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Today’s visitors get the Golden Gate Bridge. 150 years ago, they got the trapdoor.
It's hard to recall today that the gracious harbor city of San Francisco was actually
born out of chaos, sin and violence. After the discovery of gold in 1849, the sleepy
port was invaded by miners, criminal, prostitutes and desperados, making the town
as wild as Deadwood or Dodge City. One district in particular became notorious for
its dangerous street life: the Barbary Coast. Named after the pirate-filled shores
of Africa, it was located just east of today’s Chinatown. In the words of historian
Herbert Asbury, this corner of San Francisco was a colorful combination of viciousness,
depravity and glamour. Today, only a few relics of the grimy saloons and brothels
of the time remain. But several bars do still have the trapdoors in the floor, relics
of the practice of Shanghaiing sailors. Unwary drinkers would be lured to bars and
slipped liquor laced with opium. As they reeled from the drugs, owners such as the
notorious Miss Piggott, whose fists were said to be the size of smoked hams, would
thump them over the head. The trapdoor would be opened, and the unconscious victim
would fall below, only to awaken on a ship far at sea. The regular drinkers would
apparently ignore such illegal activities, no doubt wary that they themselves might
be tossed "down the hatch".
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