San Francisco is one of those iconic cities from my childhood, serving as a shining beacon of American progress and innovation. With such landmarks as the Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Wharf, and Alcatraz, the city stood along its sisters: New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, etc, as symbols of the great American dream.  In the past decade though, the city has been going through a rut. San Francisco has struggled with high office vacancy rates, extremely expensive property values (some would argue the world's most expensive), and a general feeling of decay, with visible homelessness, open-air drug use, and theft being commonplace. Time will tell what will happen to the city, but these photographs are of San Francisco during one of its more glorious and glamorous eras. San Francisco was founded in 1776 by Spanish colonists. The 1849 California gold rush exploded San Francisco’s population from a tiny settlement into one of America’s fastest-growing cities almost overnight! A note ...