Existing comment:
A San Diego Milestone:
San Diego bay is a natural harbor. First sighted in 1542 by Spanish explorer Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo, the bay was originally named San Miguel. Next visited in 1602,
Sebastian Vizcaino renamed the bay after a canonized priest, San Diego, from Alcala, Spain. Seldom visited for the next 150 years, Father Junipero Serra came overland from Mexico and founded the first of the California missions in San Diego (Old Town) in 1769. The mission grew and official became an American town in 1848.
The bay was too shallow for ships to come close in, so passengers were taken to shore by rowboat to the water's edge and then carried to dry land on the backs of sailors or Indians. Then they were taken by wagon to town... a few miles north to Old Town. In 1867, Alonzo E. Horton first came to San Diego and was immediately convinced that "the town should be down by the wharf." |