Through photo-realistic animation we experience how the Bay was created following the last Ice Age. We then meet Native Peoples along the Bay’s shores 3,000 years ago and continue through European exploration and settlement, including Spanish, Russian and ultimately, American influences. • Origins: Forming the Bay • Early Inhabitants: Native Peoples, Flora and Fauna • The Bay That Was: San Francisco Bay in the Era of Exploration • Upheaval: European Arrival Dramatically Alters the Bay Region
The California Gold Rush leads to San Francisco’s “rapid monstrous maturity” into a major metropolis. Establishing the infrastructure to support the instant city means radical change for San Francisco Bay. By century’s end, San Francisco Bay is the center of a broad economic empire on the Pacific. • Gold Fever: The Bay Welcomes the World • Imperial San Francisco: The Emerging Bay Empire • Bay Fishery: Salmon, Striped Bass and Tales of the Fish Patrol • Invasion!: The Coming of the Transcontinental Railroad Introduces New Species
The Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906 accelerates the dispersion of people and industry to the East Bay. Advances in engineering give rise to the first of California’s massive water re-distribution projects paralleling the era of great bridge building. World War II sees the Bay transformed into the greatest shipbuilding center the world had ever known. • Earthquake!: The Fall and Rise of San Francisco • Diversions: The First California Water Projects • Bridging the Bay: Great Bridges Span the Bay and Golden Gate • World War II: The Brightest Star in the Pacific Theater
The post-War boom threatens the very survival of the Bay. We meet the leaders of the Save the Bay campaign of the 1960’s and witness the birth of the national mass environmental movement. After people power triumphs, we look at how best to balance the competing demands of a major urban center set amidst an environmentally significant landscape. • Post-War Boom: Dreams and Schemes in the Name of Progress • Save the Bay: Birthing the Mass Environmental Movement • Crossroads: Balancing People and Nature • Vision: Restoration, Enhancement and Public Access