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Steamboat Slough, 1895.

Merrymakers set out on a steamboat bound for San Francisco. They will probably spend the night and return the following day. I cannot imagine anyone wanting to spend more than a day in San Francisco. Steamboats continued to provide excursions between San Francisco and San Jose into the 20th century.

Steamboats are part of a big fish eats little fish story in the Bay Area. For many years the stagecoach was the only method of travel, and it was rough indeed on the old buttocks. The stagecoach was supplanted by the steamboat, and the steamboat was made obsolete by the railroad. Let's stop here before we get to trucks and BMW's. In the 21st century we will all have jet-packs.

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