Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-04-27

On the east side of the bay the water
was shallow, and ship could not safe
ly go within mile or more of the
shore. while a small boat putting or
for the land would come to wide
marshes, through which 1t was prac-
tically impossible to pass. There was
then little to attract the aspiring new
conner on the eastern shore OF the bay.
The population was scant, even though
n settlement had been made as early
as 1920. For twenty years after the In
corporation Of San Francisco the place
had no railroad connection with tne
eastern states, and 1t was over 1900
miles to New York by steamer around
Cape Horn. The last spike that united
the Union Pacific and Central Pacific
roads at Promontory, at the north end
of Great Salt lake in Utah, was driven
May 10, 1869. Daily steamers had
then been running through San Pablo
bay, the strait of Carquines, Suisun
bay and the Sacramento river to Sac
ramento for twenty years. so when the
railroads came San Francisco's destiny
had become unalterably fixed.
The railways were brought to Oak
land. and long moles were constructed,
reaching far out to the deep water of
the bay, where the ferry steamers
could meet them. Time has wrought
marvellous development of the traffic
across the bay. Magnificent ferry
steamers, many of them devoted eXclu-
sively to passengers, ply back and
forth in a continuous procession, car
rying $4,000 people daily. From Berke-
ley an electric train flies down to meet
each Berkeley boat, and other swift
trains take the passengers for Oakland
and Alameda over the long piers that,
fingerlike, spread out in the bay.
A great city has sprung into being on
the eastern shore. Oakland. with Ala
media on the south and Berkeley on the
north, has 100000 population. The
three municipalities are properly as
much a part of San Francisco as Brook
lyn is a part of Greater New York,
though still independent of the larger
city in their government. Some day
they will add q mile to their width by
filling in the mud flats that lie along
their water fronts.
The San Francisco climate to the
new arrival from the east is not the
most agreeable. Morning fOgs are fire.
quent, and they often chill to the bone
the person who is not acclimated. But
you never hear a native complain You
go forth In your overcoat only to find
you are wearing the badge of the Stran-
ger. \ man without an overcoat is no
more to be pitied in San Francisco than
in Los Angeles or San Diego. You find
the atmosphere of Oakland much more
to your liking. although it is but five or
six miles across the bay. The wind
movement is almost continuous on the
peninsula-from the ocean during the
day and from the mountains in the
night - but rarely violent. Oakland
stands beneath a high spur of the
Coast range, and the orange. the palm
and the roses flourish the year through.
In the eastern shore cities foliage and
flowers are abundant, and you feel the
contrast - that San Francisco is for
business and the lesser cities for rest
and comfort.
San Francisco is taking on the as
pect of permanence in common with
American cities generally. Many a
town has been built in n manner that
indicated the probability of early re-
moval to some other site. The work
of the builders of today is generally of
the enduring kind. The foundations
are laid deep, and the walls are thick
and solid. The huge ferry building at
the foot of Market street is one of the
of modern buildings. 1t
is 500 feet long, solid as the noun
tains and is the gateway of traffic
across the great bay.
A stroll along the water front is full
of interest Here are sloops unload
ing baled straw and hay or bags of
grain from Stockton, city fifty miles