The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-07-19
SAN FRANCISCO
GRAPHIC PICTURE OF SCENES WITHIN THE GOLDEN GATE.
Wonderful Outlet to the Mightiest of oceans-How Frisco Became a Metropolis-Wreck of the City
 of Rio Completely Lost.

the Birmingham News.
 It was on a bleak November day in 1769 that two Spanish friars. Crespi ana PortalaA by name, who had been traVei- ing up the California coast for many days in a mission of discovery. came up on San Francisco Bay. They had set out from San Diego. their purpose being the exploration of the Bay or Monterey This body of water had previously been located but it's shores had never been ex- plored.
 These bold adventures, who were in constant danger of ambush from the Indians missed their objective point and crossed what is now known as the Coast Range of mountains. Emerging from the mountains on the west side of San Fran cisco Bay they looked down and beheld what they at first supposed was an in land sea. It was a most beautiful sheet of water, calm as a May morning. In their religious enthusiasm they named it San Francisco Sea after St. Francis of k Assist. the founder of the FrancisSans, an order of priesthood. to which Father Junipero Serra. one of the pioneers of Spanish settlers of this region belonged.
 In August, 1775. Lieutenant Ayala of the Spanish navy, commanding the warship San Carlos, made an extensive survey of the newly discovered inland sea and as- certained that it was d bay and not sea, that 1t had direct connection with the Pacific Ocean. This connection proved to be the famous Golden Gate and Lieu tenant Ayala was the first to sail through.
 The initial settlement of this region was made in September. 1776. Friars Francisco Palou and Benito Cambon. both Spaniards, planted colony at the Presidio, but afterwards transferred it to Dolores Mission, which still stands with ip the present limits of the great city of San Francisco. I visited, the mission and inspected it with curious interest. The little old church wears its age well, but the abode house near it, which was the first structure ever erected in the city. is about to tumble down.
 Early History.
 It is not my purpose here, to recount in detaiI--the rise and growth of this re- markable city. Like most Pacific Coast settlements 1t was founded with a view to spreading the Catholic faith in this part of the Western world. Spaniards were the original pioneers, but these people &C., complished but little beyond erecting a few posts up and down the coast Not until California came under the dor1ina- tion of sthe United States in the '4os as the result of the war with Mexico did this region begin to thrive. --t ...' The discovery of gold on January 19, 1848, at Coloma, forty-flve miles south west of Sacramento, marked the real beginning of the boom. Then began an influx of population. the story of which outstrips the widest dreams of fiction. As a consequence San Francisco became the metropolis of the new Eldorado and in 1850 1t had grown to 10000 population. Its most favorable location-near the ocean with the best harbor to be found on the American Pacific shores-gave it tremendous impetus.
 Its progress was marvellous and at the end of 1852 it's corporate limits contained B,0O0 souls. When the gold fever had partially subsided San Francisco had be- come the metropolis of all the country west of the Rocky Mountains and today 1t has population of 350,0F2 people, and is the ninth city of the United States.
 A Wonderful Harbor.
 Nothing has contributed so much to the rapid and really wonderful growth of this place as it's splendid harbor. San Francisco Is not located on the ocean, but sits upon peninsula formed by the ocean on the west, the Golden Gate on the northwest, and San Francisco Bay on the north and east. The city itself does not extend to the ocean, for along the beach where the surging waters rise
 
 sweeping winds pile great heaps of sand in the salty marshes. which extend for miles up and down the shore. Further back and away from the ocean storms, nestled upon the brink of the smooth waters of the wide, stretching bay, the town has been built.
 The bay itself is forty miles long and ten miles wide and covers an area of 45O square miles. extending thirty miles north md on mil Of oi4 A shore line of over 300 miles. It is joined to the ocean by the historical Golden Gate, which varies in width from one to two and half miles, All the navies of the world could anchor in San Francisco Bay with perfect ease. Its depth is un- usual, thus rendering it a place of great safety for all sorts of craft. In addition the surrounding hills, which rise to the proportions of mountains at many points protect it's waters from the strong winds which are wont to sweep in from the ocean.
 The Golden Gate.
 The Golden Gate is the natural water way and outlet of the drainage of the valleys of the Sacramento and the San Joaquin rivers, and as Is well known, connects the waters of San Francisco Bay with the mighty Pacific Viewing it from the deck of a steamer on the bay IL SeSluS udTTOW, tHOuSn dJ narrowest point 1t Is a smide wide. To the north is Mount Tamalpais, rising 2,50O feet from sea-leveI and surrounded by a group of lesser. but more picturesque heights To the south in the famous Cliff House and the Seal Rocks while in and out the seething waters of the ocean ebb and flow, forming a current which runs at the rate of sixty miles an hour. The Gate ranges in depth from 132 to nearly 400 feet. Standing like tall sentinels on rock promontories at its entrance are two light houses. which guide the eau tious mariner into the great bay. And these beacons are needed, for at no oth- CT point on the Pacific coast are fogs so frequent and heavy as they are in and around San Francisco.
 According to the traditions of the 1n- dians. first met with upon the landing of the early explorers and navigators on the California coast. the Bay of San Fran cisco was once an inland sea and the Golden Gate was formed by a severe up- heaval or earthquake. Since earthquakes even now are of frequent occurrence In this section. thought mild in form, this theory does not seem unreasonable. Quite certain 1t Is that the strait which joints the bay to the ocean is~so very narrow that one feels constrained to accept this Indian tradition. The name Golden Gate was first applied by General Fremont. in 1s4S, in his geographical memoir of Cali fornia, and is descriptive 1t is related not of the, gold-bearing districts, as Is generally supposed, but of the rich and