The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-05-19
BUILDING IN
MADE LAND
Will San Francisco Cap
itaIists Take the
Risk?


n
There is another factor in the DOWN
town commercial rebuilding which
seems to be carefully avoided in dis
GUESSING these matters. 1t is this: When
the city of San Francisco was laid out
there lay a blight or small bay on the
eastern shore of the peninsula between
Clark's Point on the north and Rincon
Point on the south. North and south
of the blight or cove these hills ran out
into the bay, and these points were
made up of rock and sand. Between
them lay this vast territory on which
was built the downtown district. IL
was a mud fiat, covered by water at
high tide. When the tide was low, a
vast stretch of mud lay between the
coast land and the water line. To show
how great a distance it covered, the
highest point of this mud fiat, where
it met the firm sand of the beach, came
nearly up to the rear of the present
Hall of Justice, fronting on Portsmouth
Square, at Kearney street near WASH
fngton. If a pedestrian walks from the
Hall of Justice to the foot of Washing
idea of how far up this mud fiat pene-
trates in the solid heart of San Fran
cisco's soil. It is something like mile.
In the early fifties ships were hauled
ND on this mud fiat at crazy structures
called "wharves,'' when their crews
abandoned them and fed to the mines
in their mad thirst for gold. On the
northwest corner of Clay and Sansome
Streets there is an old building called
the Mantle 1t is SO called after
chip of that name which lay at Clay
street wharf during the gold seekers
rush She sank down in the mud and
slush and ooze. and presently lodging
house was built on her decks by some
thrifty Spectator of the time, where
lodgings were let out to the returning
miners at the trifie of four or five dol
lars a night. Many years after, the
writer saw workmen excavat1ng there
for the foundations of the present sub
stantial structure, and with his own
eyes he saw the lines of the hull, the
biIge of which protruded well out I'M I
der Clay-street. He saw the workmen
removing the rotting ribs of the old
ship, which had sailed many seas In
her days, at last to come to an IN |
glorious end as the basement of a lodg- |
ing house in a San Francisco mud fiat. |
gLowLY SLIPPING DOWN.
To the north of this on Merchant
Street is a block of buildings over forty
years old. These buildings, like many
others there, have been slowly slipping
toward the bay into and over the quag
mire beneath. When sales of land have
taken place, it has sometimes been
necessary for the adjoining owners to
deed to each other in exchange an inch
or so on eastern and western lines. This
gradual slipping forward of the mass
of buildings characterizes the whole of
the territory affected. Although these
statements will be stoutiy denied by
many whose interests are unfavorably
affected by them, they are patent to
the most casual observer. Nearly every
new building located in that district
within the last ten years has been
forced to set its sidewalk on the off |
cial grade This official line is not
measured from the uncertain surface
of the earth, but is fixed scientifically |
from the base line which is deter
mined by considerations with which |
the slipping and sinking soil in that |
district has nothing to do. Therefore
it is that pedestrians in the downtown
to mount steps when they reach side |
walk in front of new building. some
times going up as high as two or three
feet. The lower level of the old side
walks shows the manner and the ex- /
tent to which the soil has sunk since
the date of their construction. Cor |
respondingiy, when the present Market |
Street Railway cable was constructed, !
some score of years ago, the engineers
found that on lower Market Street the |
grade they We're legally obliged to lay |
their rails-was twelve to twenty-four |
inches above the then level of the /
street. the street sinking more as they
reached the foot of Market Street |
They remained in quandary for some |
time, and finally determined to lay |
their line on the official levels. This
they did. The action created consterna-
ton among the downtown property
owners. who moved heaven and earth
to force the railway people to lower
their levels. But they failed. Even
the city authorities We're forced to raise!
their pavements. and the property
owners were forced to hoist up
their sidewalks. In the course of these
succeeding years they have sunk
again
BUILT ON QUAGMIRE.
If the owners of land on this mud