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Yeah, yeah. The following special is a production of Kron four Presents Mhm brought to you by your local Ford Stores. Good evening. I'm Tom cigarettes tonight and for the next four nights, Crown For will continue its award winning journey back in time. We've assembled an outstanding

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team of historians to bring you the power, the tragedy and the triumph of this incredible place we call home. And now KRON four presents San Francisco. Birth of the city. It was the New Eden, a place of discovery, conquest, desire. Its first

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inhabitants arrived thousands of years ago from Asia. A native people called Costa No one's me walk alone. They will be vanquished by colonial rule and religious intrusions. Yeah, a land of foreign exploration. It was the Spanish who discovered the Bay of San Francisco, built an army

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garrison, the Presidio and in 17 76 celebrated Catholic Mass on the site of the Church of Mission. Dolores, Spain will govern this part of her colonial empire for almost half a century until Mexico revolts and seizes control from a windswept land of sand dunes, chaparral and

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scrubby vegetation. A great city will rise and it will be named for a saint. Saint Francis of Assisi, the 19th century American Army officer, John Charles Fremont is captivated by the magic of the Bay and calls its entrance the Golden Gate. Transformed by the discovery of

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gold, this new Eden will become the epicenter of a great human drama, enchanting, nightmarish, filled with tragedy and triumph right from the beginning, From the time of all the visitors from all the world, the tip of the peninsula of San Francisco and the surrounding San Francisco

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Bay beckoned bespoke the possibilities that someday a great city would rise up here. The city of San Francisco was born during the time of Mexican rule, located halfway between the Presidio and Mission Dolores. It was originally called Yerba Buena Spanish for the Good Herb, which smelled

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of mint and was found growing in abundance on the hills overlooking it's Great natural harbor. William Richardson, an English seamen, became its first resident in 18 35. A year later, 26 year old Jacob police became Yerba Buena second resident. Born in Ohio, Lease came West to

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seek his fortune. I think he first came to San Francisco purely in a spirit of adventure, 96 year old Adrian Michaelis is the great grandson and oldest living relative of Jacob Police. He came to a land that was practically undeveloped, but he had the brains to

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see what the possibilities were. He was a merchant. He was a trader. He was a landowner. I would have called him an entrepreneur. Lee saw the potential of the bay and built his home and business on the street, which is known today as Grant Avenue to

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mark the occasion. Lease had a party on the Fourth of July. It was both housewarming and celebration of American independence. They seem to have had such a good time that in his diary he wrote that the celebration of the Fourth of July ended on the evening

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of the fifth, so I imagine they had a good time. Among the guests was General Mariano Vallejo, Mexico's commander of the Northern frontier of California. Vallejo brought his sister Rosalia to the party, and lease fell in love with her. They married a year later and would

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have 10 Children. Their first, a girl, also named Rosalia, was the first child born in the settlement of Yerba Buena Lease achieved success but eventually moved away. And though his later years were marked by failure, he will be remembered as a pioneer forever linked to the

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city's early days as a man who played a historic role in the beginnings of San Francisco. In the immediate years after Lisa's departure, Yerba Buena remained a small seaport of a few 100 residents, trading with ships from around the world. In 18 46 America went to

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war with Mexico and seized control of California a year later. Washington Bartlett, the Navy lieutenant who governed your Balbuena, renamed it San Francisco San Francisco. It will be changed forever by the fury of the Gold Rush. Yeah, there is no greater event in San Francisco's history

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than the Gold Rush, because San Francisco was both the birthplace and the gateway to the gold rush in January of 18 48 in the Sierra foothills, gold was discovered by James Marshall at Sutter's Mill on the American River. John Sutter wanted to keep it secret, but

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the extraordinary news of a gold strike soon leaked out. San Francisco's population was just over 800 when a Mormon merchant who published the town's first newspaper and became one of its first millionaires confirmed the discovery of gold. The gold rush didn't really get started until May

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12 18 48. And that's when a man by the name of Sam Brannan came down to San Francisco, marched across Portsmouth Square, waving a bottle of gold dust over his head, yelling Gold, gold, gold from the American River. By the end of the year, President James

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Polk officially announced the news to Congress and the rest of the world. The gold Rush was on, creating one of the greatest mass migrations in history. There was a time in 18 49 when the population of San Francisco was doubling every 10 days in San Francisco.

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Almost overnight was changed from a pastoral little village into a bustling metropolis. People came from everywhere overland across country. Bye see around Cape Horn, San Francisco's harbor soon filled with sailing ships from all over the world. Some 20,000 people came by the end of 48 100,000

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by the next year, and by the end of 18 52 a quarter million people had arrived in California. San Francisco was a multicultural city. From the start, you find Yankees, Southerners, Sin, Oren's Chileans, Australians, Chinese, Caracas or Hawaiians, Filipinos. Every type of cultural strain would be

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represented here. There were also Germans, Italians, blacks, European Jews and the Irish. Among San Francisco's largest immigrant groups were the French, who offered their new city a Parisian sense of style and urbanism. When you walked through the streets, according to American Uh, immigrants, you really felt

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that you were in Paris with all these Frenchmen sitting at cafes. Pretty French ladies serving them drinks, champagne. Of course. Even then, the remaining members of the original Spanish speaking California's like Vallejo, the Horror and Sanchez, who once governed and owned large rancheros, are now overwhelmed

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and internationalized during the cataclysmic moment of the gold rush. Uh huh, yeah, yeah, The Gold Rush jumpstart San Francisco, pushing it into a well deserved reputation for hedonism. Its population is dominated by young single males, fueled by goldust and looking for excitement in saloons, gambling houses

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and bordellos. On the low end, you have cribs which are are small wooden shanties where prostitutes plied their trade. Some of them would hang out of them naked to the waist, offering men to touch one breast for 10 cents to BREAST for 15 cents, or 25

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cents to a dollar. To step inside. Well, it was the world's greatest stag party. There's also many touching stories at that time of men who would literally break into tears when they would see a woman walking down the street or particularly Children. Children greatly affected the

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men at that time because there were so few families here. And so the site of a child was something that was just really extraordinary and and deeply touching for many of these men. Yeah, in 18 50 when California is admitted to the union, John Geary becomes

