"Gold Rush artifacts discovered in Calif." by Beth Duff-Brown | Associated Press, December 26, 2011
SAN FRANCISCO - Excavation for San Francisco’s multibillion-dollar transportation terminal has unearthed some artifacts from the city’s heady Gold Rush days, including opium pipes from a Chinese laundry and a chipped chamber pot found in a backyard outhouse.
Why are they excavating for a subway in an earthquake-prone fault area?
Related: Rumble at Beverly Hills 90210
The 70 artifacts have city archeologists eager for more and local residents pondering the ground beneath their feet.
“It’s not often that you get a chance to stop for a moment and have a window into what used to be,’’ said James M. Allan, an archeologist with William Self Associates, the firm ensuring the items are unearthed and preserved. “It gives you pause.’’
So does a subway in an earthquake area.
The $4 billion Transbay Transit Center under construction in the South of Market financial district is billed as the “Grand Central Station of the West.’’ The 1 million-square-foot bus and train station will serve as the northern end of California’s planned high-speed rail between San Francisco and Los Angeles; the West Coast’s tallest skyscraper is slated to rise above the center.
Another target for "terrorists?"
It’s all sleek and modern - and on the same blocks once inhabited by working-class Irish immigrants and Chinese laborers who lived back to back on the sand dunes of the busy Gold Rush port known as Yerba Buena Cove.
So does a subway in an earthquake area.
The $4 billion Transbay Transit Center under construction in the South of Market financial district is billed as the “Grand Central Station of the West.’’ The 1 million-square-foot bus and train station will serve as the northern end of California’s planned high-speed rail between San Francisco and Los Angeles; the West Coast’s tallest skyscraper is slated to rise above the center.
Another target for "terrorists?"
It’s all sleek and modern - and on the same blocks once inhabited by working-class Irish immigrants and Chinese laborers who lived back to back on the sand dunes of the busy Gold Rush port known as Yerba Buena Cove.
Now the objects of their lives are being unearthed: clay opium pipes and ceramic tea pots from China; French perfume bottles; dainty English serving dishes, apothecary jars and the heads of hand-painted porcelain dolls; as well as animal bone toothbrushes and abandoned chamber pots.
They all date back to the 1880s, when the cove was reclaimed and clapboard houses went up on Mission, Natoma, and Minna streets. They were filled with Irish, Swedish, German, and Italian immigrants, as well as the Chinese who had come during the Gold Rush and then stayed on to help build the railroads and bridges....
Nothing about the outrageous discrimination the Chinese suffered?
--more--"
