The discovery of gold in 1848 brought immense trade to the port and caused rapid growth, leading to the incorporation of San Francisco as a city in 1850. The "Pony Express" established means of communication with the East in 1860 and the first transcontinental railroad was put into operation in 1869.

The Great Fire of 1906 reduced the business section to nothing but great ruins and ashes, doing an estimated $500.000.000 dollars worth of damage and taking more than 400 lives. With the enormous expenditure of time, money, energy and courage – a greater, bigger, more beautiful city arise from the ruins of the old San Francisco.

San Francisco Bay, one of the world's largest land-locked harbors is about 50 miles long and from 3 to 12 miles wide. Huge wharves and warehouses have been built lo accommodate the extensive sea-borne trade. The chief articles of export are cereals, flour, canned fruit, gold, silver, petroleum products and cotton.

Market Street, running east and west, is San Francisco’s chief thoroughfare. The handsome War Memorial building houses a museum as well as the city opera and symphony. San Francisco's Chinatown is world famed – an intriguing and interesting bit of the East in America: the Latin Quarter: Golden Gate Park; Dolores Mission dating from 1776; Cliff House and the Presidio, now a government reservation, are other Interesting spots.