San Francisco The 1880's

San Francisco prospered by supplying prospectors in the 1849 gold rush and grew from 820 residents, two hotels and two wharves, to more than 300,000 in the 1880's. In 1852 the horse-drawn "Yellow Line Trolley" was the beginning of public transportation. Many of San Francisco's hills were to steep for horse-drawn trolleys creating a need for the concept of cable traction used in the gold mines. This painting captures San Francisco in the transition from the horse to the cable car. San Francisco has truly come of age.