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lent to that which propels the immense factories at Lowell. The canal of this company having nearly reached completion in the spring of 1868, the dam, a substantial structure to be built wholly of granite, was expected to be finished the following summer. It is their design to sell portions of the water power to such parties as may be desirous of using it for manufacturing purposes; and as this locality is central and accessible by railroad, besides being near the extensive granite quarries of Folsom, whence the best of building material can be easily obtained, there is every likelihood that a large and prosperous manufacturing town will ultimately grow up at this place.

In reference to the manufacturing interests of California, it may, in conclusion, be observed, that under the tendency to cheaper labor and capital, the growing confidence felt in the future of California, and the expectation of its rapid and permanent settlement, a variety of new branches are constantly being introduced, while many of the earlier established and more important are being extended. And, yet, so broad is this field that some important departments of manufactures have thus far been wholly overlooked or are but feebly represented, affording here many excellent openings for capital, skilled labor and well directed enterprise.

CHAPTER XII.

CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO.

Situation, Topography, etc.-Early Settlement and Subsequent Progress-Street Grades, Public Grounds, etc.--Improvement of Water Front-Style and Peculiarities of Buildings-Fear of Earthquakes, and its Effects-Churches, and Places of Public Worship— Theatres, and other Places of Amusement-Scientific, Social, Literary, and Eleemosynary Institutions-Number of Inhabitants-Diversity of Races, Ideas and CustomsJuvenile Population-Manufacturing Status, etc.-Educational System--Public Schools, Colleges, Seminaries and Private Institutions of Learning-Value of City Property— Municipal Income, Debt and Expenditures-Buildings, Improvements, etc.—Police and Fire Departments-Cemeteries, Public Gardens, Homestead Associations-City Railroads Gas Works and Water Works-Markets-Banking Institutions and Insurance Companies-United States Branch Mint-Advantages of Position-Foreign Commerce and Domestic Trade-Bullion Products-Passenger Arrivals, etc.

SITUATION, TOPOGRAPHY, ETC.

The city and county of San Francisco embrace one municipality, the act of consolidation having taken effect July 1, 1856. The county comprises the northern end of a peninsula, about twenty-five miles long, formed by the bay of San Francisco on the east and the Pacific ocean on the west, its entire area covering a space of 26,861 acres, including the Presidio reservation, of 1,500 acres, belonging to the general government. The city occupies the extreme northern point of this peninsula, which is here about four miles wide, being covered for the most part with high hills and sandy knolls, separated by small valleys, ravines, and elevated plateaux, the bay being at most points bordered by extensive stretches of sand-beach and salt-marsh, or overlooked by high hills, terminating on the water side in steep bluffs and rocky headlands. The loftier of these hills, composed of solid earth and rock, vary from 250 to 400 feet in height, the sand-knolls being from 60 to 100 feet high. Owing to these inequalities, the grading of the streets has been expensive, and in places long delayed, it being, even in densely peopled localities, but partially completed.

EARLY SETTLEMENT AND SUBSEQUENT PROGRESS.

Prior to 1835 the present site of the city was wholly uninhabited, what few people there were in the neighborhood residing at the Presidio and the Mission Dolores. Vessels entering the harbor anchored off the Presidio, that being the "embarcadero" for the Mission, which was then the principal point of business. In the historical portion of this volume will be found a sketch of the early settlement of San Francisco, the name adopted for the town in 1847, it having previously been called Yerba Buena, the name still retained by the large island in the bay opposite the city.

Having already become an active village, with a population of several hundred, the growth of the place, greatly accelerated by the discovery of gold in 1848, expanded with unexampled rapidity on the arrival of the new immigration, a little more than one year thereafter. Its progress has since been steady and healthful, the establishment of manufactures, and the unbounded confidence felt in its future, having greatly hastened its growth during the past few years. But in its recent advancement it has by no means outstripped the requirements of its business and population, both of which have fully kept pace with its growth. The city now covers an area more than double that occupied by it ten years ago, its population and local industries having increased in a ratio even greater than its territorial expansion.

STREET GRADES, PUBLIC GROUNDS, ETC.

