Financial District and Jackson Square - Gold Rush on the Old Shoreline
Photo: Dsdugan, CC0 (cropped)
A stop on San Francisco, District by District, a free self-guided tour.
Stand on Montgomery Street and picture water at your feet. In the 1830s this was Yerba Buena, a Mexican trading village of a few houses on a sheltered cove, and Montgomery Street ran along the beach. Then came the Gold Rush. In 1849 hundreds of ships arrived, and many were abandoned by crews who ran off to the diggings. Some were beached and turned into stores and hotels, and the cove was filled in around them, so the blocks east of here sit on sand, rubble and buried hulls.
Montgomery became the Wall Street of the West, lined with banks and gold dealers. A few blocks north, Pacific Street grew into the Barbary Coast, a district of saloons and dance halls. Between them, Jackson Square keeps rare brick buildings that survived 1906.
From the Ferry Building, walk up Washington Street, about 15 minutes. This mini tour covers six blocks and takes about an hour; use the details arrow.
Getting here: From the Ferry Building, cross the Embarcadero and walk up Washington Street to Montgomery Street, about 15 minutes on foot.
Did you know?: Hotaling Place, a one-block lane off Jackson Street, sat on the shoreline during the Gold Rush and is often called the city's oldest alley.
Photo op: Stand at Columbus Avenue and Washington Street to frame the Transamerica Pyramid rising behind the low brick buildings of the old city.
More on Wikipedia: Financial District, San Francisco · Jackson Square, San Francisco · Yerba Buena, California · California gold rush
Stops on this tour
- Ferry Building and the Embarcadero - Where the City Met the World
- Financial District and Jackson Square - Gold Rush on the Old Shoreline
- Chinatown - The Neighborhood That Refused to Move
- North Beach and Telegraph Hill - Little Italy and the Beats
- Fisherman's Wharf - Italian Boats and Old Ships
- Nob Hill and Russian Hill - Cable Cars, Mansions and the Great Fire
- The Presidio - Two Centuries Guarding the Golden Gate
- Japantown and the Fillmore - Two Communities, One Neighborhood
- Haight-Ashbury - From Victorian Suburb to Summer of Love
- Golden Gate Park - Sand Dunes Turned Into a Park
- The Castro - A Neighborhood That Became a Movement
- The Mission - Where San Francisco Began
- Civic Center - Domes, Charters and Protest
- South of Market - From Rincon Hill to the Tech Boom