Port City: The History and Transformation of the Port of San Francisco 1848-2010.

by Michael R. Corbett

Port City is the first book to tell the comprehensive and largely unknown story of the city's waterfront. For most of its history, the Port played a major role in the daily lives of many San Franciscans. In addition to the sailors, longshoremen, and others who worked along the waterfront, workers in factories, warehouses, and offices were employed in jobs that directly depended on and had regular contact with the port. Port City looks at the geography of these connections to illuminate the role of the port in the city's life. It chronicles the heyday of the port as a flourishing nexus of shipping and commerce and puts this story in today's context. Port City is richly illustrated with historical images, drawings, maps, and specially-commissioned color photographs.

248 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Luis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is pretty much what it says on the cover: a fairly detailed (and wonderfully illustrated/photographed) history of the Port of San Francisco. This is written by a historian sponsored by the port, so take with a grain of salt. That said, based on the other histories of the city that I've read it is a pretty fair characterization of the history of the port. Definitely worth picking up if you're fascinated (as I am) by the interplay of water and city, but not the first book I'd read on the topic - ultimately it is too fragmentary and needs other histories to help you tie this in to the overall history of the city.