A View of the Emperor's San Francisco

Joshua Norton arrived in San Francisco in 1849 and "reigned" from there as Emperor Norton from 1859 to 1880.

In 1864 — fifteen years after the Emperor's initial arrival and five years into his reign — Carleton Watkins took this photograph of the city, looking out toward Goat Island (upper left).

Eight years later, in 1872, Emperor Norton called for a suspension bridge to be built from Oakland to San Francisco, via this same island — what we now know as Yerba Buena Island.

These are the streets of San Francisco that the Emperor walked — the view that he saw.

This excellent photo was contributed by the California Historical Society to the Year of the Bay project.

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