Part 1 of 11
Episode from KRON-TV's Decades series made in 1999 by Executive Producer Jim Swanson which uses original news footage and contemporary interviews to reflect on Bay Area history up to 1900, including issues relating to: development of the originally named settlement of Yerba Buena (the Spanish name of a native herb); the Gold Rush after James W. Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California; the growth of San Francisco as a center for culture and the arts; public health and sanitation issues; fires which destroyed much of the city between 1849-51; the prevailing lawlessness and creation of private vigilante groups in the 1850s; the fatal duel between David C. Broderick (US Senator) and David S. Terry (Supreme Court Judge); the American Civil War; the impact of Irish, Italian, Jewish, African and Chinese Americans on San Francisco; the impressions of writer Mark Twain (lived and worked in San Francisco from 1864-66); the Comstock Lode Silver Rush in Nevada of 1859; the first Transcontinental Railroad ("Pacific Railroad"), completed in 1869; the use of Chinese American labor on the Pacific Railroad; the development of Golden Gate Park in the 1870s; public transportation; architecture; the Bank of California's collapse on 'Black Friday' (August 26th) in 1875; the practice of "Shanghaiing" (kidnapping and forced maritime labor); The San Francisco Chronicle newspaper; institutional racism against African Americans; James "Gentleman Jim" Corbett and the California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894 (in Golden Gate Park). Also features interviews with: Dr. Kevin Starr; Adrian Michealis; Daniel Bacon; Claudine Chalmers; Gray Brechin; Malcolm E. Barker; Charles Fracchia; John A. Martini; Doris Muscatine; Patrick J. Dowling; Bob Hirst; Dr. Ling Chi Wang; Bill Picklethaupt; Deanna Paoli Gumina; Irena Narell; Jim Flood; Professor Douglas H. Daniels and Jerry Flamm. This program was produced and written by Ken Swartz, edited by Heidi Schmidt Emberling and narrated by Peter Coyote. This Emmy Award winning series traced the rich history of San Francisco from the Gold Rush to the 21st Century.

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