CHINATOWN
Because of occasional slight shocks in former years, the inhabitants had built their city of wood, thinking it safer than brick or stone. They had not thought of the greater danger of fire. This earthquake taught them a lesson. The few skyscrapers in the city had stood the shock remarkably well, and profiting by this experience thousands of modern structures—steel, brick, and reënforced concrete—were built to replace the old wooden buildings. A far more modern and beautiful city has arisen from the ashes of the ruins.
THE UNION FERRY BUILDING
The city occupies 46½ square miles at the end of the southern peninsula which lies between San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The site of the city is hilly, especially in the northern and western parts. Market Street, 120 feet wide and the chief business thoroughfare, extends southwest from the water front and divides the city into two parts. The southern district contains many manufacturing plants and the homes of the laboring people. The streets here are level. North of Market Street lie three high hills—Telegraph Hill, Nob Hill, and Russian Hill. In this half of the city are the finest residences, Nob Hill having been given its name in the early days when the mining millionaires built their homes upon it.
The main business section is in the northeastern part of the city, facing the harbor, and is on level ground. It contains hundreds of new office buildings, many of them from eight to twenty or more stories high. Fine modern hotels and beautiful banks add much to the beauty of this part of San Francisco. The most important public buildings are the United States mint and the post office, which escaped the flames in 1906, the customhouse, the Hall of Justice, the new Auditorium, and the city hall. These last two face the Civic Center, which is being created at a cost of nearly $17,000,000.
At the foot of Telegraph Hill is the largest Chinese quarter in the United States. It was completely destroyed during the fire, but is now rebuilt and much improved. Its temples, joss houses, and theaters, its markets, bazaars, and restaurants, with their strange life and customs and their oriental architecture, attract crowds of visitors. There are now about 10,000 Chinese in San Francisco, but their number has been steadily decreasing since the Exclusion Act was passed, prohibiting Chinese laborers from entering this country. It was thought necessary to have this law in order to protect the American workingman on the Pacific coast, as the Chinese laborers who had already been admitted were working for wages upon which no white man could live.
