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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Debora, post: 9864969, member: 1476&quot;]San Francisco was founded in 1776.&nbsp; One would assume furniture making started shortly thereafter (although this piece is obviously not an example from that early period.)&nbsp; The transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, linking the East and West coasts and, according to wikipedia.org, &quot;made transporting passengers and goods coast-to-coast considerably quicker, safer and less expensive.&quot;&nbsp; (The Panama Canal didn&#039;t open until 1914 when the population of San Francisco was already over 400,000.)&nbsp; In the late Victorian era, the transport of goods by railroad to the West Coast was so efficient that the California robber barons -- Crocker, Huntington, Stanford, Hopkins are examples -- brought back freight cars filled with furnishings and art from their Grand Tours of Europe.&nbsp; So much, in fact, that the first three opened museums to display their imported bounty.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Debora[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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