USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > San Francisco, a history of the Pacific coast metropolis, Volume I > Part 57
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The car facilities of the period while not in advance of the demand were always ahead of the population which slowly penetrated to the localities opened by them. As a rule it may be said that the conveniences for getting about were provided by the railroad companies in advance of active requirements, but the rapid growth of the sections traversed by their lines soon converted what at first was an accom- modation to comparatively few patrons into a necessity which created demands which were not always responded to with promptness. While the complaints in the Sixties were not as acute as they have become during recent years protests against the long intervals between cars were not infrequent, but they usually came from those interested in building up the sections traversed, and the people who were led to pioneer the outlying districts tempted by the opportunity to acquire building lots cheaply, and by the desire to get away from the parts of the City which were already showing signs of congestion.
The great fire of 1906 effected so complete a redistribution of the population of San Francisco, it becomes difficult to realize that the City was well started on the road to a state of congestion in what is now one of the principal business and manufacturing sections. The streets south of Market in the Sixties were rapidly filling with houses which were beginning to assume the objectionable characteristics of the tenement system. There were no such large buildings as those in New York
Facilities in Advance of Population
Congestion South of Market Street
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in which enough human beings to fill a small town were crowded, but there was an unmistakable tendency in that direction, and it began to assert itself very strongly in the Seventies. During the Sixties, however, the crowding vice was confined to comparatively small structures. There were houses which sheltered three or four and sometimes more families, and boarding and lodging houses were multiplying rapidly, but there were still numerous homes of men of small means, mechanics and others, and it was not impossible to find within a stone's throw of Market street cottages the owners of which adorned their front yards with flowers.
Old Landmarks Disappearing
There was no longer any suggestion of the fact that the waters of the bay had once described a curve which extended from Telegraph to Rincon hills, washing the shores at what is now Montgomery street. The intervening space had all been filled in and was covered with buildings chiefly devoted to business purposes. There was little variation in the style of these structures which bore the impress of the caution begotten by the numerous fire experiences of the early Fifties. They were chiefly two storied structures built of brick without much attempt at ornamentation, and were all well guarded with iron doors and shutters which gave them a prison- like appearance. Those east of Sansome street were almost wholly occupied by wholesalers and commission merchants, while most of the retail trade was done on the streets west of Kearny, later encroached upon by "Chinatown."
Banking Center in the Sixties
The original banking center of the City was practically restricted to three blocks bounded by Washington and California on the north and south and by Bat- tery and Kearny on the east and west. Some of the financial institutions were lo- cated in the narrower streets intersecting these blocks, but the most of the more pretentious concerns did business on Montgomery street between California and Washington. One of the earliest banks shared quarters with a livery stable on the corner of Kearny and Washington streets, and a savings bank received its deposits in a second story office. In 1866 the Bank of California erected a handsome stone building on the corner of California and Sansome streets. It was designed after classical models, and the San Franciscan of the period was prone to point to it as an illustration of the rapid development of the City, which in the brief period of fifteen or sixteen years had made such advances that its financial institutions were housed as "superbly" as any in the country.
An Architec- tural Innovation
Nearly about the same time the London and San Francisco bank erected its structure on the corner of California and Leidersdorf streets. Its iron front was the subject of much favorable comment of the same kind indulged in at the East, where the moulder's art was beginning to be looked upon as a wonderful substitute for the slower and more expensive products of a real architecture. These constructions determined the permanency of the early location of the financial district, the only changes made as the years advanced were those caused by the crowding out of the miscellaneous concerns doing business, their places being usurped by banks, insur- ance companies, brokers' offices and like activities, although in close proximity to them were some of the best hotels and places of amusement.