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the first mayor of San Francisco. And while the city has acquired a well deserved reputation for vice and sin, it is also a place of cultural good times, with dancers, singers, minstrels and troubadours and famous performers of the day like Lola Montes, Edwin Booth and Lotta

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Crabtree. Ever since the Gold Rush, San Francisco has been a theater town. It's a place where the miners love the dance halls and performers and especially the opera. The opera goes as far back as the city goes. Mm. San Francisco's first opera was performed at the

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French run Adelphi Theatre. The opera was La Sonnambula by Vincenzo Bellini. It was sung by senior Pellegrini's opera troupe three years after gold was discovered. Yeah, Uh huh. When birth of a city returns, the early years produce a dark side of violence, chaos and San Francisco

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under siege. Right, We now return to crown for presents. SAN Francisco Birth of a city. San Francisco, I believe, has the most disagreeable climate and locality of any city on the globe. The rainy season closes to what is miscalled summer, a season so cold that you

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require more clothing than you did in January, so damp with fogs and mists that you were penetrated to the very marrow so windy that if you are abroad in the afternoon, it is a continual struggle. Eliza W. Farnham. The city's early growth had a dark side.

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Living conditions were often unsanitary. There was a lack of safe drinking water, garbage on its muddy streets, even disease. A cholera outbreak in 18 50 claimed 500 lives. It was disease ridden. People died right and left. There were improper burial grounds at first, and it was

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just a disaster. A chaos. Mhm. Then came the fires. Between December of 18 49 and June of 18 51 there were six fires which destroyed much of the city, and he won description I came across. They talk about these flames being sucked underneath these wooden sidewalks,

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and these flames would go shooting along under the sidewalks and suddenly appeared in a totally different part of town. Yeah, some fires were accidental, but many were set purposely by a notorious group called the Sydney Town Ducks. Ex convicts from Australia who wanted to loot and

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rob the city was also unprepared for a more severe kind of lawless frontier mentality where men must carry guns for self protection. The situation finally gets so out of control that the town's leading businessmen essentially organized themselves as a private army as a private peacekeeping force,

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and they take the law into their own hands. Public frustration and outrage led to the formation of two committees of vigilance, one in 18 51 then a second five years later, a dangerous, violent time. There was fear of open insurrection during the turbulent summer of 56.

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In a letter to her daughter, Mary Jane McGuire revealed the fear of living in San Francisco. My dear Angie, many can neither eat nor sleep. They say law and order. People will plunder and burn the city, and there's no knowing what will become of women and

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Children. It looks very like war to go through our streets in the evening and see thousands of bayonets glimmering in the moonlight. The illegal takeover of San Francisco by the 8000 member Committee of Vigilance has no parallel in American history. It was, in effect, a coup

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d'etat by vigilantes who seized control of the existing government. No other American city has ever endured this kind of experience. Buried in the cemetery of Mission Dolores are two of the four men who were executed by the committee. Dozens were also jailed and banished. As for

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Mary Jane McGuire, she left San Francisco and never returned. By 18 57 almost a decade after James Marshall's historic discovery at Sutter's Mill, the value of gold taken out by the miners exceeded some $500 million. But San Francisco had become its own commercial emporium, built not

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by the miners who passed through but by the city's entrepreneurs and merchant class who made their own fortunes living in the fashionable neighborhood of Rincon Hill and South Park, where the city's well to do one of the things that's most interesting about the 18 fifties is

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the speed with which an aristocratic society formed itself in San Francisco. And the other interesting thing is that this early aristocracy is heavily Southern. So as the Civil War approaches, it actually becomes a question about whether whether California is actually going to stay in the union

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or not, because many of these the town's best citizens are siding with the Confederacy and want California to secede from the union as well. On a September morning in 18 59 those pre Civil War divisions collide in a deadly encounter between two of California's most important

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public figures. David Broderick is an Irishman from New York who came to San Francisco during the Gold Rush with political ambitions. At the age of 37 Broderick became a United States senator from California. Brought it, was a Democrat of the old pre Civil War Democratic Party,

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but was one of the people who did not want slavery. Wow, David Terry is a quick tempered Southerner from Texas who supports slavery. He arrived in San Francisco in 18 49 and became a justice of the California Supreme Court. Broderick and Terry had become bitter political

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opponents, often critical and insulting to each other. Their personal animosity led to Terry's ultimatum, so it challenges brought it to a duel near Lake, Mur said. In the early morning hours of September the 13th, 18 59 the two men face each other 30 paces apart. David

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Broderick fires the first shot and Mrs David Terry then takes aim and fires his weapon, hitting Broderick in the chest. Three days later, Broderick was dead. In effect, the Broderick Terry dual is a paradigm, a prophetic paradigm of the Civil War itself. In the last year

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of the decade, with its population now at 55,000, San Francisco has already emerged as the most important city in the West. It has published more newspapers than London. The Wells Fargo company was in business. A female doctor has established a medical practice on Dupont Street, and

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the cove of Yerba Buena was filled in creating the financial district. A little something, something you need, my love, Richard Henry Dana was a young seamen who came to San Francisco in 18 35 when it was a small, desolate trading post. 24 years later, Dana has

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returned. He was overwhelmed by the city's transformation. Sunday, August 14th when I awoke in the morning and looked from my window over the city of San Francisco with its store houses, towers and steeples. It's courthouses, theatres and hospitals. It's daily journals. It's learned professions. It's warps

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and harbors with their 1000 ton clipper ships. When I saw all these things and reflected on what I once was and saw here and what now surrounded me, I could scarcely keep my hold on reality at all. When birth of his city returns, San Francisco confronts

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the Civil War and a young Mark Twain arrives, we now return to crown for presents. SAN Francisco Birth of a city in April of 18 61 when the Confederates fired on Fort Sumter, it was the beginning of the Civil War, thousands of miles from its bloody

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fields of battle. The war will have an impact on California. Oh, yeah, San Francisco streets were filled with speech making and rallies. The patriotic Unitarian minister Thomas Starr. King made his impassioned pleas for the union cause in a plaza near his church, which will later be

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called Union Square. Because of its southern population, the city was a place of conspiracies and plots to take over California and establish a Confederate republic. Arrests were made in conspirators jailed on Alcatraz Island, where gun batteries were built to protect San Francisco from southern privateers. It

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was the riches of gold and silver, however, which caused the most serious concern. That's one reason the Confederacy, although never able to really pull together serious attempt to see San Francisco always lusted after it. If they could have blockaded San Francisco and kept the union from

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getting the gold and silver that could have strangled the union's war effort, California raised money for the union cause and sent a small number of troops off to war. Then, in April of 18 65 a few days after the Confederate surrender at Appomattox, San Francisco was

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again divided when President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. Although the majority of the uh city was in mourning, the southern contingent or many of them, pulled down their blinds and celebrated behind closed shutters the main street of the city. Montgomery Street is definitely the upper class district.

