The San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers, having united, flow westward
into Suisun Bay, thence by a strait to the circular and expansive San
Pablo Bay, which in turn empties into San Francisco Bay. On the strait
connecting Suisun and San Pablo Bays is Benicia, where lived the
famous pugilist John C. Heenan, the "Benicia Boy," and the immense
forge-hammer he wielded is on exhibition there. At the head of San
Pablo Bay is Napa, or Mare Island, the location of the Navy Yard. Upon
the mainland opposite is Vallejo, whence a railway runs up the fertile
Napa Valley, through orchards and vineyards and among mineral springs,
to Calistoga. Near here is the strange Petrified Forest, where there
are scattered upon a tract of four square miles the remains of a
hundred petrified trees. The Bay of San Francisco is a magnificent
inland sea, fifty miles long and ten miles wide, connected with the
Pacific Ocean by the strait of the Golden Gate, five miles long and a
mile wide. The bay is separated from the ocean by a long peninsula,
having the city of San Francisco on the inside of its northern
extremity. Over opposite, on the eastern shore of the bay, is Oakland,
the terminal of the Southern Pacific Railway routes from the East, a
city of fifty thousand people, named from the numerous live-oaks
growing in its gardens and along the streets. It has extensive
manufactures and a magnificent view over the expansive bay and city of
San Francisco and the distant Golden Gate, where the enclosing rocky
shores can be seen rising boldly, the northern side to two thousand
feet height. In the Oakland suburbs is Berkeley, where are some of the
College buildings of the University of California, founded in 1868 and
having twenty-three hundred students, many of them women. The
attractive grounds cover two hundred and fifty acres, and the
endowments exceed $8,000,000. South of Oakland is the pleasant
suburban town of Alameda. On the western shore of the bay, south of
San Francisco, is Menlo Park, a favorite place of rural residence for
the wealthy San Francisco people, having many handsome villas and
estates with noble trees. Here is Palo Alto or the "tall tree," taking
its name from a fine redwood tree near the railway, an estate of over
eight thousand acres, which is the location of the noted Leland
Stanford, Jr., University. This is the greatest educational endowment
in America, having a fund of over $30,000,000, the gift of Senator and
Mrs. Leland Stanford in memory of their only son. The University has
twelve hundred students, many being women. The buildings, which in a
manner reproduce the architecture of the ancient Spanish Missions, are
of buff sandstone, surmounted by red-tiled roofs, picturesquely
contrasting with the oaks and eucalyptus trees which are so numerous
and the many tropical plants that have been brought there. The Palo
Alto estate is one of the great California stock-farms.
Two Franciscan monks in 1776 founded on this famous bay the Indian
Mission of San Francisco de Assis, often called the Mission Dolores,
and in course of time there started upon the shore, which had much
wild mint growing about, the village of Yerba Buena, named from it the
"good herb." Just about the time this lonely little village had got a
small Spanish population and built a few houses, Richard Henry Dana
came into the bay in 1835 on the voyage which he so pleasantly
recounts in _Two Years Before the Mast_. He then prophetically wrote:
"If ever California becomes a prosperous country, this bay will be the
centre of its prosperity. The abundance of wood and water; the extreme
fertility of its shores; the excellence of its climate, which is as
near to being perfect as any in the world; and its facilities for
navigation affording the best anchoring-grounds in the whole Western
coast of America, all fit it for a place of great importance." In the
summer of 1846, during the Mexican War, the American navy made various
important occupations on the California coasts, and a man-of-war came
into San Francisco Bay and took possession for the United States. The
next year the name of the village was changed to San Francisco. There
were about six hundred inhabitants here when gold was discovered in
1848, and most of them at once left for the gold-fields; but the
favorable location for trade soon attracted a large population and an
extensive commerce. The young city had the usual mishaps from fires,
suffering from a half-dozen serious conflagrations in its early
career; while the peculiar character of the population made it then so
lawless that twice the better element had to take summary control of
the municipal government by "Vigilance Committees," who did not
hesitate to promptly execute notorious criminals. There are now three
hundred and fifty thousand people, the heterogeneous population
including almost every nationality in the world.
San Francisco is in a fine situation on the shore of the bay and the
steep hills to the westward, and is gradually spreading across the
peninsula towards the ocean. It is, in fact, built on a succession of
hills, of which a group extends westward from the bay, varying in
height from less than two hundred to over nine hundred feet.
Conspicuous among them are the Telegraph Hill, Nob Hill, Park Peak,
the Mission Peaks and others. For the purpose of readily climbing
these hills, the cable street railway and its peculiar "grip" were
invented and first put into successful operation, and a British
visitor writes of San Francisco that "one of its most characteristic
sights is the cable cars crawling up the steep inclines like flies on
a window-pane." The country around is treeless, with little fertile
land, owing to the copious rivers of sand which steadily flow over it,
being blown from the seashore by the strong westerly trade-winds. Thus
have naturally come the historical San Francisco "sand lots," the
scene of public meetings and not infrequent disturbances in former
times. An immense amount of grading, cutting down hills, filling
gullies, and reclamations of overflowed lands was necessary in
building the city; and over $50,000,000 has been expended in improving
the site which, as nature fashioned it, was so illy fitted for a city.
The great charm is the spacious bay environed by mountains, furnishing
such an admirable harbor, and across it the ferry steamers ply in all
directions. Upon it, guarding the Golden Gate entrance, are Alcatraz
Island, Goat Island and Angel Island, strongly fortified, while Fort
Mason is on the heights north of the city, overlooking the famous
strait. The charming waters of the noble bay are thus rhythmically
described by Ada Abbott Dunton:
"How beautiful the waters of the Bay
Lie shimmering, gem-embossed and turquoise-blue,
Rippling and twinkling! Emerald shores in view
Reflected from its surface. This calm day
Utters no note of discord. Far away
And overhead, the tireless, winged sea-mew
Skims languidly the air, sun-warmed anew
And freshly blown with each succeeding day.
"O San Francisco Bay! Upon thy shore,
What wondrous argosies are anchored here!
What giant masts are silhouetted fair
'Gainst the eternal blue which bendeth o'er,
As though a Titian hand were carving clear,
Majestic monuments in upper air."
The great "Ferry Depot," an ornamental structure with a high tower, is
the centre of the San Francisco harbor front, whence the steamboats
ply across the spacious bay. From this, the chief business highway,
Market Street, stretches far southwest to the Mission Peaks, rising
over nine hundred feet and nearly four miles away. Northward, Kearney
Street with the leading stores extends past Telegraph Hill, rising
almost three hundred feet and giving a magnificent outlook from the
summit. Upon Market Street, in Yerba Buena Park, is the magnificent
City Hall, completed in 1896 at a cost of over $4,000,000 and
containing a library of one hundred thousand volumes. There is a
Branch Mint of the United States which coins much of the gold mined on
the Pacific Slope. The ancient church of the Mission Dolores, built of
adobé is still preserved with the little churchyard. Upon Nob Hill are
many of the finest residences, while to the northwestward is the
Presidio, originally the Mexican and now the United States Military
Reservation, adjoining the Golden Gate for some four miles, and a park
of almost three square miles where troops are garrisoned. Here the
military band plays in the afternoon and the walks and drives afford
beautiful views. The Chinese Quarter of San Francisco, where there is
a population of about fifteen thousand, is a characteristic feature,
the inhabitants swarming in tall tenements divided by narrow alleys.
Its attractions, however, are of a kind usually prepared with a view
to induce contributions from visitors.