Appearance ef City
In the closing years of the Sixties the City presented a compact appearance calculated to impress the stranger with its business importance. The tendency to spread out did not develop itself in real earnest until the difficulties presented by the hills, which bounded the originally built up section, were overcome by the introduction of the cable car. Up to that time a considerable part of the population lived in the upper stories of buildings whose ground floors were occupied by stores
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until the growth of trade warranted the devotion of the entire structure to the hous- ing and display of goods. This practice was maintained in many of the business streets up to the eve of the great fire in 1906, and contributed greatly to the anima- tion after nightfall of a quarter which in most other commercial cities is sur- rendered to quiet when the rush of the day has been suspended. Perhaps in the conditions this concentration created may be found the explanation of that "atmos- phere" whose existence so many recognized, and which it was claimed persisted down to April 18, 1906, when it, together with many much more valuable assets were consumed by the flames which swept away more than three-fourths of the City.
CHAPTER XLIII
THE HARBOR, THE RAILROADS AND THE LAND MONOPOLISTS
FERRY SERVICE-HARBOR COMMISSION CREATED-SEA WALL PROVIDED FOR-BAD MAN- AGEMENT DRIVES AWAY SHIPPING THE BULKHEAD LINE DEFINED-HUNTERS POINT DRY DOCK-BLOSSOM ROCK REMOVED-COMPLAINT ABOUT PILOT LAWS-SEA ROUTES FROM SAN FRANCISCO-LINES TO COAST PORTS-STATE INTERDEPENDENCE NOT MUCH THOUGHT ABOUT-RAILROAD PLANS OF MONOPOLIZING-ALL TRAF- FIC RIVALS FORCED OUT BY THE CENTRAL PACIFIC-MORE LAND GRABBING- ATTEMPT TO MAKE GOAT ISLAND A TERMINUS-FEAR OF GOAT ISLAND RIVALRY- CALIFORNIA RAILROADS IN 1870-71-INCREASING HOSTILITY TO RAILROAD MANAGE- MENT-THE RAILROADS AND THE LABORING CLASS-LAND MONOPOLY AND TAXA- TION QUESTIONS-WOMAN SUFFRAGE ADVOCATED-AGITATION OF QUESTION OF REVISING THE CONSTITUTION.
E CITY
AN
PAMPHLET published in Oakland in 1871 reproached C the people of San Francisco with indifference to the charms A of that suburb. It declared that thousands of people liv- ing in the City had never visited the side of the bay on which Oakland was situated, and that the most of them SEAL OF were "in blissful ignorance of the attractions" which it offered in the way of "recreation and invigorating trips to and from Oakland." That may have been true of the mere pleasure seeker, but the statistics of 1870 show that the travel between the two cities was already consid- erable at that time. During the year the El Capitan, which performed the ferry service, made twelve trips daily, carrying an average of 180 passengers or 4,320 a day. In addition to the service provided by the El Capitan boats were run on the Estuary or Creek line, as it was called, but they carried freight only.
The condition of the water front at that time was not very attractive. The ferry slip was situated at the foot of Pacific street but it served no other purpose than em- barking and debarking passengers. It was not only inconveniently situated, but it was unprovided with any of the conveniences demanded by travelers. It was in fact a makeshift, and to the observing it told the story of a mere marking of time, until the new power which was beginning to shape the politics and business affairs of the Pacific coast, could perfect its plans so as to absolutely control its destinies.
The improvement of the water front was one of the vast projects mapped out by the legislature for the people of San Francisco who had permitted its control to pass out of their hands. A sea wall was to be constructed and the harbor was in every way to be made worthy of the praise bestowed upon it by navigators from the day of the discovery of the bay. An elaborate program was laid out and a Vol. 1-27
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Ferry Service in 1871
Condition of Water Front
Harbor Commission Created
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commission created which later developed into a political machine whose members oftener paid more attention to pushing the fortunes of those who gave them their appointments than they did to the shipping interests of the port. The act which created the commission at first provided for the election of one member from San Francisco but was subsequently amended by being increased to four members, all appointed by the governor. To this board was assigned the duty of fixing rates for dockage and wharfage. It was empowered to locate and to build wharves and piers, quays and landings along the water front of the City, and to make regulations concerning the property entrusted to it, designate anchorages, maintain a fair way, and to do all other needful things required by the commerce of the port. The City was practically divested of all authority the ex officio dignity conferred upon the mayor, giving him no voice in the conduct of affairs or in the deliberations of the commission whose meeting he attended only when some question touching the im- provement or control over the street which ran along the front, 150 feet of the width of which was placed under the jurisdiction of the state.