00:21:59.040 - 00:22:21.220

It is at the same time, the route in the pay of Paris, the Piccadilly of London and the Broadway of New York. Louis Lorant, Simenon. By the middle of the decade, there were over 15,000 buildings in the city. The Cliff House had opened. Saint Ignatius College,

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predecessor of the University of San Francisco, conferred its first degree, and Frank McKay Coppin was elected the first Irish born mayor of San Francisco in 18 67. Yeah, the Irish, the Irish came by the thousands fleeing the terrible famine of their homeland. When the gold rush

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of California was the world's greatest adventure, it was more than good California to the Irish with the Promised land. So was San Francisco. From Saint to sinner. The Irish were central to the city's evolution. They became its cops and firemen, bankers, physicians, tailors, blacksmiths, lawyers and

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politicians. The Irish settled in the Mission District, Bernal Heights and south of market neighborhoods. Dublin born engineer Jasper O'Farrell laid out San Francisco streets, including his grand design of Market Street, which so angered property owners that he was almost lynched. Irish immigrant Peter Donahue established the

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city's first ironworks, Streetcar railway and gasworks company ancestor of PG Any. The Pacific Gas and Electric Company. The Irish were also theater impresarios like Tom McGuire. He was one of the finest local men that ever came to this city, Uh, and Dress the part high stakes

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gambler who loved opera and lost as many fortunes as he won. McGuire came during The Gold Rush, found work as a saloonkeeper and built grand theaters like the Jenny Lind and McGuire's Opera House. It wouldn't be right to ask Tom McGuire anything about payment. He was

00:24:14.550 - 00:24:30.070

the kind of person so people came not knowing where they're going to get paid or not. That's the way he ran. That's what made him such a character. McGuire filled his theaters with the great performers of the day. Like the noted actor James O'Neill, father of

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the future American playwright Eugene O'Neill. McGuire also brought to San Francisco the scandalous actress poet Ada Isaacs. Menken Mencken was the star of the action melodrama Mazeppa and McGuire paid her the rich sum of $500 a night to perform. Menken's most sensational moment occurred when she

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wrote a live stallion attired in a flesh colored costume, which made her appear almost nude. McGuire's investment paid off. Mencken was a box office smash when 30,000 people paid to see her perform during a two week period. She also overwhelmed a young Mark Twain, who wrote

00:25:12.290 - 00:25:34.940

that Mencken was a magnificent spectacle and dazzled my vision. Mhm. He was a riverboat pilot who fought briefly for the Confederates in the Civil War, sought refuge in the West mind silver in Nevada and turned to journalism. He also changed his name from Samuel Clemens to

00:25:34.940 - 00:25:52.750

Mark Twain. When he arrived in San Francisco in 18 64 from the silver boom in Virginia City, the 29 year old Twain took a job writing for the city's morning call newspaper of his new city. He wrote. I fell in love with the most cordial and

00:25:52.750 - 00:26:09.470

sociable city in the Union. After the sage brush and alkali deserts of the wash. Oh, San Francisco was a paradise to me. Mark Twain is all over the map. When he's writing here, he's going to the theater. He's reporting on the police. He's going to the

00:26:09.470 - 00:26:27.490

City Council meetings Twain instantly became famous with his celebrated story The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. And when he left San Francisco in the spring of 18 66 Twain was commissioned to write a series of letters for the Alta, California newspaper. It was in the West

00:26:27.500 - 00:26:44.050

that he found himself as a writer. Many of these letters contain small sketches that are clear four tellers of the kind of literature that you and I are familiar with Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, and I think that there's no doubt in my mind at all

00:26:44.060 - 00:27:11.500

that much of what we value in Martinez, a writer, was learned here in San Francisco. Yeah, when Birth of a City returns the story of San Francisco's greatest entrepreneur, William Chapman Ralston, we now return to crown for presents. San Francisco Birth of a City. Yeah, In

00:27:11.500 - 00:27:28.280

the same year that Mark Twain arrived in San Francisco, the Bank of California opened for business. And though the Civil War had an impact on the city's prosperity in the decade of the sixties, it's phenomenal. Growth was propelled by the riches of the Nevada silver discovery

00:27:28.290 - 00:27:47.190

of 18 59. What really wasn't the gold rush that built the city. The Gold rush got it going. It was really the Comstock lode built San Francisco and the great fortunes, the great fortunes of men like William Chapman Ralston. If you wanted to see the most

00:27:47.190 - 00:28:03.680

important man in San Francisco at that time, you didn't see the mayor. You went to see the banker Ralston. It was Ralston who founded the Bank of California. It was Ralston who monopolized the Comstock mines and then reinvested his wealth to help build San Francisco. Like

00:28:03.680 - 00:28:21.760

Mark Twain, Ralston came from the Midwest and worked on Mississippi riverboats in his youth. But unlike Twain, Ralston was obsessed with San Francisco and wanted to make it one of the great cities of the world. Ralston was one of the great early members of the robber

00:28:21.760 - 00:28:45.920

Baron generation, San Francisco style and great faults, but also a flamboyance, a love of life, entrepreneurial energy that was prophetic, really. The forces that would, in a very short time, make San Francisco the financial capital of the far west. Mm. Ralston prospered. This was his peninsula

00:28:45.920 - 00:29:10.390

estate south of San Francisco, located on the Belmont campus of the College of Notre Dame. Ralston Hall, as it is now called, was the showplace for entertaining the great and famous of the day. Like President Ulysses S. Grant, Me, anybody who was anybody just had to

