![]() ![]() Rocks for ballast were quarried from the bay side of Telegraph Hill. Sailing ships brought cargo to San Francisco but needed ballast when leaving. Telegraph Hill and the Coit Tower after sunset as seen from the East Bay ![]() The pole-and-arm signals on the Telegraph Hill semaphore became so well known to townspeople of San Francisco that, according to one story, during a play in a San Francisco theater, an actor held his arms aloft and cried, "Oh God, what does this mean?", prompting a rogue in the gallery to shout, "Sidewheel steamer!", which brought down the house. On October 18, 1850, the ship Oregon signaled to the hill as it was entering the Golden Gate the news of California's recently acquired statehood. Those who did not have advance information on the cargo might pay a too-high price from a merchant unloading his stock of a commodity-a price that was about to drop. Knowing the nature of the cargo carried by the ship they could predict the upcoming (generally lower) local prices for those goods and commodities carried. The information was used by observers operating for financiers, merchants, wholesalers and speculators. Atop the newly built house, the marine telegraph consisted of a pole with two raisable arms that could form various configurations, each corresponding to a specific meaning: steamer, sailing boat, etc. The hill owes its name to a semaphore, a windmill-like structure erected in September 1849, for the purpose of signaling to the rest of the city the nature of the ships entering the Golden Gate. Originally named Loma Alta ("High Hill") by the Spaniards, the hill was then familiarly known as Goat Hill by the early San Franciscans and became the neighborhood of choice for many Irish immigrants.įrom 1825 through 1847, the area between Sansome and Battery, Broadway and Vallejo streets was used as a burial ground for foreign non- Catholic seamen. The neighborhood is bounded by Vallejo Street to the south, Sansome Street to the east, Francisco Street to the north and Powell Street and Columbus Avenue to the west, where the northwestern corner of Telegraph Hill overlaps with the North Beach neighborhood. The San Francisco Chronicle defines the Chinatown, North Beach, and Telegraph Hill areas as bounded by Sacramento Street, Taylor Street, Bay Street, and the water. ![]()
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