A Growing Population
People talked non-stop about the California Gold Rush for years, but its hype eventually died down by the mid-1850s. San Francisco remained a vital port despite that, and people started to see more and more ships arrive. During the 1840s, San Francisco only had about 200 residents.
Fast forward to the 1850s; their population skyrocketed to at least 36,000. People started to hate how there wasn’t a safer way to get past the Golden Strait, and it didn’t take too long before people began to think of a solution for such an important issue.