The Ohlone managed the landscape through use of fire. They traveled on the bay in tule canoes:
Ohlone village sites:
Pre-colonial landscape:
Capt. Beechey’s map from 1826-7:
Just before the Gold Rush:
First United States map of San Francisco, before Gold Rush.
1849, Gold Rush boomtown and bay fill
San Francisco viewed from Yerba Buena Island, circa 1850.
1851 and the ships abandoned by crews
San Francisco in 1852:
1855 view of city from Rincon Point:
South of Market developed despite the natural landscape and marshes:
ecowise 