The Ship Brooklyn

This plaque marks the spot where the Ship Brooklyn moored in 1846, bringing 238 Mormons to San Francisco. (Incidentally, that doubled the population of the city!) The plaque reads,

Commemorating the landing at this point of the Ship Brooklyn, July 31, 1846. A 370 ton vessel, carrying Mormon Colonists and crew of nearly 300 under the leadership of Samuel Brannan. In the hold was a printing press, 179 books for educational purposes, two complete flour mills, plows, harrows and a supply of implements for settling the new country. The Daughters of Utah Pioneers, San Francisco County, July 31, 1940.

The plaque is at 100 Broadway, about three blocks from the current edge of the bay. However, in 1846, this spot would have been the bay. The picture to the right shows Yerba Beuna Cove (Note yet called San Francisco) at it would have looked in 1846. The street along the water's edge is now Montgomery Street. In the map below the 1846 beach is in yellow and the red dot is the location of the plaque.




In this photo, taken last Friday of the current San Francisco Embaradero, everything you see, every building, street, tree, car, bus, would have been part of the bay in 1846.
Not much remains today that would have been visible in 1846. However, the side of Telegraph Hill would have been a prominent landmark to the Mormon Pioneers. The hill would have been covered with a mixture of redwood and pine trees. The eucalyptus trees that currently dominating the flora of Telegraph Hill were imported from Australia in the 1850s. (Coit Tower was built in 1933 as a tribute to the fire fighters of the 1906 earthquake and fire. It is built in the shape of a fire hose.)
Read below about my room with a view!