We passed directly under the high cliff and stood into the middle of the bay, from whence we could see small bays, making up into the interior, on every side: large and beautifully wooded islands; and the mouths of several small rivers. If California ever becomes a prosperous country, this bay will be the center of its prosperity.
—Richard Henry Dana Jr.
CALIFORNIA has become a prosperous country, and San Francisco Bay, so lovingly described by Seaman Dana in Two Years Before the Mast, is the focus of West Coast commerce. But the Bay has...