Bancroft's Tourist's Guide Yosemite Part 17

C. P. R. R. Co.'s Freight Pier, Depot and Boat. Foot of Second street.

Mission Bay. Foot of Second and Third streets. The broad cove lying between South street and Potrero; now fast filling in, especially beyond, that is, south of the Long Bridge.

Mission Rock.--Off the foot of Third street. Has a shanty on it. Used for fishing.

U. S. Ship Anchorage.--Between foot of Third and the Mission Rock, and within a quarter-mile radius of the latter. U. S. Revenue Cutters and Coast Survey vessels, chiefly occupy it.

Steamboat Reserves.--In the docks between Third and Fourth and the adjacent ones along the south side of the bridge.

Long Bridge.--From the foot of Fourth street, across Mission Bay to Potrero--one mile. Will become Kentucky street, when the filling-in makes a street of what is now a bridge.

Yacht Club Building.--East side of Long Bridge, one third across.

Yachts at moorings near.

Potrero.--The point at the south end of Long Bridge. Spanish for pasture ground. Originally a rocky ridge. Fast disappearing under houses.

Gla.s.s Works.--Pacific Gla.s.s Works, corner Iowa and Mariposa streets, four blocks west of bridge.

Pacific Rolling Mill.--Potrero Point, water front, east of bridge.

Deep Cut, is really Kentucky street, brought down somewhere near the future grade, by cutting through the solid rock, to an average depth of 75 feet for nearly a fifth of a mile.

Rope Walk runs under Kentucky street, near the north end of the Islais Creek Bridge, which is the same street continued across Islais Creek, now a solidly planked bridge, seven eighths of a mile long.

Italian Fishing Fleet and Flakes, on the right of the bridge, along the cove-beach just beyond the rope-walk. Their Mongolian compet.i.tors have their boats and beach a little further south.

South San Francisco is the rising land or ridge south of Islais Creek.

It is a pleasant suburb, rapidly growing.

Catholic Orphan Asylum, that large, new wooden building fronting on Connecticut street, nine blocks west of the bridge.

Hunter's Point is the east end of South San Francisco, a rocky point in which the Dry Dock, dug out of the solid rock, four hundred and twenty-one feet long, one hundred and twenty feet wide at the top, and sixty feet wide at the bottom, which is twenty-two feet below mean high water. With the Floating Dock, near by, it cost two millions of dollars.

Bay View Race Track, near Railroad Avenue, a mile southwest of Islais Bridge. One mile around; broad, smooth and hard. Bay View House at north margin, near west end.

Visitacion Point and Valley, three quarters of a mile beyond the race course; worth driving out to see, if you have plenty of time.

San Bruno Road unites with this railroad avenue about half a mile beyond the race course; brings one back near

New Butchertown, corner of Islais Creek Ca.n.a.l and Kentucky street.

Drive back this old San Bruno Road, until you come to Twenty-sixth street; along that to Mission; down Mission to Seventeenth, out which you may drive until you find your way winding and climbing up and over the east slopes of the peninsular hills along the Ocean House Road, a broad, hard track, leading over the hills to the house which names it. Opposite Twenty-fourth street is the toll gate, where you pay twelve and a half, or twenty-five cents, according to your team. A mile beyond, a side gate, free, admits you to a carriage-way through the fields, leading down, three quarters of a mile, to Lake Honda, the huge double-reservoir of sloping-sided masonry, covered with cement, and holding thirty-five million gallons. This well merits a visit. The City Almshouse stands on the hill, half a mile south of the lake.

The Small-pox Hospital is the small building standing alone on the hill, a third of a mile north of the Almshouse.

Returning to, and resuming the main road, a mile southwesterly and then westerly, brings us to the Ocean Race Course, securely enclosed, and having the usual circuit and surface.

Opposite this, and half a mile south lies Lake Merced, three quarters of a mile long by a fifth of a mile wide. That part of it nearer to, and parallel with the road, is a smaller, nearly separate lake called simply "the Lagoon."

Ocean House, on a slight sandy knoll, half a mile northwest of Lake Merced.

Pacific Beach.--This is the sandy sh.o.r.e of the "ultimate sea,"

stretching almost exactly north two miles to the base of the cliff, up which a well-built road carries us a score of rods northwesterly to the

Cliff House, the grand terminus, or at least way-station of all ocean drives. Its broad, covered piazza, well-furnished with easy chairs and good marine gla.s.ses, has been for years the popular observatory whence fashion languidly patronizes the Pacific, or gazes with momentary interest upon the

Seal Rocks--three hundred feet from the sh.o.r.e, and dotted with lubberly seals, clumsily climbing upon the lower rocks, or lazily sunning themselves above.

Farallones--Twenty-five miles seaward from the Cliff House--seven sharp-pointed islets break the monotony of the western horizon. The highest of these rises three hundred and forty feet, and has a large lighthouse of the first-cla.s.s, with the finest Fresnel light on the coast.

Point Lobes, a precipitous coast bluff, a third of a mile north of the Cliff House, chiefly noted as the site of the Signal Station; provided with a fine gla.s.s and the usual outfit of a marine observatory. Thence along the beach, or the brow of the bluff, if you like climbing, by the Helmet Rock, whose shape hardly appears from the land, around the curve of the sh.o.r.e, whose general direction here is northeast, a full mile, to

Fort Point, where stands a doubly-strengthened and heavily-mounted fort, yet unnamed, whose chief interest founds upon its general resemblance to the famous Fort Sumter.

Lighthouse.--The northwest angle of the fort supports a substantial tower, showing a fixed white light. From the walls of the fort, or better still, from the lighthouse balcony, we look upon and across the

Golden Gate, the connecting strait between the Pacific Ocean and San Francis...o...b..y. It is between three and four miles long, from one to two miles wide, and over four hundred feet deep.

Lime Point, the northern inside gate-post--the southeastern extremity of Marin county.

Point Bonita.--The outer or oceanward point of the northern sh.o.r.e, nearly two miles west of the fort, crowned with a lighthouse.

Mountain Lake--One mile south of the fort, and sending a little rivulet called Lobos Creek westward into the Pacific, which it helps to replenish.

Presidio--Spanish for garrison or barracks. This is nearly a mile southeast of the fort, as we return toward the city. Its main features are the extensive barracks, accommodating several hundred U. S.

soldiers, who make this their point of arrival and departure in going to or coming from the different stations to which they may be ordered.

Forming the parallelogram front is the parade ground, a broad, open field, gently falling toward the bay, surrounded by the officers'

quarters or the barracks, and dotted with batteries here and there.

Black Point.--The water front at the foot of Franklin and Gough streets.

Pioneer Woolen Mills--Corner of Polk and Reade streets. Office, 115 Battery street.

North Beach--From the foot of Powell street west to Black Point.

Angel Island, three and a half miles north of Black Point, across the bay.

Alcatraces Island--A mile and a half north of North Beach, off in the bay, heavily fortified, commanding the Golden Gate.

North Point--Water front, foot of Kearny street, corner of Bay street.

Sea Wall--Water front from the foot of Union street, southward; a sloping bulkhead of rubble, faced with heavier rock, costing $240 a linear foot, and a mile and a half long.

FERRIES.--Alameda--Corner of Davis and Pacific street. City Front Cars.

Oakland--Same dock, next slip south. City Front Cars.

Saucelito--Meiggs' Wharf, foot of Powell street. North Beach cars.