, cars have