F I R S TP R E V619NEXTLAST

Commercial Street, East and West
In 1849 Commercial Street was the center of action in San Francisco and it wasn't even here. Commercial Street marks the spot of 2,000-foot Long Wharf. It extended that far into the bay so that arriving sailing ships could dock alongside and unload without having to use smaller craft to get goods and passengers ashore. Long Wharf was lined with stores, saloons, gambling halls, and miners selling their gold dust and nuggets. It was a chaos of fortune-seekers from all over the world wearing strange clothing and speaking dozens of languages. After a number of years the land around the wharf was filled in and the old wharf was renamed Commercial Street but more notoriously known as "Brothel Row." Today the four-block street runs from the Embarcadero Center (top photo) into Chinatown (bottom photo).
[ MAP D-14 ]