It never occurred to me to question, until today, as to why San Francisco, given its location on the peninsula, exploded in population during the Gold Rush. The City is in a really inconvenient location when you consider that the arriving 49ers nearly immediately proceeded to Gold Country. Docking on the San Francisco side of the Bay meant that they would still need to cross the Bay to be able to continue their journey!

I considered that they could have navigated via the Sacramento River to get closer to the Sierra Nevada foothills rather than going overland, but I’ve always understood that the ships were mostly scuttled next to San Francisco, meaning they weren’t used to get up the Delta. And when the population of San Francisco in 1846 was only 200, it wasn’t as if it was a magnet. Was it Wells Fargo and Levi setting up shop that caused the SF to grow rather than another spot in the East Bay?