The photo was taken from atop Potrero Hill on 4.29.2007

“Like Rome and other great cities, San Francisco is a city of villages on hills. Potrero Hill is the quintessential village-on-a-hill, and all phases of San Francisco history have been portrayed on it. In eons past, the hill was wild terrain, across which moved tule elk. Native Americans roamed the area for more than 20 generations. In the Spanish and Mexican era, it was a great cattle ranch. During the gold rush, herds of long-horn cattle, driven north from Southern California, were brought to its base. In the late 19th century, Victorian homes for the working people began to spring up on the grid of its streets. By the early 20th century, Potrero Hill supported a  flourishing and diverse community representative of international San Francisco. It had become in fact a successful neighborhood.”
By Kevin Starr...In the forward of, Images of America SAN FRANCISCO’S POTRERO HILL

Potrero is the Spanish word for pasture. In the 1700’s under the pueblo system, a potrero was classed as land for the common use of the inhabitants of the the pueblo. San Francisco had two potreros, one known as viejo (old), the other nuevo (new). Potrero Hill was the Potrero Nuevo.   

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