00:29:10.390 - 00:29:34.350

come to Belmont had to get an invitation because it was a sign that you had arrived to be hosted by the most important man in the Far West. William Ralston. Yeah, mhm. A modified Italian villa. Ralston's four story, 80 room home had 55,000 square feet of

00:29:34.360 - 00:29:51.860

grand opulence. A staircase directed guests to a second floor opera box, which was designed after the one at the Paris Opera House. Ralston and his wife, Lizzie, in fact, didn't like dancing that much, so they'd sit up here on the second floor and these opera boxes

00:29:51.970 - 00:30:13.260

looking down on their guests, dancing below. Before his marriage to Lizzie Fry, Ralston had loved the granddaughter of New York tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt. The Vanderbilt did not care for Ralston and ST Louisa, his 19 year old granddaughter, to Europe to keep them apart. When Ralston's young

00:30:13.260 - 00:30:40.130

love returned home, she was sick and soon after died. Ralston never forgot her, and so Ralston carried a torch for her throughout his life. Apparently he always loved this woman, and Lizzie always knew that she was not his first choice. In the decade of the sixties,

00:30:40.130 - 00:31:02.200

San Francisco continued to expand. A new theatrical sheet called the Daily Dramatic Chronicle was published by the D Young brothers. The city had experienced the greatest rainfall in its history. In 18 62 when 49 inches fell on its streets, the Jewish synagogue Emmanuel was consecrated. The

00:31:02.200 - 00:31:27.530

volunteer fire department was now being paid in baseball. The San Francisco Pacific's were the state champions. Yeah, on October 21st, 18 68 a severe earthquake hit the city. This was the damage on Market Street. Yeah, Clay Street. The destruction of property was estimated at $400,000. Some

00:31:27.530 - 00:31:47.620

50 people were injured and five were killed. Mhm. The next year, the first dirigible on the West Coast, called the Avatar, made a successful steam powered flight at five miles an hour. And on May 10th, 18 69 at parliamentary point, Utah, a ceremony was conducted marking

00:31:47.620 - 00:32:09.630

the completion of the transcontinental railroad. California was now connected by rail with the rest of America. The railroad was the idea of Theodore Judah, a brilliant young engineer who was unable to interest San Francisco's financial community in supporting his dream due to turn to four Sacramento

00:32:09.630 - 00:32:39.130

businessmen. And they formed the Central Pacific Railroad. And they are the ones who became the Big Four. Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, Charles Crocker, Collis Huntington. All four were from East Coast working class backgrounds who came to California during the Gold Rush. Many people would believe that

00:32:39.130 - 00:32:57.690

the Big Four or less than honorable Men yes, they were about as ruthless as you can imagine. But they were very much the kind of admired figures of their time. Okay, construction began in 18 63 when Leland Stanford was California's governor, when delays were costing the

00:32:57.690 - 00:33:19.280

Big Four money. It was Charles Crocker who wanted to bring in Chinese labour to finish the job. Called Crocker's Pets, it was the Chinese who helped build the western half of the transcontinental railroad. Chinese worked hard, fast and cheap. They dug tunnels, carved roadbeds, helped lay

00:33:19.280 - 00:33:41.200

as many as 10 miles of track in a single day and chiseled into the solid granite of the Donner Pass near lake tile. Now imagine in subzero weather, hundreds of inches of snow and the Chinese thousands of them. And you know not only chipping away at

00:33:41.200 - 00:34:02.930

that solid granite but using explosives on a very, very difficult and harsh terrain. Of all, the Chinese died building that railroad. But in the warm glow of the extraordinary triumph and celebration in Utah, where Leland Stanford drove the ceremonial golden spike into the final rail of

00:34:02.930 - 00:34:24.860

the transcontinental railroad, the Chinese were no longer needed or wanted, and the dreamer, Theodore Judah, was dead. The Big Four became multi millionaires and dominated California's political and business landscape for the rest of the 19th century. Mhm. In the last year of the decade, when San

00:34:24.860 - 00:34:44.860

Francisco's population reaches 150,000, it's leading citizens believe the new railroad will stimulate trade with the rest of the country, creating a new economic bonanza. It is a false hope. When the boom does not happen, the city will again encounter one of the darkest periods in its

00:34:44.860 - 00:35:21.340

history. Yeah, when birth of a city returns, the cable car is born and in Chinatown, racism explodes into deadly violence. We now return to crown for presents. SAN Francisco Birth of a city Golden Gate Park, three miles long, half a mile wide, 1000 lush acres. It

00:35:21.350 - 00:35:41.210

is the great recreation ground of San Francisco, and I think even for a secular culture such as ours, it's as close as you get the holy ground. But when it's development began in 18 70 it was a place of politics, intrigue, squatters and sand. One newspaper

00:35:41.210 - 00:36:03.640

described the park's location as a dreary waste of shifting sand hills. It looked originally like the Sahara Desert. When he was 24 years old, William Hammond Hall became the park's first designer and superintendent. He does what many people feel is impossible begins growing a forest on

00:36:03.640 - 00:36:20.160

the sand dunes of western San Francisco, and many people felt he couldn't do it. But by the end of the 18 seventies, it was clear that it was going to work. Like Golden Gate Park, Nob Hill had also been a primitive wasteland. In time, it would

00:36:20.160 - 00:36:41.510

become the mecca of palatial living for San Francisco's rich and important. Leland Stanford built his mansion at the cost of $2 million which was a mechanical wonder. It had all of the latest devices and, for example, a seating area, which was surrounded by plants into which

00:36:41.510 - 00:37:02.530

were embedded mechanical birds. And at the push of a button, they would all burst into song. Charles Crocker's estate also cost two million and had an art collection worth over a million dollars. The home of Mark Hopkins cost $3 million so their houses, in fact, represent

00:37:02.540 - 00:37:22.150

both point of pride for San Franciscans and also arrogance because the railroad was so hated, uh, later in the 19th century, that these houses represent almost feudal nobility on top of the hill. But the spectacular growth of Nob Hill happened because of the invention of the

00:37:22.150 - 00:37:50.000

cable car. Mhm, yeah, Andrew Halladay was a brilliant Scott's inventor who, as early as the age of 18, was designing suspension bridges up in the Sierra. When Andrew Halliday arrived in San Francisco in 18 57 and opened business, the principal methods of public transportation were horse

