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Archiver > CASANFRA > 2004-07 > 1089502321


From: Jim Smith <>
Subject: Re: [CASANFRA] Hills in San Francisco/sand dunes
Date: Sat, 10 Jul 2004 16:32:01 -0700 (GMT-07:00)


Trust me Alyce, they tried hard to take down the hills. Rincon Hill has been lowered 3 times, the last when they built the Bay Bridge. They tried to level telegraph Hill, blasting away at the North East Face until they realized it would be too expensive. They wanted the rock to fill in the bay. The sand dunes? George is right, they leveled those using the great Steam Paddy on movable tracks.

And don't forget, there was a time when the "waters came up to Montgomery Street" and Francisco Street bordered the beach at North Beach.

All of this is covered in Chapter 1 of SAN FRANCISCO'S LOST LANDMARKS, due out this fall, written by yours truly and published by QuillDriver Books. You'll find some fun discussions from CASANFRA included. I appreciate all your help. Yes, I'm finished and it's now in layout. More info later.

Thanks!
Jim



-----Original Message-----
From: mt view <>
Sent: Jul 10, 2004 3:46 PM
To:
Subject: Re: [CASANFRA] Hills in San Francisco/sand dunes

Alyce

They did take down the Sand Dunes, that were on what is now Market Street, one of the people that did was a David Hewes. The way he got his money, was if the person who owned the block or blocks did not have the money to pay for it he would take some of their land in trade. He was also the man who donated the Golden Spike, in 1869, one of his two wives, was the sister of Jane Stanford. He was lived at the Cameron-Stanford House in Oakland. http://www.cshouse.org/Pages/hewes.html He was one of the first people to grow oranges in Orange county, and his house in Orange County is still there. Also he was one of the first people to rebuild in San Francisco, after the 1906 earthquake, and that building is still standing at the corner of 6th and Market. Guess where he is buried;-)

There was also the cut in Rincon Hill, which took down part of that hill.

George


wrote:
I just returned from a trip to New York City where I took a cruise around
Manhattan Island. The tour guide told us that Manhattan is Indian for "island
with little hills". Of course if you are familiar with the financial district
today you can see it is all flat. He told us that as New York City was being
built they leveled the hills to make it easier for the horses to pull
carriages. As he told us this I thought about San Francisco and wondered why they
didn't try to flatten the hills here for the same reason. Maybe in the early days
of San Francisco they thought about leveling the hills but didn't because the
hills were much bigger than the ones in New York, or the City grew so fast
after the Gold Rush they didn't have time. Does anyone know or know where I
might be able to find the answer?

Alyce Traverso
Walnut Creek, CA


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