Sea Wall Provided For
Although the act was passed in 1863, not much progress was made during sev- eral years in building the sea wall for which specific provision was made. The first contract for the construction of that improvement was let in 1867. The lowest bid was $278 a lineal foot, making the cost of a mile of wall aggregate over a million and a half. The work of construction and filling in proceeded very slowly during the first years of the commissionership and finally ceased almost entirely, the poli- ticians, as the years went on, becoming more and more expert in the practice of dissipating the revenues without producing anything of consequence for the money expended. More than forty-three years afterward only 11,700 feet of wall was completed. The so called bulkhead scheme by which the legislature in 1860 sought to confer upon the owners of the old wharves, who had organized under the name of the San Francisco Dock and Wharf Company, the power to build a stone bulkhead on the water front created a tremendous scandal, but it is doubtful whether its suc- cess could have done more injury to San Francisco, even if the worst fears of those who opposed it had been realized, than has been inflicted on the City and state by the bad management of successive harbor commissions, and the corruption which attended the conduct of affairs by some of the boards.
The projectors of the bulkhead scheme may have designed monopolizing the water front privileges of the port, but it is reasonably certain that they would not have so managed affairs as to drive shipping to other points on the bay. That was the net result of the mismanagement of the politically selected commission in the closing years of the Sixties. In order to escape the high rates ship owners took their vessels to Vallejo and Port Costa to load. In 1869 twenty-five vessels took on nearly three-quarters of a million centals of wheat at Vallejo, and after that date Port Costa was provided with facilities for loading wheat, causing the harbor of San Francisco to be neglected and entailing an additional burden on shippers which might have been avoided had the work of construction on the front been pushed and the affairs of the port carefully administered.
Bulkhead Line Defined
Although there had been much quarreling over the arrangement of the water front in the Fifties, and a great deal of interference on the part of the legislature in that regard, it was not until the session of 1877-8 that an act was passed defining the bulkhead line. Between this line and high water or shore line there was origi- nally about 2,500 acres of submerged land. This was divided into city blocks and
Shipping Driven Away
EAST SIDE OF MONTGOMERY STREET, NORTH OF CALIFORNIA STREET, IN 1865
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'GHICTIAE SIETITE
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sold by the state. About two-fifths of it lying north of the Union Iron Works was reclaimed with tolerable promptness, but the remaining 1,500 acres lying south of the Sugar Refinery, and in the vicinity of Islais Creek, India Basin and Hunters' Point was left in the state in which it had been acquired by the purchasers who had no other purpose in mind when buying than to await the process of growth and the extension of the water front system to make their holdings valuable.
Before the passage of the act creating the Harbor Commission, and for many years afterward the water front of the port presented a ragged appearance. There were numerous wharves, but their alignment was by no means perfect, and very few of them were provided with sheds. The facilities for loading and unloading, however, were quite equal to the demands made upon them, and under private own- ership they would probably have been extended as rapidly as required, and per- haps at a less cost to shipping than was subsequently entailed by the costly opera- tions of the political custodians of the water front, who constantly lagged in the performance of their duty. In marked contrast to the flimsy construction adopted by the Harbor Commission which persisted in building wharves and warehouses of easily destructible materials down to a recent date, was the action of the San Francisco Dock Co., a private concern, which in 1867 excavated a graving dock out of the solid rock at Hunter's Point. It was 493 feet long, 164 feet wide and 24 feet deep over the sill.
At the time of the construction of the Hunter's Point dock it was assumed that it would be able to accommodate shipping of the largest size. Up to 1873 the average length of the twenty largest vessels entering the harbor of San Francisco was about 390 feet, and the draft of the ships of greatest tonnage was many feet less than the water carried over the sill of this substantial dock. This modern view of the future of navigation was by no means confined to San Francisco, and it was apparently confirmed by the experience of the "Great Eastern," whose non suc- cess in the closing years of the Fifties gave rise to the impression that very large ships would not prove profitable. The "Great Eastern" measured 680 feet in length and her tonnage was nearly 19,000, but her failure caused her to be regarded as an abnormality, and this impression endured for several years.