00:37:50.000 - 00:38:13.560

drawn carriages and steam cars. Neither was satisfactory for San Francisco's imposing hills, but Halladay had been successful with his system of wire rope hauling gold and miners out of the Sierras, and he adapted these continuous cables for the or skips to the cable car by running

00:38:13.560 - 00:38:37.220

them in a slot in the street. Halliday's continuous street cable was powered by a steam generator. Cynics called it Halliday's folly. Okay, but on the cold and foggy morning of August 2nd 18 73 history was made with friends on board and Halladay at the controls because

00:38:37.220 - 00:38:55.340

the grip man had fled in fear at the last moment, the first San Francisco cable car made a run from Nob Hill, downplay street to Kerney and then back up play streets. Steep 300 ft grade. The cable car had a tremendous impact on the spread of

00:38:55.340 - 00:39:17.330

San Francisco because they could go anywhere, they could go up the steepest hill, and they could go out even into the sand dunes. And so everywhere that the cable cars were built, the land values appreciated and houses sprang up like mushrooms after a rain. Two years

00:39:17.330 - 00:39:36.400

after Halliday's success, William Ralston built the Palace Hotel at a cost of $7 million. One local newspaper called it the finest hotel on the face of the Earth. City was only 25 years old, and here it had this magnificent hotel that would have been at home

00:39:36.400 - 00:40:00.150

in New York, Paris or Berlin. Occupying 2.5 acres on Market Street, the palace was seven stories high and had a drive thru entrance for guests arriving by carriage. There was Irish lemon China from Bavaria, Parisian trained chefs and a bar tended by 30 men. It was

00:40:00.150 - 00:40:18.090

often said that California was in fact run not from Sacramento but from the bar of the Palace Hotel. Everybody who was anybody drank at the Palace Hotel, stayed there, lived there or kept their mistresses in the Palace Hotel. But William Ralston would never live to see

00:40:18.090 - 00:40:41.220

the Palace Hotel open. Mhm, the seventies were financially turbulent. There was rampant speculation. Fortunes won and lost overnight. In 18 74 there were 58 suicides in San Francisco the next year, 64 and Ralston, the financial autocrat of the Pacific, was involved in the struggle of his

00:40:41.220 - 00:41:01.240

life. He's an entrepreneur, but he takes risks, and Ralston's deals went very, very bad. In the 18 seventies, Ralston's empire was in a great deal of trouble. He was heavily in debt over extended and in Nevada when a rival mining company, the Consolidated Virginia, discovered the

00:41:01.240 - 00:41:26.370

richest of all the silver veins of the Comstock in 18 73 his stranglehold on the vata silver came to an end. It was the stake in Ralston's heart. Ralston eventually lost, his money went bankrupt suddenly and the bank collapsed on August 26 18 75. It was

00:41:26.370 - 00:41:45.250

called Black. Friday, the Bank of California closed its doors and William Ralston was finished when it was revealed that he had essentially embezzled up to a $4.5 million from his bank, in fact, was forced to resign by the board and then went for his daily swim

00:41:45.250 - 00:42:01.720

and didn't come back alive. A physician, John Pittman, was one of the last two c. Raulston alive before the banker took his swim in the cold waters of the bay. Pittman described the afternoon of his friend's death as blazing hot, the city of furnace of heat.

00:42:02.900 - 00:42:21.710

He drowned in San Francisco Bay, and to this day people debate whether it was suicide or whether it was stress. Yeah, At around sunset, Ralston's body was taken from the water near Leavenworth Hill. William Chapman Ralston, the builder and visionary of San Francisco, was dead at

00:42:21.710 - 00:42:44.860

the age of 49. There was a tremendous feeling among San Francisco that a great man who died and his funeral was huge. Huge. Ralston's funeral procession was three miles long. Thousands of people the wealthy, the prestigious and the workers. So you have. You have this tremendous

00:42:44.870 - 00:43:22.230

outpouring of affection for them. Yeah, okay. Mhm, mhm. A little bit, the Chinese exotic, often called celestial ALS, they helped build California. In addition to their work on the railroad, the Chinese mined gold reclaimed lands in the delta, where California's first migrant workers in San Francisco

00:43:22.230 - 00:43:42.110

they built successful businesses. Yeah, tolerated after their gold Rush arrival. Their acceptance was short lived. The idea of San Francisco is a place of tolerance and liberality, and everything is a recent construct. And in fact, if you look back in the newspapers at that time, they

00:43:42.110 - 00:44:03.460

are viciously racist. The cartoons, the way that that various ethnic groups were reported, it didn't very much from other cities. At that time, it was open field day on virtually anybody, unless you were white Anglo Saxon Protestant. In the fifties, a series of laws were enacted

00:44:03.460 - 00:44:22.180

against the Chinese. They could not vote on land, attend school with whites. There was even a pigtail ordinance, which required them to cut off their traditional cues. The long braided hair worn down there back the Chinese were also not allowed to testify against whites in a

00:44:22.180 - 00:44:41.190

court of law, which means that if a Chinese got murdered or beaten or robbed by a white, the testimony cannot be using court against the assault or robbery. So so it was, You know, that's how the phrase Chinaman's chance, you know, came to our language that,

00:44:41.200 - 00:45:10.170

you know, Chinese really had zero stands, uh, in in in a very racially hostile environment. And so many Chinese withdrew eventually into what we now call you know, Chinatown's urban ghettos and, in fact, China and how it's really institutional. Monument for racism. When unemployment and depression

00:45:10.170 - 00:45:31.150

impacted San Francisco in the seventies, big business and labor engaged in a bitter economic struggle. Chinese became a natural scapegoat for unemployed white workers. One of the most violent incidents against the Chinese occurred on July 23rd, 18 77 when angry mobs attacked them and destroyed a

00:45:31.150 - 00:45:51.990

number of their businesses. Police and the quickly formed Committee of Safety fought running battles with the rioters you had at one point a federal gun boat anchored offshore of San Francisco in case the city, uh, succumbed totally to rioting. The rage and frustration continued two days

00:45:51.990 - 00:46:10.900

later when a rumor spread that the Pacific Mail Steamship company had brought in more Chinese immigrants. The Beale Street dwarf was set on fire. Shooting broke out. When it was over, 18 were wounded and four were dead. The summer of discontent had reached its flash point.

