San Francisco

San Francisco 20th Century History: The City Builds

Recovering from the jolt of the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, San Francisco continued to grow.

The Panama-Pacific Exposition of 1915 conferred upon San Francisco the Marina District (newly filled land) and the beloved Palace of Fine Arts, a recreation of ancient ruins that architect Bernard Maybeck envisioned as a building to evoke "sadness modified by the feeling that beauty has a soothing influence."

Also in 1915, San Francisco's gilded City Hall, with its signature dome, was completely replaced after the San Francisco 1906 earthquake.

Alcatraz Island Prison and the Hetch Hetchy Dam (a flooded sister to Yosemite Valley that supplies San Francisco's water) became forever linked with San Francisco history in 1934. The Golden Gate Bridge's awe-inspiring expanse and distinctive ruddy shade of International Orange was born in 1933.

World War II brought a flood of ship building to the Bay and by 1980, San Francisco had the landmark Transamerica Pyramid, the Yerba Buena Gardens and the Davies Symphony Hall.