 San
Francisco
If you are looking to escape the heat of the
summer than there is no place other than San Francisco. Mark
Twain once said that the coldest winter he had ever spent
was the summer in San Francisco. The temperature during the
year does not come down below +5oC, its perturbation
are not remarkable, but you can live several seasons during
one day. The temperature range is +5oC - +17oC
in winter/spring time and +12oC - +21oC
in summer/autumn seasons. San Francisco is located in seismic-active
zone, so according to the seismological data about 100 shocks
less than 1 ball can be registered every month.
San Francisco has some fantastic sites to see
while you are escaping the sun. Golden Gate Bridge,
Fishermans Wharf and Embarcadero, Alcatraz,
Union Square, China Town, Museums, Trolly Cars, Market Street
(the business center), North Beach (so called
"small Italy"), Civic Center, End of Land
(in park Sutro) and more restaurants than people.
In our days San Francisco (never call it "Frisco",
locals call it "the city") remains to be one of
the most beautiful, romantic, tolerate and colorful cities
in the world.
European discovery and exploration of the San Francisco
Bay Area and its islands began in 1542 and culminated
with the mapping of the bay in 1775.
Early visitors to the Bay Area were preceded
10,000 to 20,000 years earlier, however, by the native people
indigenous to the area. Prior to the coming of the Spanish
and Portuguese explorers, over 10,000 indigenous people, later
to be called the Oholone (a Miwok Indian word meaning "western
people"), lived in the coastal area between Point Sur
and the San Francisco Bay.
In 1579 Captain Drake and crew, midway through their piratical
circumnavigation of the globe, steered their Golden Hind into
a foggy North Pacific cove surrounded by buff cliffs that
reminded them of the White Cliffs of Dover. They stayed five
weeks at the place they dubbed Nova Albion, repairing and
supplying the ship and getting along famously with the natives.
The first colonizing party arrived in 1776 to found the Presidio
of San Francisco.
Then the Mission of San Francisco de Asis
was officially dedicated (9 Oct). The name eventually became
the Mission de los Dolores de nuestro Padre San Francisco
de Asis, and currently is referred to simply as Mission Dolores.
La Misiуn de San Francisco de Asis (Mission Dolores) is designated
as Registered Landmark Number One of the City and County of
San Francisco. The Mission Church is the oldest intact building
in San Francisco, and one of the oldest Mission Churches in
California.
The first significant contact between the Russians
and the Spanish came in April 1806. Nikolai Resanov
had arrived in Sitka the previous year as an "imperial
inspector and plenipotentiary of the Russian-American Company."
The Russian-American Company has been founded
by Gregor Shelikov in 1799 and Tsar Paul granted the company
a charter that gave it a complete monopoly over all Russian
enterprises in North America. In 1806, the company was even
granted its own flag, a replica of which is on display in
the visitor center at Fort Ross. The efforts
of Resanov to establish the trade route between Spanish government
and Russian-American Company were failed due to the Spanish
edict against trade with foreigners. But the love succeeded
when diplomacy had failed. The Donna Concepcion (the sister
of the Commandante Arguello) pledged her hand to Resanov,
and the Governor Arillaga found it impossible to refuse the
prospective son-in-law of his old friend Arguello, a request
which was perfectly fair, and also humane. It was arranged
that the people of San Francisco might purchase the cargo
of the Resanov ship, and in turn sell him their grain. Rezanoff
died in a remote part of Siberia on his return journey to
the Russian capital, and it was only by indirect means that
the Donna Concepcion learned of his fate. She, however, remained
faithful to her pledge through a long and useful life. She
took the veil, became Sister Concepcion, noted for her piety
and works of charity, and died highly respected and honored
at the Convent of Saint Catherine in Benicia, in 1857.
The completion of the transcontinental railroad
in 1869 was the major event in California history. By 1870
San Francisco had become the tenth largest city in the United
States (now its rank is about 13-14)
In 1810 Mexico become an independent from Spain. And in 1846
Mexican-American War began with the Battle of Palo Alto (8
May). Soon United States took possession of that portion of
California which includes San Francisco (7 July). It was in
the first part of January, 1848, when the gold was
discovered at Coloma.Only a few hundred people lived
there in the 1840s, but the discovery of gold brought unimaginable
growth. The city soon averaged 30 new houses and two murders
each day. The coming of gold-seekers transformed not only
the economic history of California, but much of its social,
cultural and political history as well.California residents
voted to become part of the United States of America (11 Nov
1849).
In 1853 California Academy of Sciences was
founded.
Golden Gate Park created by an act of California
Legislature in 1870 (4 Apr) in the dunes.
Second (and current) Ferry Building opened
in 1889 (14 July). Ferry transit has played a significant
role in San Francisco Bay for almost 150 years. Vessels which
brought people during gold rush days were utilized for San
Francisco-Sacramento and cross-bay service. The Ferry Building
was the second busiest transportation terminal in the world
in the early 1930s. Each day, some 250,000 persons traveled
through the Perry Building to work or other destinations.
Women were given the right to vote in California (10 Oct)
in 1911
Golden Gate Bridge was officially opened
to vehicular traffic (27 May 1937).
Transamerica Pyramid was officially opened.
It has 48 stories and a 212 foot spire (Summer 1972).
Relative links:
San Francisco in general http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist1/index0.1.html,
http://www.californiahistoricalsociety.org/exhibits/online.html
Russians in California http://www.parks.sonoma.net/rosshist.html,
http://www.basecamp.cnchost.com/fortross.htm
Golden Rush http://www.pbs.org/goldrush/allabout.html
Museums of San Francisco http://www.thinker.org/legion/index.asp
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