Industrial Activity: San Francisco leads the cities of the Pacific Coast in the value of manufactured products, the total annual volume of which is $500,000,000.
Labor Efficiency: Owing to equable climate, labor efficiency is higher than in any other large center in the country, the per capita output for San Francisco being $6,804.75.
Money Market of Pacific: San Francisco ranks fifth in bank clearings in the United States. Total bank clearings for the year amount to $7,274,000,000. Deposits total $935,119,374. Total resources of the five national and thirty-one state banks were $1,311,368,502 in 1923.
Real Estate and Construction: Realty sales for the past year totaled $132,227,478. Building totaled $34,079,996. Since 1906 new construction totals $500,000,000.
Sightseeing Tours: Descriptive folders and other literature may be obtained at the Chamber of Commerce and at the hotels and information bureaus in San Francisco about trips supervised by licensed sightseeing companies. Some of the outstanding attractions of the city are detailed briefly here.
Civic Center: One of the most impressive groups of public buildings to be seen in this country or abroad. Lands and buildings for this undertaking cost the people $20,000,000. The group includes the City Hall, Public Library, State Building and Civic Auditorium, the latter seating 10,000 persons and being in demand for national conventions. [Easy walk from downtown, or by cars on Market and Polk streets, or taxi, auto or sightseeing bus.]
San Francisco Bay: Discovered first from the land side by Don Gaspar de Portola in 1769. Ferryboats, river steamers and launches may be taken by the visitor interested in becoming acquainted with the attractions of the Bay, including Yerba Buena (Goat) Island, with its Naval Receiving Station; Alcatraz Island, shaped like a massive battleship and used as a military prison; Angel Island, United States immigration and quarantine station; Sausalito, Belvedere and Tiburon, towns framed against the brocade of hills; Oleum, Richmond, Martinez, Crockett and Pittsburg, with their big industrial plants; the shipbuilding yards in San Francisco, Oakland and Alameda.
The Golden Gate: Don Juan Manuel Ayala piloted the San Carlos through this portal in 1775. It was named the Golden Gate by General Fremont, "The Pathfinder." Sir Francis Drake landed in 1579 in a sheltered cove just outside the Golden Gate and his chaplain held the first religious service in the English language on the American continent. This incident is memorialized by a Celtic cross on a hill in Golden Gate Park. [By ferryboats from Ferry depot, or via the Presidio, which see.]
The Presidio: This is the largest military reservation within city boundaries in the United States. Its 1,500 acres embrace many tree-bordered walks and driveways for motor cars. Rezanov, plenipotentiary of the Czar, here wooed Senorita Arguello, daughter of the Spanish commandante of the Presidio, in an adobe building still standing in the reservation. You may read about this tragic idyl in Bret Harte and Gertrude Atherton. ["D" car on Geary street and Union street car at Ferry Depot, or taxi, auto or sightseeing bus.]
Portsmouth Square: Originally called the Plaza, this place figured largely in the early history of San Francisco. Commodore John Montgomery, after whom Montgomery street is named, raised the flag here to herald American possession of California. The Vigilance Committee used the Plaza for public gatherings in their struggle against lawlessness. The Robert Louis Stevenson monument is here, with his oft-quoted message carved on its face, beginning "To be honest, to be kind, to earn a little, to spend a little less." Stevenson loved this square greatly and loitered here much. [Easy walk from any place downtown, or by Kearny street car, tax, auto or sightseeing bus.]