Forget the hackneyed "leaving your heart" business. There was a time when San Francisco was tough as nails and replete with sails. It was the Paris of the West, the new metropolis of Manifest Destiny. If you wanted or needed the sweet thrills of a proper city, you went to San Francisco. It was a modern, imperial city, and was the largest, most hip, port on the United States Pacific rim. There was New York, Chicago, then San Francisco.
How did the train jump its tracks, then? How did this staunch shipyard stalwart turn into a gentrified dandy? Let's start with a little jog down memory lane. The city was built in large part thanks to the influx of people and capital from the Gold Rush. They're called the 49ers for a reason, savvy? This set up the town as a port of call and a banking hub.
It faced the Great Quake of'06 head-on and watched the city burn. But, it rebuilt itself into one of the old financial centers that actually beat back the Stock Market Crash of'29. While the rest of the country was taking shelter from the Dust Bowl, San Francisco was building bridges and buildings galore.
It became one of three primary embarkation spots for boys shipping out to the Pacific theater in WWII. After the war, the city was booming with big bucks and new influx of former service men and laborers. The suburbs expanded, and downtown and the financial district were Manhattanized with a slew of skyscrapers.
You add one part development projects and one part booming local economy and you've got a recipe for massive gentrification. The influx of nearly 300,000 new residents to a seven-by-seven mile wide peninsula, and you can see how only the very wealthy can afford to live in the City By the Bay. The best most of use can hope for is booking a beautiful little bedroom in a happening San Francisco hotel.
How did the train jump its tracks, then? How did this staunch shipyard stalwart turn into a gentrified dandy? Let's start with a little jog down memory lane. The city was built in large part thanks to the influx of people and capital from the Gold Rush. They're called the 49ers for a reason, savvy? This set up the town as a port of call and a banking hub.
It faced the Great Quake of'06 head-on and watched the city burn. But, it rebuilt itself into one of the old financial centers that actually beat back the Stock Market Crash of'29. While the rest of the country was taking shelter from the Dust Bowl, San Francisco was building bridges and buildings galore.
It became one of three primary embarkation spots for boys shipping out to the Pacific theater in WWII. After the war, the city was booming with big bucks and new influx of former service men and laborers. The suburbs expanded, and downtown and the financial district were Manhattanized with a slew of skyscrapers.
You add one part development projects and one part booming local economy and you've got a recipe for massive gentrification. The influx of nearly 300,000 new residents to a seven-by-seven mile wide peninsula, and you can see how only the very wealthy can afford to live in the City By the Bay. The best most of use can hope for is booking a beautiful little bedroom in a happening San Francisco hotel.
About the Author:
Come on, baby, get into the swing of Fog City. Book your tickets, scour the San Francisco hotels, and get to the third-most visited tourist destination in the nation.
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