4 



THE OVEELAXD HOUTE-^OGDEX TO SAN FEAXCISCO. 225 



The entrance to the bay lies through the Golden Gate, a strait about 



5 miles long and a mile wide at its narrowest pomt. 



The site of the city is very hilly, and a luie of high rocky elevations 

 run like a crescent -formed background from northeast to southwest 

 across the peninsula, culminating in the Twm Peaks, 925 feet high. 

 Telegraph Hill, ui the northeastern part of the city, is 294 feet above 

 sea levcL Here stood the semaphore which signaled the arrival of 

 ships in the days of the gold seekers. The city has been laid out 

 without the slightest regard to topography; conser[uently many of the 

 streets are so steep as to be traversable only by cable cars and pedes- 

 trians. The waters of the bay formerly extended westward to Mont- 

 gomery Street, and most of the level land in the business section of 

 San Francisco has been made by filling. 



Golden Gate Park, containing 1,014 acres, and extending westward 

 from the city to the ocean, was a waste of barren sand dunes in 1870, 

 but skillful planting and cultivation have transformed it into one of 

 the most beautiful semitropical public parks in the country. At its 

 west end is the famous Cliff House, overhanging the sea, and a short 

 distance out from the shore are the Seal Rocks, where the great sea 

 lions may often be seen. The Sutro Baths, near by, named after 

 Adolph Sutro, constructor of the famous Sutro tunnel on the Comstock 

 lode, contain one of the largest inclosed pools in the world. 



San Francisco Bhy is the largest and most active harbor on the 

 Pacific coast. Besides the coastwise routes, the port maintains steam- 

 ship comiections ^vith Australia, Hawaii, Mexico, Central 

 and South America, the Philipphies, China, and Japan. 

 The direct foreign trade is chiefl.y with British Columbia, South 

 America, China, and Japan. Although the export grain business 

 has now largely shifted to the ports of Oregon and Washington, 

 San Francisco's permanence as one of the greatest ports of 

 the country is assured by its advantageous position, its wealth 

 of back comitry, and its command of trans-Pacific and transcon- 

 tinental trade routes. Three large railroad systems — the South- 

 ern Pacific (with two transcontinental lines), the Atchison, Topeka 



6 Santa Fe, and the Western Pacific — connect it with the East. 

 Lines of the Southern Pacific Co. coimect the city with different 

 parts of the State and with the northern transcontinental lines. 

 The Northwestern Pacific serves Mendocino, Sonoma, and Marin 

 counties, on the north, and several smaller lines radiate from differ- 

 ent ports on the bay. Oidy one railroad line, the Coast Line of 

 the Southern Pacific, actually enters the city. The other roads have 

 their termhials in Oakland and other cities aroimd the bay. 



92218"— Bun. 612—15 15 



