Quick: what comes to mind when you think of San Francisco? High rent, the Gold Rush, earthquake, Harvey Milk… Alcatraz? There’s so much more to learn about the city, its history, geography, and culture. San Francisco is the birthplace of a lot of things, not all of them good.
Between 1900 and 1904, the city of San Francisco was the site for the first plague epidemic in the continental United States, which killed more than a hundred people in Chinatown because the Governor of California delayed taking action in order to avoid the economic consequences that would have come with a quarantine. As a result, some people speculate that this is how the bubonic plague managed to secure its first toehold in North America since it is capable of surviving in reservoir animals.
But then you have blue jeans, which almost makes up for the plague. Read 20 things that may surprise you about San Francisco at Housely.