00:46:12.580 - 00:46:31.640

I mean, when you read these things, there's a strong sense of rage. How could this be? Six months after the anti Chinese riots, representatives of the Chinatown community seeking justice delivered an impassioned address before a joint committee of the Senate and House of Representatives of the

00:46:31.640 - 00:46:55.350

United States. Where is that liberty Your fathers fought for that? A mob led by aliens can undisturbed hold their daily gatherings and threatened to hang your best citizens, burn their property and denounce them as thieves. Okay, we do not desire to approach you as supplements as

00:46:55.350 - 00:47:31.210

one of the fundamental principles of this great government is that all men are born free and equal When birth of a city returns San Francisco's infamous Barbary Coast and the notorious world of Shanghai Ng. We go on down to Pacific Street, the roughest and least Pacific

00:47:31.210 - 00:47:54.880

of the streets on the Barbary Coast. The whole street for half a dozen blocks is literally swarming with the scum of creation. Albert S. Evans. The Barbary Coast was a legendary no man's land of saloons, bordellos, gambling joints and opium dens. Actress Sarah Bernhardt called it

00:47:54.890 - 00:48:14.720

the most Fascinatingly wicked place on earth. The location of the Barbary Coast was in the heart of San Francisco's waterfront district of Broadway Pacific in Jackson streets. It took its name from the infamous, pirate infested Barbary Coast region of North Africa. There were a lot of

00:48:14.720 - 00:48:33.470

people who were looking for quick and easy money, uh, in the Barbary Coast at night. And, uh, you had to keep your wits about you. There was murder. There was mayhem. The Barbary Coast was also the center of the vicious and abusive slave trade called Shanghai

00:48:33.470 - 00:49:02.030

nine. San Francisco was the most notorious Shanghai import in the world during the 18 eighties and later Shanghai. It was illegal. At times, even murderous unsuspecting victims were beaten into submission. But most often, they were supplied with Mickey Finns. Drinks of alcohol spiked with drugs. After

00:49:02.030 - 00:49:17.890

passing out, the victim was taken to a ship anchored in the bay, bound for ports around the world like Shanghai. The next thing he knows, he's 50 or 100 miles outside the Golden Gate, headed for the Arctic Ocean on a one or two year whaling voyage

00:49:19.470 - 00:49:38.750

with the price of around $100 per body. Fortunes were made in this human slave trade, and Shanghai went on from 18 49 until about 1915 here for a period of 65 years. So if you say 2000 people per year was shanghaied for 65 years, that was

00:49:38.750 - 00:50:19.170

130,000 people. It was a very, very cruel practice. In the eighties, the notorious and corrupt Chris Buckley became San Francisco's first political boss. The eccentric, self appointed Emperor Norton, one of the city's most legendary characters, died. Comstock millionaire George Hearst became the owner of

00:50:19.170 - 00:50:39.610

a local newspaper, the San Francisco Examiner, and when his 23 year old son, William Randolph Hearst, assumed control, Young Hearst hired the best talent available. Writers like Ambrose Bierce and Jack London on Broadway in 18 86 Fior d'Italia, the oldest Italian restaurant in the country, opened

00:50:39.610 - 00:50:57.920

for business. It was located in the heart of North Beach, home of the Italians. This was very much like they're Italy that they had left behind the bay, the blue waters of the Mediterranean, the sunny climate. The first Italians came from the northern provinces of Genoa

00:50:57.920 - 00:51:19.910

and Tuscany, and they settled in the Latin Quarter district near Telegraph Hill in the 18 fifties. Later, immigrants arrived from Naples, Luca in Sicily. Luxury inns and Tuscans were garden farmers who turned sand dunes into fertile patches of lettuce and artichokes. Geno ease and Sicilian fishermen

00:51:19.910 - 00:51:39.280

sailed there for Lucas in search of the rich harvest in San Francisco's Bay A P. Giannini made a small fortune in the wholesale produce business, retired at age 31 then formed the Bank of Italy, which eventually became the world's largest. The Bank of America. An Italian

00:51:39.280 - 00:52:00.460

merchant, Domingo Ghirardelli, brought chocolate from Peru and established a lasting business, and this is right with the gold rush, right with those early gold rush settlers, he comes into San Francisco, he sets up shop starts to make chocolate. He's very successful. So he's the first of

00:52:00.460 - 00:52:32.070

the Italian, uh, big time entrepreneurs. The Italians build their own community in North Beach, and they will become American. Yeah, it was also that way for the Jews. This is the Haas Lilienthal house, and it was built in 18 86. This storybook home is also a

00:52:32.070 - 00:52:55.520

symbol of how important and successful the city's Jewish merchant class was in the 19th century. They became bankers millionaire manufacturers, leaving behind centuries of European anti Semitism and persecution for the Gold rush in 18 49. Most were Jews from Germany who assimilated easily into this new

00:52:55.520 - 00:53:18.320

world. Here they practice their religion and retained their Jewish traditions. But there were some who celebrated Easter and Christmas. They came here at the same time with other pioneers, and they suffered the same deprivations and the same successes as others. The Jews transformed their lives from

00:53:18.320 - 00:53:40.840

modest shop keepers and miners to real estate developers and department store magnates. Levi Strauss built an empire selling blue jeans to minors. Solomon Gump created a retail establishment importing elegant treasures from around the world. Gump's became a San Francisco landmark the Jews raised families, built major

00:53:40.840 - 00:54:04.810

industrial enterprises and impacted the city's politics, higher education and philanthropy. They really felt that it belonged to them. They were part of it. Like in no other city in the United States here they had an equal chance. When birth of a city returns, San Francisco becomes

00:54:04.810 - 00:54:31.510

a winter wonderland, and life for its black citizens turns bitter sweet. In addition to the Hurst's, another of the city's important newspaper families were the Dionne's. Their original 18 65 theater sheet was now called the Daily Morning Chronicle. The paper had acquired a reputation for bold

