This marker consists of six plaques arranged in a 2 X 3 pattern. The top left plaque is the title plaque and may contain some text. The top right plaque displayed an arrow which points in the direction of the named street. Other plaques contain biographical information on the person for whom the street is named, appropriate quotation(s) and relevant illustrations, cast in bronze.
In February of 1853, the United States Topographical Engineers published their first detailed survey of the city, showing new streets, many named for army and naval officers. Fremont and Folsom were prominent officers; Harrison, Bryant and King held important city and port positions; Spear and Brannan had been pioneers of Yerba Buena before San Francisco had its name.
First publicist of California, Edwin Bryant trekked overland from Missiori to the coast in 1844. Arriving after many hardships, in 1846 he worked to secure California of the United States. His account, What I Saw in California, published in 1848, made the overland journey attractive for legions of settlers. After holding positions of civic distinction in San Francisco, he returned to Kentucky to lead the life of a gentleman scholar. He lived to see the state who's interests he had done so much to advance joined to the Union by the transcontinental railroad, and retraced his wagon route by palace car in 1869.
In the mid-1850s a Chinese settlement appeared along the bluff, above a narrow beach - just south of Bryant Street, and west of First Street. Believed to be a small fishing encampment, numbering about 30 small structures on the 1859 Coast Survey Chart, the site has been the subject of archaeological investigation.
"The heads of thousands of grave and prudent men are turned, at the distance of two thousand miles from the scene of enchantment, by the stories of wealth in California to be had for the asking." — Edwin Bryant, 1849
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