By Wes Starratt

The histories of the Port of San Francisco and the City of San Francisco are intertwined. Both were located where they are and exist because of the great bay of San Francisco, which has often been referred to as "one of the largest and safest land-locked harbors in the world."

San Francisco Bay joins the ocean at a low point in the coastal hills that the early Spanish explorers called la boca, or the mouth. But la boca is only a little over a mile wide and well hidden from the sea by coastal cliffs and fog. So well camouflaged is it that, for some 200 years, Spanish and English explorers, including Sir Francis Drake, sailed right by without ever seeing it or the great bay beyond.

It took a land-based expedition in 1769 under the command of Gaspar de Portola to finally discover the bay. News of the discovery led to the 1775 expedition of Don Manuel de Ayala, whose ship, the San Carlos, became the first to sail through la boca and drop anchor in San Francisco Bay. One year later, in 1776, the same year that the British colonies on the Atlantic coast were proclaiming their independence from England, another land-based expedition established Spanish military presence at the Presidio near the entrance to the Bay and, some miles away, church presence at Mission Dolores. The mission was dedicated to Saint Francis, the patron saint of the Franciscan Order, by Padre Junipero Serra who is said to have proclaimed that "this is the port to which the saint has led us!"

Between the mission and the presidio was Yerba Buena Cove, the landing for annual Spanish supply ships from Mexico, which was largely the extent of trade until about 1820 when California came under control of an independent Mexico. Trade restrictions were then relaxed, and trading ships, many from Boston, became frequent visitors to San Francisco Bay, exchanging merchandise for hides and tallow from the California ranchos. Still, the solitude of Yerba Buena changed little until the dramatic events between 1846 and 1849 completely transformed the entire region.

First, there was the short-lived war with Mexico, culminating in a party from the U.S. Navy's sloop-of-war, Portsmouth, raising the American flag over the plaza, known today as Portsmouth Square, and claiming the territory for the United States. A year later, the name Yerba Buena was changed to San Francisco, then a village of 50 or more buildings with almost 400 inhabitants located on a shallow cove. Not long after, U.S. Army officer John Fremont is credited with giving the prophetic name "Golden Gate" to la boca, the entrance to San Francisco Bay.

The next dramatic event to take place was the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in 1848, leading to the gold rush of 1849 when hordes of gold-seekers on hundreds of ships literally poured into the Bay. During the year 1849, it is reported that more than 500 sailing ships carrying 40,000 passengers passed through the Golden Gate.

The Bay became filled with sailing ships at anchor, since ship berthing and docking facilities were unable to cope with the onslaught. A year before, a pier had been built near the corner of Broadway and Battery streets. Then, a commercial wharf was built near the foot of Pacific Street. Soon there were other wharves, such as the Central Wharf at the foot of Commercial Street, and another one at the foot of Broadway. Still, other piers were extended into the Bay, reaching out to waiting ships. Thus began the early history of the San Francisco waterfront…filling the original cove and pushing wharves out to deep water over an expanse of tidal flats, with cross streets built on piles among rotting hulks of ships.

As gold mining began to wane, economic growth continued and, before long, disenchanted miners turned to developing California's agricultural resources. An increasing number of vessels from the East Coast and Europe began calling at San Francisco to load wheat and barley.

Since the founding of the State of California in 1849 and for many years to come, San Francisco was California's only commercial port and the state's sole gateway to the outside world. Other than a trickle of cargo carried by overland stages, the majority of commerce to and from the state passed through the Golden Gate. But San Francisco's mish-mash of piers and wharves was completely inadequate to meet California's demands. There was a need to bring order out of chaos and build adequate port facilities.

Because of the port's economic importance to the state, the California State Legislature stepped in, and in 1863 established a Board of State Harbor Commissioners to manage the Port of San Francisco. Between 1867 and 1914, the state board spent over $120 million on harbor improvements, including the construction of a six-mile-long stone seawall from a point near Aquatic Park to the Third Street Channel at China Basin. Sand dunes were leveled and dumped onto the intervening mud flats where San Francisco's Financial District now exists. At the same time, finger piers were extended from the sea wall out into the Bay, and railroad connections were built to serve the port's maritime operations. The result is largely what we know today as the San Francisco Embarcadero.

The state board controlled activities on the San Francisco waterfront for over one hundred years until 1969 when the City of San Francisco regained control of its waterfront and established the Port of San Francisco as a city department.

The first transcontinental railroad reached the Bay Area in 1868, dramatically changing the flow of commerce. For the first time, passengers and goods could arrive by effective overland service, and the Golden Gate was no longer California's only gateway. The terminus of the railroad was on the eastern shore of the Bay, requiring barges and ferries for the final stage of the journey to the West's business and population center, the City of San Francisco. Thus, began the age of the San Francisco ferries, culminating in a fleet of some 60 ferries, the world's largest, and the construction of the Ferry Building in 1898. The ferries, a major activity at the Port of San Francisco until supplanted by the bridges, are once again returning in the form of a regional system of high-speed vessels.

Wartime activities have had a strong impact on the Port of San Francisco. The Spanish American War of 1898 gave the port a new role, that of the country's foremost military base on the West Coast. The impact of World War II was even more dramatic, with almost every pier and wharf involved in military activities. Both wars served as to dramatically increase Pacific trade, which continues today.

The containerized cargo-handling revolution of the 1960s had a profound impact on shipping worldwide, facilitating the movement of cargo from ships to trucks and trains, substantially reducing handling the costs, and creating an increased movement of cargo worldwide. San Francisco's finger piers proved inadequate for container handling, and new facilities with sufficient backup land for the handling and storage of containers were built on the Southern Waterfront, as well as bulk and break-bulk cargo facilities.