History

Although Spain claimed California in the mid-l6th century, colonization did not begin until the 18th. An overland expedition from Mexico discovered San Francisco Bay in 1769, and in 1776 Spanish settlers arrived at the site of the present city. A presidio (military post) was built near the entrance to the bay. A Franciscan mission, San Francisco de Asís, was established about three miles (5 km) southeast, on a stream called Nuestra Señora de los Dolores (Our Lady of Sorrows). The mission came to be known as Dolores. The fine harbor soon attracted ships of various nations to the bay.

After Mexico gained its independence in 1821, the presidio was gradually abandoned, and in 1834 the mission was transferred from religious to civil authority. In 1835 a port administration was set up, with William A. Richardson, who had arrived in 1822 on a British whaler, in charge of it. A new port community, Yerba Buena, was laid out on a cove of the eastern shore. It was centered in what is now Chinatown; present Montgomery Street was part of the shoreline road.

In 1846, after the beginning of the Mexican War, Yerba Buena was occupied for the United States by a naval detachment under Commander John B. Montgomery. Three weeks later a party of about 240 Mormons, fleeing the United States, sailed into the harbor and decided to stay. In 1847 the town changed its name to San Francisco. The population was less than 500, not including residents of Mission Dolores and its surrounding community and the American garrison at the presidio.

The discovery of gold near Sutter's Mill (Coloma) in 1848 nearly emptied San Francisco, as residents rushed off to the diggings. The news spread quickly to Latin America, Pacific islands, and the Far East, and the harbor was soon filled with foreign ships.

In 1849 the Gold Rush from the eastern United States began. San Francisco became a vast tent city, with large numbers of transients to be fed and outfitted. Merchants, gambling-house proprietors, and real-estate speculators made fortunes. With the population sometimes doubling in 10 days, the city soon reached almost halfway across the peninsula. More land was gained by taking sand from the hills and filling in the areas around Yerba Buena cove, Mission Bay, and North Beach inlet.

Lawlessness was a serious problem and was met at various times by formation of citizens' committees. In 1851 a group calling itself the Vigilance Committee hanged four men during its 10 weeks' existence. The Second Vigilance Committee, formed in 1856, hanged four more.

By 1856 the first economic boom had ended, but prosperity and growth resumed after the 1859 Comstock Lode silver strike in Nevada. San Francisco, again the supply center, became the home of the “bonanza kings,” who made the city known for luxury and elegance. Meanwhile, near the waterfront an area known as the Barbary Coast became notorious for vice.

A transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, and the builders of the Central Pacific Railroad joined the bonanza kings in San Francisco's hierarchy of wealth. The city's shipping trade dropped drastically because of railroad competition, worsening the economic depression that had followed the Civil War. Thousands of Chinese coolies, imported to help build the railroad, glutted the city's labor market. In 1876 Chinatown had an estimated population of about 47,000. Anti-Chinese hostility was intense; riots and legislation forced many Chinese to leave. Tong wars—feuds between rival Chinese associations over control of vice—gave Chinatown an unsavory reputation.

San Francisco's reputation suffered from political corruption that developed under dominance of the railroad interests. Labor unionism, especially among maritime workers, brought strikes and violence.

On April 18, 1906, San Francisco experienced a severe earthquake, followed by fires that destroyed 28,000 buildings in the heart of the city and caused some 500 deaths. San Franciscans rushed to rebuild their city.

In 1908 Abe Ruef, San Francisco's political boss, was convicted on charges of graft, and a period of civic improvement began. A world's fair, the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, was held in 1915 to celebrate completion of the Panama Canal. Violent labor troubles broke out in 1916. After a bomb was thrown among spectators at a “Preparedness Day” parade (favoring national military strength), two labor leaders—Tom Mooney and Warren K. Billings—were convicted on what later proved to be perjured testimony.

World War I brought an influx of workers to San Francisco's shipyards and war industries of the metropolitan area. An increased water supply was urgently needed, and in 1934 a system that brought water from reservoirs 150 miles (240 km) away was completed. Two great bridges were built—the Bay Bridge to Oakland (completed in 1936) and the Golden Gate Bridge to Marin County (1937). The Golden Gate International Exposition was held in 1939–40.

During World War II there was another vast increase in population, as local industry expanded to meet wartime needs. The conference at which the United Nations was founded took place in 1945 in San Francisco. Beginning in the 1950's, the city undertook a far-reaching rehabilitation program. Major waterfront projects included the Golden Gateway Center and the Embarcadero Center. Several skyscrapers were built, among them the Transamerica Pyramid and the Bank of America building.

In 1978 Mayor George Moscone was shot to death by a disgruntled former member of the city board of supervisors. His successor was Dianne Feinstein, who became the city's first woman mayor.

In the 1990s, numerous Internet and multimedia companies started up in the San Francisco Bay area. This created many new jobs, which helped boost the city's economy yet also contributed to a severe housing shortage that sent real estate prices skyrocketing.