Considering the importance attached to the acquisition of San Francisco Bay by the politicians and statesmen who brought about that result, the federal authori- ties after it was achieved acted with great deliberation in the matter of making it perfectly safe for navigation. In 1826 the British ship "Blossom" had discovered a rock between Yerba Buena and Alcatraz islands which was covered with only five feet of water at low tide. For many years a buoy marked the dangerous obstruc- tion, and it was not until 1870 that it was finally removed. The engineer who did the work was Alexis von Schmidt, who also has to his credit the construction of the stone dry dock at Hunter's Point. He excavated galleries 140 feet long and 40 feet transversely at a depth of about 30 feet below low tide, protecting the work by means of a cofferdam. On the 23d of May, 1870, with all of the people of San Francisco on the hill tops to view the spectacle, the mine was exploded. It was a great show, the rock and water being thrown in the air over 150 feet. The blast proved a complete success. The required depth of 24 feet was attained and the government accepted the work and paid the contract price, $75,000.
A constant cause of complaint in the management of the affairs of the harbor has been its pilotage system. As early as March 16, 1855, Governor Bigler, in a
Ragged Appearance of Water Front
Hunter's Point Dry Dock
Blossom Rock Removed
Pilot Laws
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message to the legislature, declared that one of the chief obstacles to San Francisco becoming a port of call for whalers was the excessive charge for pilotage. Eight dollars a foot was exacted, and as the average draught of the whalers was about 14 feet the amount demanded was $114; while to enter Honolulu it only cost $28. He urged a reduction in order that the desire to make San Francisco the headquar- ters of the whaling industry of the coast should not be balked. During this gov- ernor's administration he was called upon to deal with a question which arose out of the alleged negligence of a San Francisco pilot, who ran a Peruvian vessel under his charge on the Tonquin shoals. The bark was a total loss and her owners filed a libel in admiralty against all the pilots of San Francisco, six in number at that time. Impecuniosity was pleaded, and the affair was referred to Secretary of State Daniel Webster by the Peruvian charge d'affaires, who alleged that foreign vessels were by the law of California compelled to employ pilots, and that the latter in the Bay of San Francisco had made $271,000 during the preceding 15 months, and he urged that if they could not pay the state should. Bigler denied that for- eign vessels were compelled to hire pilots. It was true, he said, that if they did not they had to pay one-half pilotage, but that was merely a port charge. So far as the contract with the pilot was concerned that was perfectly optional, and was no affair of the state.
Pilots Control Their Own Affairs
The matter was not pursued further by Webster, and after 1851 the pilots be- came a law unto themselves. They succeeded in persuading successive legislatures to exempt them from the jurisdiction of the Harbor Commission, and have always, with the assistance of powerful interests managed to control their own affairs. Various efforts were made during the Sixties to bring about a reformation, but they all failed. The pilot lobby at Sacramento was for many years a conspicuous feature and its success in persuading the legislature to refrain from making changes was not always attributed solely to the ability with which the hardships of a pilot's life were pictured before committees dealing with the subject of port affairs and the necessity of lightening the burdens of shippers.
The Sea Routes
During the Sixties interest in harbor affairs was more active than during several subsequent decades. Before the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, and the construction of lines which permitted the traveler to visit most parts of the state without having recourse to water craft, the bay and the rivers emptying into it filled a larger space in the public mind than later. In 1870 San Francisco was not connected by rail with Los Angeles. If one wished to journey to that then remote place he was compelled to go by steamer, which made weekly and later semi weekly trips to San Pedro, or he took the stage, which occupied several days in making the trip. In that year petitions were being circulated in Los Angeles, asking that the right of way be granted the California Southern Coast Railroad Company through government lands, and for land grants and other aid in the construction of the road which was to run by the coast from San Francisco to San Diego with branches from Los Angeles and the lower counties to connect with the transcontinental road near the Colorado river.
