Historical Settlement of the Bay Area

Francisco, like most of California, grew tremendously after the discovery of gold in 1848. It's location on the peninsula of the San Francisco bay with access to the Pacific Ocean made it a very important port city during the Gold Rush. From San Francisco, gold could easily be transported out of the Bay Area, while goods and people could be easily transported into the region. San Francisco's location made it vital to intercontinental trade by boat, which was the most effective means of transportation at the time. In addition, transportation routes by land were created to connect San Francisco with the Central Valley, the Sierras, coastal valleys, the redwood coast, and Monterey coast. These connections made San Francisco the primary city supporting settlement in California. By 1850, San Francisco had grown to be the largest city on the West coast, and remained the largest until 1920. When the transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869 San Francisco became the West's leading railroad center, further connecting it with the rest of the country and increasing migration to the Bay Area.

San Francisco and the Bay Area has always been a diverse ethnic region due to its status as the leading port of entry on the West Coast in the 19th century. Immigrants from all over the world including China, Germany, Russia, Britain, Latin America and Italy migrated to San Francisco mainly by ship into the Bay Area's ports. Many of these migrants were fisherman and sailors and different ethnic groups dominated different areas of the workforce. For example, the Italians dominated the garbage disposal services in San Francisco and continue to do so today. The Portugese dominated jobs in Bay Area ports including San Francisco, Oakland, and Alameda ports. A substantial amount of Chinese immigrants came to San Francisco because of it's access to the Pacific ocean and today San Francisco still has the largest Chinatown in North America.

Angel Island is located in the San Francisco bay and is called "Ellis island of the West" because like Ellis island in New York it served as an immigration processing center. Asian immigrants were the most common immigrants to come through Angel island because of the easy access to San Francisco from Asia via the Pacific Ocean. Between 1910 and 1940 an estimated one million Asian immigrants entered the United States through Angel island.