San Francisco

In 1835, the small village of Yerba Buena was established to trade with ships that came into the San Francisco Bay. It thrived with an ethnical diversity from the onset, its population steadily growing with a mix of people immigrating from other countries, changing their religion to Catholicism and becoming Mexican citizens to receive land grants.1

President Andrew Jackson unsuccessfully tried to purchase the area of the San Francisco Bay from Mexico the same year Yerba Buena was established. It was in 1846 that war was declared on Mexico in dispute of the Mexico-Texas borders. On July 9 1846, US Navy ship Portsmouth entered the bay and claimed California for the United States. Lieutenant Washington Bartlett of the Portsmouth took over Yerba Buena as its alcade, the equivalent of mayor. In January of 1847, Bartlett renamed Yerba Buena to San Francisco after the bay it was founded on. About a year later, the little village with a population now standing around 800+, the cry of “Eureka” herald the discovery of gold in the California interior.

It was the Gold Rush of 1894 that truly and quickly transformed the city of San Francisco and the whole of Northern California. Thousands of fortune seekers from all over the world arrived first by ship. That once tiny village grew from 800 to 8,000 within the first year. By 1852, the population had grown to 35,000. In 1860, San Francisco boasted 57,000 people becoming the 15th largest city in the US.

And so it went; San Francisco continued to grow in population, economic and commerce development, financial strength, and a political diversity that set it apart from the rest of the nation.

On April 18 1906, an earthquake measuring an estimated 7.7 to7.9 on the Richter Scale devastated the city of San Francisco. More than 3,000 people died between the earthquake itself and the ensuing firestorm that wasn’t extinguished until April 21. The earthquake and fire destroyed 28,000 buildings, including the homes of three-quarters of the city's population.

The San Franciscans rallied and began the rebuilding of the city. The results lead to some of the most amazing architectural structures that still stand today.

What I have written here is but a very small synopsis in the development of San Francisco, the city by the bay.

Footnotes
1  I did my research at http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761568027_2/San_Francisco.html Section: IX History.