As I was riding around town this weekend, I was suddenly struck by a thought: stopped at the intersection of Broadway and Battery Streets, I suddenly wondered to myself: “Broadway? Battery? Where did those names actually come from? Does anyone still remember?” These names must reveal something about the character, history, and essential nature of a mature city, and so I decided to walk the city, block by block, and try to find out the what and why of our city streets.

Links to a couple of the resources that I used are listed below, as well as some random street photos.

Streets of San Francisco
Splendid Survivors – San Francisco’s downtown architectural heritage
Tales of San Francisco
S.F. Museum online – San Francisco street names
A wonderful 1890’s map with the extent of modern landfill indicated in pink.

Thanks to Denis Kitchen for the use of the track “My Friend”, courtesy of the Podsafe Music Network.