San Francisco is located on the San Francisco Peninsula (37°48’0″N, 122°25’0″W) on the west coast of California, USA. It covers an area of ​​121.73 square kilometers. It is surrounded by water on three sides and has a beautiful environment. It is a mountain city.

Early development

Europeans arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1542, and the San Francisco area belonged to the Spanish province of Upper California in the 16th century. Spanish general Don Gaspar de Portola led his men to explore the terrain in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1769. On March 28, 1776, Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza chose two buildable sites in the local area, one for military use and the other for missionary use. But the actual construction was overseen by two of Anza’s companions, Lieutenant Jose Joaquin Moraga and Father Francisco Palou.

Jose Joaquin Moraga is responsible for the establishment of the military base San Francisco Fortress (Presidio of San Francisco, has been changed to Fortress Park). Francisco Palóu was responsible for establishing the church, which he named Mission San Francisco de Asis, commonly known as Mission Dolores. All administrative matters in the district are managed by the church.

In 1821, Mexico became independent from Spain, and Upper California became a Mexican territory. After the independence of the Mexican church, the power of the church gradually weakened, and the land owned by the church was gradually planned to be privately owned. William Richardson from England built his first private residence in 1835 in the western part of the peninsula (now in Garden Corner, where Chinatown meets the Financial District).

Richardson, with the help of others, started planning a street market near the house, and called the area Yerba Buena. After the outbreak of the war between Mexico and the United States, Commodore John D. Sloat of the United States led his men to come here, and in 1846, the city was occupied in the name of the United States. On January 30, 1847, Captain John B. Montgomery renamed the city San Francisco.

Naminjian City

San Francisco, formerly known as Yeba Buena, also known as San Francisco, is called San Francisco by overseas Chinese. It was named by Mexicans in Spanish in 1847. At that time, there were only more than 800 residents here. Originally a Spanish colonial stronghold, it was taken over by Mexico and occupied by the US military during the Mexican-American War. In the Sacremento Valley in January 1848, a carpenter found gold in the currents driving a waterwheel while building a sawmill.

The news spread like wildfire and sparked a gold rush around the world. San Francisco’s population has surged by 25,000 in just three months. Many of them were sold here as coolies to dig gold mines, build railways, and experience hardships. Since then, a large number of Chinese workers have settled here, and they have called the city San Francisco (to distinguish it from Australia’s New Jinshan). The strongest part of San Francisco is the enthusiasm of immigrants, which is an intoxicating culture; distinctive Italians, Brazilians, Spaniards, Chinese, etc., different settlements dot the land of California.

Gold rush

In January 1848, after the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in northeastern California, the news spread quickly. In August of the same year, the news of the discovery of gold in California spread to New York in the east. People who got rich overnight began pouring into the port of San Francisco. Since 1849, the California Gold Rush has really started. There is an endless stream of people from other parts of the United States and other countries who come to California to dream of gold mining. The passengers, sailors and even the captain on the ship will get off the ship immediately. One after another went to Souterfang, when the sailboats of the San Francisco port were everywhere, and the population of the city skyrocketed overnight.

This also allowed the population of San Francisco to increase from 500 to 150,000 between 1847-1870. Later, the so-called San Francisco 49ers were those who came to San Francisco from all over the world in 1849 to get rich overnight. In addition to speculators from all over the world who came to realize their gold-mining dreams, many people set up shop in San Francisco to provide the supplies the gold-diggers needed. Some of the companies at the time still exist, including Levi Strauss, who made Levi’s jeans (1873). (Levi Strauss), Ghirardelli (1852), FOLGERS Coffee (1850) and Wells Fargo (1852), Bank of California (1864).

California remained a Mexican territory until the discovery of gold in 1848, and became a U.S. territory after Mexico’s defeat in the Mexican-American War in February of the same year. California officially became the 31st state of the U.S. federal government in 1850, and San Francisco was the original county. The San Francisco Federal Mint was established in 1854 to create gold coins for circulation in the market. The Gold Rush made San Francisco the largest city west of the Mississippi River in the United States at the time.