00:54:31.510 - 00:54:49.700

and aggressive reporting, but it was also known for another very colorful and contentious brand of journalism. In fact, it was said that the Chronicle specialized in blackmail, extortion, stock, jobbing, virtually anything you could imagine. But it's what people wanted to read, and it gave the Dionne's

00:54:49.700 - 00:55:10.070

power, and it gave them wealth. It also gave the three brothers enemies. Silver millionaire James Flood had a serious encounter with Charles de Young, the editor of the paper. Mr. De Young was down on my great grandfather. For some reason. I'm not sure what reason, but

00:55:10.070 - 00:55:23.890

anyway So he started publishing all sorts of quote inaccurate statements about great grandfather or cookie was and this and that finding my great grandfather got fed up with in the paper and he went down with a revolver and he said to Mr De Young in his

00:55:23.890 - 00:55:42.050

office, he says, I intend to use this on you next time you publish something about me and walked out of the office and there was never anything printed about my great grandfather after that. So he got his point across, I guess. Mm. There was more. In

00:55:42.050 - 00:56:02.230

18 79 Charles de Young, the oldest of the brothers, engaged in a bitter public feud with Baptist Minister Isaac Colleague, who was running for mayor of San Francisco. Chronicle published unflattering details of colleagues, passed the most sensational that Colic was an adulterer, and the minister then

00:56:02.240 - 00:56:21.160

attacks Charles de Young from the pulpit, claiming that the mother, too young, ran a whorehouse in ST Louis. Charles de Young was outraged at the insult to the family name. He confronted the minister and shot him. Colic recovered from his wounds and was elected mayor. But

00:56:21.160 - 00:56:42.540

the young continued his attacks into the next year, it would cost him his life. The minister's son went over to the Chronicle offices and shot Charles Dead. Charles de Young was dead at the age of 35. The minister's son was tried for murder and acquitted. Mhm.

00:56:43.530 - 00:56:58.010

Michael D. Young was now the publisher of The Chronicle. Michael D. Young doesn't seem to learn much from his brother's fate because, in fact, in the UH, early 18 eighties, he takes on the Spreckels family and the Spreckels family were just too big and too mean

00:56:58.010 - 00:57:22.660

to take on. Mm. Michael D. Young published frequent stories and editorials alleging fraud and other misconduct by the Spreckels Hawaiian commercial and sugar company. Adolph Spreckels sought revenge in November of 18 84. He confronted the young and shot him twice. The young survived. Spreckels was later

00:57:22.660 - 00:57:41.970

tried for attempted murder and acquitted. Generally in this realm of society at that time, you can get off at reasonable cause very easily. There seem to have been almost no libel laws at that time, which makes the newspaper reading incredibly colorful and exciting today that the

00:57:41.970 - 00:58:15.430

Youngs newspaper is published as the San Francisco Chronicle. Yeah, during the eighties, the Geary Street Railroad was in service, the city's police force expanded to 400. And the celebrated English writer Oscar Wilde, visiting San Francisco, referred to Lillie Langtry, the star attraction at the Baldwin Theater,

00:58:15.440 - 00:58:39.800

as the lily of love. Yeah, in the early winter of 87 San Francisco became a winter wonderland when a snowstorm covered the city. It was an uncommon sight. The white flakes fell all day as much as seven inches of snow accumulated on Twin Peaks. It was

00:58:39.800 - 00:59:04.030

the city's greatest snowfall. But beneath San Francisco's quiet charm and beauty lay a bittersweet reality of promise unfulfilled. Yeah, the antipathy towards the Chinese continued when national exclusionary laws were enacted prohibiting Chinese immigration and the opportunity for U. S citizenship. In the decade of the eighties,

00:59:04.040 - 00:59:25.010

San Francisco also became a city of contradictions for its black population. Like the Chinese black pioneers arrived in San Francisco during the Gold Rush, they came overland, with Army Officer John Fremont as sailors on ships from Panama and around the horn as freedmen and slaves looking

00:59:25.010 - 00:59:43.040

for the promise of a better life where men like George Washington Dennis could buy his freedom and the freedom of his mother, where pre Gold Rush pioneers like William Leinsdorf could prosper, build the city's first hotel on a steamship company and serve as San Francisco's treasurer.

00:59:44.020 - 01:00:04.790

A place as promising as California probably meant much more to them than it did to others because it gave them an an area to exercise the freedom, economic freedom, social freedom that they wouldn't have in the South. In San Francisco, blacks established their own churches, built

01:00:04.790 - 01:00:25.490

homes, published newspapers. Most were working class people. A few had small businesses. Some owned real estate. Eventually, black suffered from the same discrimination as the Chinese. Blacks could not vote, serve on a jury, hold public office. Anyone who wanted to take advantage of them could they

01:00:25.490 - 01:00:45.140

couldn't testify in court. Their Children went to segregated school in San Francisco in the 18 fifties and 18 sixties. Blacks were also not allowed to ride San Francisco streetcars. Among those who filed suit was Mary Ellen Pleasant, a successful boarding house keeper of wealth and influence

01:00:45.150 - 01:01:06.990

who had been removed from the city streetcar in 18 66 because of her race. After long and difficult legal battles, California finally enacted an anti discrimination law allowing blacks access to public transportation. The year was 18 93. The struggle for civil rights was unending. Blacks could

01:01:06.990 - 01:01:28.310

not overcome their lack of political power, white prejudice and white labor unions. The Palace Hotel incident typifies the promise of San Francisco and also the paradox. In 18 75 when the Palace Hotel opened, some 200 service jobs went to blacks. But that all changed in the

01:01:28.310 - 01:01:49.180

eighties with the rise of the labor movement sweeping the country. They start, uh, consolidating their power and taking away the traditional jobs the African Americans held black men who had jobs in hotels. Responsible positions were replaced through one rules or another by white working men, and

01:01:49.180 - 01:02:12.060

that was it. By the end of the decade, San Francisco's population was approximately 300,000. The number of black citizens in the city was around 1800. Their population was small, and it would remain that way for all of the 19th century, when birth of a city returns

01:02:12.070 - 01:02:40.240

San Francisco's destiny as the Paris of the Pacific, we now return to crown for presents. SAN Francisco Birth of a city. After the matinee on Saturday afternoons, market Street from Powell. Take Ernie was a popular promenade where many of the city's interesting figures passed in review

01:02:40.250 - 01:03:06.230

actors, writers, politicians and celebrities of the supporting fraternity with pretty women to send them flaunting glances. Amelia Ransom Neville. It was the decade of the gay nineties and ragtime music, and one in four Californians lived in San Francisco from their gold Rush population. Of some 8%.

