1859 U.S. Coast Survey City of San Francisco and its Vicinity California.

This is a fine example of the U.S. Coast Survey map of San Francisco published just ten years after the Forty-Niner emigration spurred by the discovery of gold in the nearby foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. During that ten year period, the population of the city had grown exponentially from less than 1,000 to over 50,000 residents from all walks of life. This almost immediate emergence of San Francisco as the most densely populated metropolis on the west coast brought the need for updated maps such as this one. The map shows the city and surrounding area oriented to the west with North indicated on the right hand side of the sheet. The growing city is shown to extend some eleven blocks from the water with many new buildings scattered about the hills where roads have not yet been laid. The vicinity spans out enough to include the Pioneer and Union Race Courses, Rancho de San Miguel, Black Point where Fort Mason would one day be located, and just to the south a series of farms a