San Francisco Earthquake

On April 18, 1906, at 5:12 a.m., a magnitude 8.25 earthquake struck San Francisco. Due to the bursting of the gas pipe, there were many fires in various parts of the city. The fire quickly turned the city into a sea of ​​flames. The dazzling fire and thick smoke were clearly visible 80 kilometers away. The fire burned for three days, and San Francisco was in ruins. In this earthquake, 3,200 people were killed, 250,000 people were made homeless, and 514 streets and 28,000 buildings were burned and collapsed. But San Francisco, after such a cataclysm, has been rebuilt as a newer, more modern city in less than six years. The 1915 World’s Fair was held in San Francisco, marking San Francisco’s complete resurrection from the ashes!

Pacific Expo

In order to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal connecting the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, San Francisco held the Panama-Pacific World’s Exposition in 1915 in the present-day Marina District in order to show the new city rebuilt after the great earthquake in 1906. The reconstruction of San Francisco after the earthquake was very rapid. The city hall was destroyed by the earthquake, and it was rebuilt in place in 1915. When the World’s Fair was held, the impact of the earthquake was completely invisible.

In order to speed up the reconstruction project in San Francisco at that time, many buildings omitted earthquake-proof design, ignoring the vigilance brought by the original earthquake, which also led to the subsequent 1989 earthquake that caused many buildings to be damaged. The World’s Fair was held from February 20 to December 4, 1915, and the exhibition area extended from the Mason bunker in the east to the Palace of Fine Arts in the west. The splendid buildings of the exposition at that time were almost completely demolished after the exhibition, leaving only the Palace of Fine Arts and the buildings of the Science Museum behind it, the Japanese tea garden (which has been moved to Belmot City), and the Bill Graham municipality next to the City Hall. hall.

1936 Bay Bridge connecting San Francisco and Oakland completed 1937 Golden Gate Bridge connecting San Francisco and Marin County 1939 Golden Gate World Exposition held at Treasure Island 1945 United Nations Charter signed in San Francisco by 51 founding members; 1951 Confederate States Signed the “San Francisco Peace Treaty” with Japan, officially ending the war against Japan. In 1978, then-Mayor Masconi and City Councilman Harvey Milk were shot dead inside City Hall.

Preta Earthquake

On October 17, 1989, at 5:04pm, the San Andreas fault in the Santa Cruz Mountains, 97 kilometers south of San Francisco, slipped and a magnitude 6.9 earthquake occurred. The San Francisco Bay Area in the same earthquake zone also caused many casualties.

San Francisco’s waterfront area was built after the 1906 earthquake. When the earthquake occurred, the soil liquefied, and the land swayed up and down with the shock waves, causing many houses to be damaged and causing fires. The upper-level road on the Auckland section of the double-deck Bay Bridge was broken. The worst was in Auckland City. The upper deck of the double-deck Nimitz Expressway connecting the Bay Bridge completely collapsed, killing 42 people in their cars. At that time, Candlestick Stadium, just south of San Francisco, was preparing for the MLB World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland A’s. The earthquake was televised all over the world in real time, and the World Series was postponed for ten days. Call it the Great World Series Earthquake or the Great Earthquake of 1989.

As a result of the earthquake, the Nimitz 880 Interstate Highway was diverted and rebuilt. It was not completed until 2000 after 11 years. Although the Bay Bridge was rebuilt one month after the earthquake, after safety considerations, the Oakland section of the Bay Bridge must be rebuilt with a new bridge. The new bridge section will be completed in 2013. The 480 double-deck highway connecting the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge across the San Francisco Docklands was demolished after the earthquake, and the demolition of Highway 480 gave the Port Docks a new lease of life. Open space planning brought the Port Docks back to the 20th century The scene of early prosperity.

The only Bay Area Rapid Transit that was not affected by the earthquake became the main transportation link between the East Bay and San Francisco after the earthquake, with daily ridership increasing from 220,000 to 330,000 in the first two months after the disaster. travelers. The Bay Area feeder, which had been canceled for years, re-opened the Alameda, Oakland, Berkeley route to San Francisco after the earthquake. The earthquake killed a total of 57 people and damaged 12,000 houses. San Francisco’s future urban plan has been greatly changed, and many buildings must be strengthened or rebuilt. The impact of the earthquake has continued to this day.