alize on the
wealth generated by the Gold Rush. Early winners were the banking industry,
with the founding of Wells Fargo in 1852 and the Bank of California in 1864.
Development of the Port of San Francisco and the establishment in 1869 of
overland access to the Eastern U.S. rail system via the newly completed Pacific
Railroad (the construction of which the city only reluctantly helped support)
helped make the Bay Area a center for trade. Catering to the needs and tastes
of the growing population, Levi Strauss opened a dry goods business and Domingo
Ghirardelli began manufacturing chocolate. Immigrant laborers made the city a
polyglot culture, with Chinese railroad workers creating the city's Chinatown
quarter. In 1870, Asians made up 8% of the population. The first cable cars
carried San Franciscans up Clay Street in 1873. The city's sea of Victorian
houses began to take shape, and civic leaders campaigned for a spacious public
park, resulting in plans for Golden Gate Park. San Franciscans built schools,
churches, theaters, and all the hallmarks of civic life. The Presidio developed
into the most important American military installation on the Pacific coast. By
1890, San Francisco's population approached 300,000, making it the eighth
largest city in the U.S. at the time. Around 1901, San Francisco was a major
city known for its flamboyant style, stately hotels, ostentatious mansions on
Nob Hill, and a thriving arts scene. The first North American plague epidemic
was the San Francisco plague of 1900–1904.
At 5:12 am on April 18, 1906, a major
earthquake struck San Francisco and northern California. As buildings collapsed
from the shaking, ruptured gas lines ignited fires that spread across the city
and burned out of control for several days. With water mains out of service,
the Presidio Artillery Corps attempted to contain the inferno by dynamiting
blocks of buildings to create
