The port of San Francisco initially starting out as only a few ramshackle buildings with a population of about 180 in 1846 grew rapidly to several thousand residents only a few years later. San Francisco was the nearest seaport to the gold fields with full access to virtually all ongoing sea traffic and freight shipments. The port of San Francisco boomed and expanded very rapidly to a California state census population of about 32,000 in 1852 (San Francisco—the largest city in the state—U.S. California Census of 1850 was burned in one of the frequent fires in San Francisco). In addition San Francisco had access to the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta which gave access to ship traffic going to Sacramento, Stockton and Marysville, California which were all about closer to the goldfields. Paddle steamers were put in service by late 1849 and provided "easy" transport of passengers and freight to Sacramento, banks, bar rooms, gambling establishments, wharfs, warehouses and other needed buildings were built as rapidly as possible.