Market Street looking toward the Ferry Building San Francisco, 3.

When the first street grid was planned for San Francisco, in 1839 in the days it was still Yerba Buena, it was to be a grid pattern following the four main compass points of the then city. It wasn`t until 1847 as a vastly growing American city of San Francisco that Market Street was even needed, as well as the streets now south of Market. The problem for the new planner was, the already existing property owners didn`t like the idea of having the lines redrawn to conform the the topography of the cities hills. Dealing with land owners was one thing. Dealing with nature was another: San Francisco being a coastal city, originally there were sand dunes scattered about, including what is now downtown. To make it as wide as planned, the widest street in the city in fact, steam shovels had to be brought in just to remove the dunes, and all of that sand became early landfill.

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Keywords: 1839 1847 american buena city compass days even first four francisco grid growing main market needed now pattern planned point points san south still street streets that then vastly wasnt well when yerba

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