This 1876 Guide Map of the City of San Francisco from Langley’s San Francisco Directory is a richly detailed document of the city three years after its now famous cable car system began operation – and less than three decades after the Gold Rush turned a small trading post into a thriving city in need of public transportation.

Drawn and engraved at a scale of 2000 feet to one inch, this 26” x 21” antique map shows the original cable car routes and the proposed right-of-way of the Southern & Western Pacific Railroad.

Find Union Square between blocks 142 and 143. Find the Mission and Market Street Wharves before the Ferry Terminal. To the west, Cliff House and the Seal Rocks are shown. The curved roads and pathways of Golden Gate Park are detailed, designed in 1871 to discourage fast horse-and-buggy drivers.

The Presidio Reservation and Fort Point are shown to the north; the map pre-dates the Fisherman’s Wharf sea wall by a decade. The undeveloped “San Miguel Rancho” occupies the south central section of the city; finely engraved contour lines indicate the yet-to-be-named Twin Peaks.

Our Perfect Recreation™ reproduces every fine line of this wonderful map that could still serve as a reliable walking guide to the city 130 years after its publication.