It is unfortunate that the city was originally projected with so little regard to regularity, to the natural inequalities of surface and its future wants as relates to width of streets, reservation of grounds for parks, public buildings, etc.; owing to which, the inhabitants have already been subject to great inconvenience and expense in attempting to partially supply these omissions and remedy these defects. Not a street in the city conforms in its course to the cardinal points of the compass; the whole town standing askew-its grand plot being made of a patch-work of surveys executed at different times and apparently without object or system. In this manner many of the streets and blocks are cut by awkward angles for which there was no necessity, while a large number of the streets entering the main avenues from opposite directions strike the same at points widely separated, whereby their continuity has been destroyed-suggesting, in the miner's phrase, the occurrence of a "slide."

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For this culpable neglect of system and foresight, no better excuse is to be found than the inability of the earlier settlers of the town to foresee its future greatness and the reckless indifference of those who came after, as to both its appearance and welfare.

In adjusting the street grades these grave mistakes have been further mutiplied, in an utter disregard of the topography, whereby dangerous precipices and unsightly chasms have been formed in the very heart of the town, through the costly and generally vain endeavor to reduce these natural inequalities of the surface. This system, while it has operated to the great detriment of property-holders, has in numerous instances also resulted in the permanent disfigurement of the city.

So narrow were many of the streets, which it should have been foreseen must become great thoroughfares, that it has lately been found necessary to widen several of them; while others, in consequence of a too abrupt termination, have required to be extended in order to accommodate the trade and travel of certain quarters, these prolongations causing irreparable defacement to the blocks and streets they are made to cross. In those parts of the town more recently laid out many of the above mentioned evils have been avoided. The citizens have also of late become earnestly interested in the subject of setting apart from the Pueblo lands ample reservations for school houses, parks, squares and similar purposes; therefore, it seems probable that San Francisco will in a short time be noted for the extent of its public grounds, if not for the costly style of their improvement. The city is already the owner of sixteen squares, ranging in size from one acre, or a little more, to seventeen acres the area of Yerba Buena, the largest of the number. The most of these The most of these squares contain four acres each, the area of the whole being 117.45 acres. Although nearly all of them are enclosed, only Portsmouth, the smallest of the number, and often called by way of distinction the "Plaza,” has been improved.

The greater portion of the earth removed in excavating the streets and grading lots has been used to fill in the tide lands, of which there is a large scope lying east of and in front of the city. Many of the sand-hills have also, through the aid of the steam-paddy and a resort to temporary railroads, been removed and employed to fill in the water lots along the city front, much of the eastern section of the town, comprising some of the principal business streets, standing wholly on

these made lands.

In designating the streets, the plan of naming, instead of number

ing or lettering, has been adopted; in the older parts of the town, the cognomens of early settlers having been largely used for the purpose, although our more national names, such as Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Clay, Webster, Scott, etc., have by no means been ignored. A few of those appellations common in English and American cities, such as Broadway, Front, Market, Main streets, and the like, are also found here. The Philadelphia, or rather, perhaps, we should say, the botanical plan, of naming the streets after certain well known trees, has not obtained to any great extent, the list being confined to four or five species. In the southern part of the town, a portion of the streets running southeast from Market, the back-bone of the city, have been numbered, some of those thus designated being named as well. For some of the streets south of Mission bay, names have been selected from the several States of the Union, interspersed among which, with characteristic confusion, are the names of California counties, and a sprinkling derived from other sources.

IMPROVEMENT OF WATER FRONT.

Originally the water along the city front was so shallow, except at a few bluff points, that large vessels could not approach within a quarter of a mile of the shore, necessitating the use of boats and lighters for receiving and landing freight and passengers. Soon, however, wharves resting on piles were built, extending sufficiently far into the bay to admit every class of craft lying along side them. Meantime the space between the outer end of these structures and high water line began to be filled in with earth, sand and rubbish carted in from the city, to which being superadded the surface wash and slum of the sewers, a mass of decomposing filth soon accumulated, which, besides offending the senses and imperiling the public health, threatened, by gradually settling outward, to fill up and destroy the harbor.

With a view to obviate these evils and arrest this danger, the plan of building a sea-wall having been determined upon, the construction of this work was commenced in 1867, and is now in progress; the intention being to prosecute it as rapidly as the revenues derived from the wharves will admit, these having been set aside for the purpose. This sea-wall, which is eventually to extend along the entire city front, a distance of 8,446 feet, is to be formed of a rocky embankment at the bottom, with a superstructure of solid granite, and will cost, when completed, according to estimate, about two and a half million dollars.

In the southeastern part of the city, large areas of the shallow waters bordering Mission bay have, within the past few years, been filled in

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