Los Angeles and San Diego
At that time Los Angeles was less active in its attempts to secure railroad con- nection with the outside world than San Diego. The dolce far nienti feeling still held the inhabitants of the small town in its thraldom, and they amused themselves poking fun at their ambitious neighbor, who had persistently agitated for a trans- continental railroad from the time when Jefferson Davis was secretary of war,
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proclaiming the merits of San Diego harbor and extolling the charms of southern California climate. It is not surprising that San Francisco should have derived amusement from reading of the claims of San Diego to future greatness; but the fact that the people of Los Angeles were also amused and convinced that it was absurd to appeal to Eastern folks to make their homes in the southern part of the state by expatiating on the attractions of its climate may seem strange to those who have witnessed its rapid growth during recent years, chiefly because it offered in- ducements to the seeker after health.
As a matter of fact it was not given to the people of any part of California to peer far into the future. The round phrases of the optimistic, when not too closely analyzed, convey the impression that the people of the Sixties clearly perceived what railroads would do for them, but there is no evidence whatever that one man in a hundred in San Francisco had any conception of the marvelous changes which the multiplication of transportation facilities would bring about. Prophets who do not profess to be inspired must have experience on which to base their prophecies, and the opportunities for obtaining it in California were very limited before the opening of the Seventies. We need not wonder then that in 1870 San Francisco newspapers should have treated with something like amused contempt the dreams of the people of San Diego, and that they hardly gave more than a passing thought to the possibilities involved in the opening up of southern California, and that when they did think of the railroad in that connection it was to regard it in the light of a convenience which would enable the people of the South to more readily reach the metropolis on the Bay of San Francisco.
It may be said with equal truthfulness that no one in the Southland thought of railroads from the standpoint of the interdependence of California. The dream of the San Diegan and of the Angeleno was of communication with the East; and in that particular they resembled the San Franciscan, who built all his hopes of development on the section on the other side of the Rockies. He may have intu- itively associated with the expected filling up of the state the idea of concurrent growth of its various parts but he rarely worked out the problem and would have been amazed if he had been told that the day was not far distant when remote Los Angeles would sustain relations so intimate with San Francisco that the weekly or semi weekly steamer sailings would be expanded into a daily train service, representing a great many more arrivals and departures than there are hours in the day.
In a circular issued by the "Mechanics Institute" in July, 1869, the opening of the transcontinental railroad is dwelt upon at length, and predictions of the effects to be produced are freely made, but it contains no reference whatever to the results likely to follow the multiplication of railroad facilities within the horders of the state, many of which were already projected in 1869, and were in a fair way of realization at the beginning of the decade 1870-80. But in 1870 the desir- ability of more rapid connection with the Sacramento valley than the Central Pacific and Western Pacific would provide were beginning to be recognized, and a short route was surveyed. There was already in existence a line between San Francisco and Sacramento known as the California Pacific, which was operated partly by steamboat and partly by rail. It carried its passengers from the City to Vallejo on the steamer "New World," from which they were transferred to the train. There were two trips made daily excepting Sunday, when only one train
The South Disregarded
Value of Interde- peudence
Route to Sacramento Shortened
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was dispatched. The running time from San Francisco to Sacramento was four hours and to Marysville, which was its terminus, 51/2 hours. By this route eighty miles in distance, and eight hours in time were saved between Marysville and San Francisco; and fifty-five miles and two hours in time between the City and the capital.
A Rival Line Projected
The new transcontinental line could permit no rival to retain such an advantage as these savings in time implied. Its managers recognized that they must gain possession in some manner of this advantageously situated railroad which appeared to command the natural western terminus of the overland road, the southern termi- nus of a line from Oregon and practically the whole outlet of Northern California and Nevada. Accordingly steps were taken to ascertain the possibility of locating a still shorter route between Sacramento and San Francisco. A survey was begun in September, 1870, with that object in view and before the end of November the engineers had run their lines as far as Benicia. The announcement of this result in the "Railroad Gazeteer" occasioned considerable surprise in San Francisco, as it had been supposed that the tule lands offered an insuperable obstacle to safe construction because of their softness, but it was found that there was a substratum of clay under the ooze which afforded a fine foundation for a roadbed.
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