San Francisco’s History and Why We’re Proud to Serve the San Francisco Community
San Francisco’s story begins long before skyscrapers and cable cars. The bay’s earliest inhabitants were the Ohlone people, who hunted, fished and gathered along its shorelines. Spanish explorers, led by Don Gaspar de Portolá and Juan Bautista de Anza, recognized the strategic importance of the Golden Gate and in 1776 established the Presidio and Mission San Francisco de Asís near the indigenous settlement of Yerba Buena. When California was ceded to the United States in 1848, this small port town entered a new chapter.
The discovery of gold in the Sierra Nevada in January 1848 transformed the sleepy settlement almost overnight. Fewer than 1,000 people lived there in 1846, but by 1849, fortune‑seekers from around the world had swelled the population to about 25,000 and turned Yerba Buena—now renamed San Francisco—into a bustling city of tents, hotels and saloons. The financial institutions that sprang up to service miners laid the groundwork for today’s banking sector.
San Francisco’s resilience was tested in April 1906 when a magnitude‑7.9 earthquake and subsequent fires destroyed more than 28,000 buildings across four square miles of the city. The disaster killed an estimated 3,000 people and left roughly 250,000 residents homeless. In the wake of this tragedy, civic leaders implemented new building codes and rebuilt the city’s grid, spurring rapid recovery and modern urban planning.
Today the “City by the Bay” is the financial capital of the western United States, a gateway to Silicon Valley and the unofficial headquarters of the venture‑capital industry. Its skyline reflects a blend of Gold‑Rush‑era ambition and 21st‑century innovation, and despite challenges such as high housing costs, it remains an engine of creativity and commerce. Our team at Fast Plumbing & Drain is honored to serve San Francisco’s dynamic neighborhoods, from historic Fisherman’s Wharf to modern SoMa, and to help keep this resilient city running smoothly.