01:03:06.300 - 01:03:27.730

Women were now almost half the state's population is Adora Duncan, who would become a world famous dancer? Was teaching dance at the age of 14 in 18 92 in college football, the first big game was played. Stanford defeated California 14 to 10, at the Haight Street

01:03:27.730 - 01:03:46.250

Field and to the women of the city who offered flaunting glances. He was known as Pompadour Jim, but James J. Corbett of San Francisco was better known to the boxing world as gentleman. Jim Corbett became the heavyweight champion of the world when he knocked out the

01:03:46.250 - 01:04:04.920

legendary John L. Sullivan in the 21st round of their championship fight in New Orleans. Corbett would remain the heavyweight champion for almost five years and the Irish Americans, even though Corbett was Irish they resented the fact that they're great. Idol John L. Sullivan had been beaten

01:04:04.920 - 01:04:28.060

by this upstart dude. They called Corbett. Corbett was a clotheshorse gentleman. Jim was something that he relished. It was called the Midwinter International Fair, and it opened in January of 18 94 and Golden Gate Park, promoted by civic leaders like publisher Michel de Young to help

01:04:28.060 - 01:04:51.130

boost the local economy. Adversely affected by a worldwide depression, visitors were entertained by a wide variety of pavilions, trade exhibits, animal acts, bans, restaurants and concessions. It was California's first world's fair, and in the six months it was open, 2.5 million people attended. That same year,

01:04:51.140 - 01:05:11.940

San Francisco, weary of political corruption and fearful of its precarious business climate, elected a new mayor, Adolph Sutro. Highly popular 65 year old millionaire oppression Ju Adolph Sutro came to San Francisco in 18 51 ran a mercantile business and went to Nevada. When the Comstock Lode

01:05:11.940 - 01:05:32.460

was discovered, Sutro built a mining tunnel, sold out for millions and returned to San Francisco, buying some 10% of the city's real estate. He also built a great private estate overlooking the Pacific, the world famous Sutro baths in 18 96 and rebuilt the Cliff House, one

01:05:32.460 - 01:05:48.070

of the city's great social gathering places. And he was a great art collector at the same time. A great bibliophile. He collected whole libraries in Europe and brought them to San Francisco. This is the root of the Sutro Library, which is still here today. When he

01:05:48.070 - 01:06:09.090

was elected San Francisco's 24th mayor, Sutro was the city's first Jewish mayor, one of the most colorful, all San Francisco citizens and certainly of its mayors. Uh, he's only mayor for two years, in fact, and he's not used to operating in a corrupt and democratic system.

01:06:09.100 - 01:06:32.370

And so he, in fact, leaves office totally insane. He scarcely knows who he is when he leaves office and only lives for a year longer. It was a very sad end to an extremely illustrious career. San Francisco in the nineties continued to flourish. The ferry building

01:06:32.380 - 01:06:54.600

opened at the foot of Market Street. The de Young museum became a permanent fixture in Golden Gate Park. The shoots provided entertainment on Haight Street, and in January of 18 97 James Duval Filin was inaugurated as the last mayor of San Francisco in the 19th century.

01:06:55.180 - 01:07:16.520

Urbane, sophisticated, aristocratic, the 36 year old Fillon wanted to make his city the equal to Europe's great capitals. Mm San Francisco, by 18 99 is the undisputed leader, urban center of the Far West. It's a period of great optimism for San Francisco. They feel that everything

01:07:16.520 - 01:07:36.450

is going their way and nothing can go wrong or stop them from their destiny. Becoming the Paris of the Pacific. Yeah, In the five decades since the Gold Rush, San Francisco emerged from its humble beginnings as a small trading post to a thriving an important metropolis

01:07:36.450 - 01:07:58.760

which controlled California's destiny. The Spanish American War of 18 98 had also transformed San Francisco and the Presidio from a minor frontier outpost to the most important military base in the Pacific and the gateway to Asia. It's the last year of a remarkable decade, and Frank

01:07:58.770 - 01:08:16.010

Norris, young San Francisco writer, writes one of the most charming novels ever written. Sent in San Francisco Blix Ble X, in which in 18 99 the two lovers based upon Norris and his wife stand on the high hill in the Presidio overlooking the Golden Gate and

01:08:16.010 - 01:08:41.890

think of their joy and their sense of good fortune of being here in this great world city. In this great site at the dawn of a new century. Mhm, mhm San Francisco convulsed, endured, prospered from sand dunes to grand avenues. It's life in the 19th century

01:08:41.890 - 01:09:13.240

was filled with epic drama The Gold Rush, A world migration, great wealth and fortunes, Vendetta and retribution Racism, scandal, Empire Building. In the end, though, San Francisco's story was the story of its people, countless builders and dreamers Uncommon, imperfect, remarkable men and women who saw possibilities,

01:09:13.250 - 01:09:50.150

wanted to make a new life and proved that anything was possible In San Francisco. In the last year of the 19th century, the population of the city by the Golden Gate was approximately 350,000. San Francisco had become the New Eden. Yeah. Mm hmm. Mm. Yeah,

01:09:51.570 - 01:11:28.070

Yeah. Mhm. Mm. Yeah, yeah. Mm. Mm hmm. Yeah, Yeah, yeah. No. Yeah. Mhm. Mhm. Yeah. Mm. Mhm for tomorrow night on crown for a devastating earthquake strikes the city

01:11:28.070 - 01:11:47.800

of San Francisco in 19 oh, six, killing thousands. The subsequent fire leaves over a quarter million people homeless and a city on the brink of extinction. That's next time on crown for presents. San Francisco into the fire to learn more about San Francisco Birth of a

01:11:47.800 - 01:12:02.190

city go to crown. Four dot com. SAN Francisco Birth of a city was the production of KRON four presents brought to you by your local Ford store.