- Grant Avenue
Grant Avenue in
San Francisco, California is one of the oldest streets in the city's Chinatown district. It runs in a north-south direction starting at Market Street in the heart of downtown and dead-ending past Francisco Street in the North Beach district. It resumes at North Point Street and stretches one block to The Embarcadero and the foot ofPier 39 .Grant Avenue is a one-way street; automobile traffic can only travel northbound.
History
Grant Avenue was originally named Calle de la FundacionFact|date=April 2008 (Spanish for "Street of the Founding") in 1845, when the town was called Yerba Buena. When California became property of the United States following the
Mexican-American War , the street was named Dupont Avenue, in honor of a Naval admiral from the "USS Portsmouth" (Portsmouth Square , located one block east, was named after that ship). In the following years, Dupont Avenue became the location for various opium dens, Tong wars and other unsavory activities.POV-statement|date=April 2008When San Francisco was rebuilt after being leveled in the
1906 earthquake , Dupont Street was upgraded and given a new name: Grant Avenue, after PresidentUlysses S. Grant .Today, the intersection of Grant Avenue and Bush Street marks the southern entrance to Chinatown. Grant Avenue is still written and said in Chinese as Dupont Avenue.
References
* [http://www.http://www.sanfranciscochinatown.com/attractions/grant.html SanFranciscoChinatown.com: Grant Avenue in San Francisco]
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