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Welcome to San Francisco, one of the most beautiful and cultural cities in the world. But it wasn’t always that way. Imagine a time in the 1840’s when there were only a few hundred people that lived in what is now a metropolis. If you know about the gold rush, then you can probably guess why San Francisco became so important. Let’s take a look.

With the first words of gold came the most successful prospectors. These men, called the Forty-Niners, because of the year 1849, were able to gather gold at a rate of more than an ounce every hour. However, the real money was being made by men like Sam Brannan who sold supplies to the Forty-Niners. And they did all of this selling in San Francisco. So you see, the men with dollar signs in their eyes would come to San Francisco to buy their supplies and then head out to the American River to strike it rich. Once they found their gold, they would come down from the hills to the new city of San Francisco looking for culture and fun. And when the gold started to run thin, the worn-out not so successful miners would return to San Francisco to settle down

Gold became the driving force that brought people from all over the world to San Francisco. Because there were so many different kinds of people, San Francisco became a cultural mecca with a theater, opera and more newspapers than any city. The city became the envy of the world.