Barbary Coast, San Francisco
The Barbary Coast was a red-light district during the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries in San Francisco that featured dance halls, concert saloons, bars, jazz clubs, variety shows, and brothels. Its nine block area was centered on a three block stretch of Pacific Street, now Pacific Avenue, between Montgomery and Stockton Streets. Pacific Street was the first street to cut through the hills of San Francisco, starting near Portsmouth Square and continuing east to the first shipping docks at Buena Vista Cove.
The shipping docks of Buena Vista Cove at the east end of Pacific Street during the 1860s (San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library)
Portsmouth Square, looking north to Telegraph Hill, 1851
International Settlement, 1940s, Pacific Avenue from Montgomery Street towards Kearney Street (San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library)
Jazz pianist, composer, and vocalist Oscar Peterson
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, financial, and cultural center in Northern California. With a population of 808,437 residents as of 2022, San Francisco is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of California. The city covers a land area of 46.9 square miles at the end of the San Francisco Peninsula, making it the second-most densely populated large U.S. city after New York City and the fifth-most densely populated U.S. county, behind only four New York City boroughs. Among the 92 U.S. cities proper with over 250,000 residents, San Francisco is ranked first by per capita income and sixth by aggregate income as of 2022.
Image: San Francisco from the Marin Headlands in August 2022
Image: Palace of Fine Arts (16794p)
Image: Alcatraz 2021
Image: The Embarcadero, San Francisco