The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-05-08
SAN FRANCISCO SINKING.
Seventeen Acres Settling In Mud of
the Bay.
San FRANCISCO CallO

(San Francisco Call.)
Is the made" portion of San Fran
cisco subsiding gradually into the wa
ters of the bay?
This is not the question of a hot
headed. irresponsible alarmist; it is q
problem which is seriously disturbing
the minds of clear-minded citizens. who
do business and own property in the
most crowded and valuable portion of
San Francisco.
Just as there is no lack of practical
demonstration, so there is no lack of
expert evidence available. Baron UhliS,
the chief draughtsman for the board
of harbor commissioners, has made d
special study of the question during his
twenty three years service with the
department. There is no doubt about
the subsidence," he said; lit has been
going on for a long time, although I
think the rate at which the city is
sinking is somewhat less than in for
mer years. Market street is now two
feet below the city base. The city base
is only four feet above extreme high
water. Therefore the foot of Marke
street is only two feet above the tidal
level"
Here is a startling fact. If the sub
sidence continues at the present rate
for another ten or fifteen years it will
only require an extra high tide TO flood
the lower portion of the main thor
oughfare of the city, and to swamp
numbers of wharves on the water front.
The damage to property would be in
calculable.
One has to go back to the early days
of the city to trace the causes of this
remarkable subsistence. In 1S49, when
the pioneer argonauts thronged from
all parts of the world TO Yerba Buena,
now the principal shipping and bust
ness quarter of the city, the water
front line. roughly speaking, trended
inward from where Folsom street now
meets Spear street. Thence it contin-
ued up Folsom to Beale street and
westward in a diagonal line through
Howard and Mission streets to the cor
ner of Market and First. Curving
slightly inward the shore line crossed
the intersection of Pine and Sansome
streets, and followed very nearly the
line of Montgomery street to the corner
of Jackson. Here there was a small
lagoon, which carried the water still
farther inward, occupying the space on
which the old opera house was later
on to be erected. The beach. turning
almost at a right angle, now ran sea-
ward again to the intersection of
Broadway and Front.
Let anyone take a pencil and trace
out this route on a map of the city,
San Francisco which stands on made
ground. This little indentation of the
bay, now vanished from sight, was
about $500 feet wide and extended in
ward l, 200 feet. having an area of sew
enteen acres. Every inch of this space
had to be filled up in order to make
the present city, with its continuous
have mattered so much. had the filling
up been done in a systematic manner,
with suitable and properly placed ma
terial
In those good old days. however, ev-
erybody was too busy and excited rush
ing after gold to think about the future
of the city. San Francisco was left TO
grow out of the waters of the bay hap
hazard fashion, just as she chose. Any
thing and everything was dumped into
the harbor TO fill it up. and it is even
on record that in those eXtravagant
times. when the market was livestock
ed, bales and cases of valuable goods
were used to form sidewalks. The
speedily rotted, and the pack
take their place in forming the founda-
tons of a great city.
Many large ships, being unable to
ind crews. were mOored to the shore
and turned into hotels or business es-
adjustments. They. too. when their
lime came. rotted and sank into the
mud Even today, when driving piles
for a foundation. it is no uncommon
hing for the contractors to find their
progress stopped by the timbers of
some old ship. buried many feet below
he surface. 1t is not merely the loose
Y made ground on top which is at
'ault. The trouble is that this filling,
though it be, has no het-
er foundation to rest upon than soft
mud. 1t is an actual fact that the bed
-ock underlying San Francisco bay has
never been struck. The metomorphic
sandstone which crops out ON the side
# Telegraph hill and rises again on
he other side of the harbor dips sharp
y under the water. For countless cen
uries each rapidly running tide has
leen bringing down its load of mud
rom the upper reaches of the bay and
iepositing it along the beaches wher-
.ver the contour of the land checked
or a while the rapid rush of the cur
-ent The Yerba Buena indentation
his sediment, soft. blue, greasy stnff
or no man with certainty knows its
iepth.
Experts differ on the point. Baron
Jhlig thinks the bedrock may be any
where from 200 TO 800 feet below the
ity level I'VE cannot say accurate
" he explains. for as far as we
AVE yet gone down we have struck
lothing but blue mud, gradually stiff
ming into blue clay. In 1872. when
aking a survey for the proposed sea
VAIL we made a boring 200 feet, but
lever encountered rock. In 1890, at an
ther place on the water front. we went
own 150 feet with the same result"