Sacramento, California

=== American period ===
[[File:Sacramento california 1849.jpg|thumb|left|Sacramento in 1849, when the city was an economic center of the [[California Gold Rush]]]]
In 1848, when [[James W. Marshall]] discovered gold at [[Sutters Mill|Sutter's Mill]] in [[Coloma, California|Coloma]] (some {{convert|50|mi|km|1|abbr=on|disp=or}} northeast of the fort), numerous gold-seekers came to the area, increasing the population. In August 1848, Sutter Sr.'s son, [[John Augustus Sutter Jr.|John Sutter Jr.]], arrived to assist his father in reducing his [[debt]]. The Sutters struggled to contain the effects of thousands of new gold miners and prospectors in the area, many of whom squatted on unwatched portions of the vast Sutter lands or stole various unattended Sutter properties or belongings. For Sutter, his employee's discovery of gold in the area turned out to be a bane.

By December 1848, John Sutter Jr., in association with [[Samuel Brannan]], began laying out the City of Sacramento, {{convert|2|mi|km}} south of his father's settlement of New Helvetia. This venture was undertaken against the wishes of Sutter Sr., but the father, being deeply in debt, was unable to stop it. For commercial reasons, the new city was named "Sacramento City" after the [[Sacramento River]]. Sutter Jr. and Brannan had [[United States Army]] Captain [[William H. Warner]] assigned to draft the official layout of the city, which included 26 lettered and 31 numbered streets (today's grid from C St. to Broadway and from Front St. to Alhambra Blvd.) Relations between Sutter and his son became embittered after Sacramento became an overnight commercial success. (Sutter's Fort, Mill, and the town of [[Sutterville, California|Sutterville]], all founded by John Sutter Sr., eventually failed).
[[File:Sacramento, CA USA - panoramio (10).jpg|thumb|[[Old Sacramento State Historic Park|Old Sacramento]], the oldest quarter of the city, grew up along the [[Sacramento River]] in the mid-1800s.]]
Residents of Sacramento adopted a [[Municipal charter|city charter]] in 1849, which was recognized by the state legislature in 1850. Sacramento is the oldest [[municipal corporation|incorporated]] city in California, incorporated on February 27, 1850.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cityofsacramento.org/about_the_city.htm |title=About the City of Sacramento |publisher=City of Sacramento |access-date=November 16, 2012 |archive-date=November 23, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121123091648/http://www.cityofsacramento.org/about_the_city.htm}}</ref>

On January 10, 1850, a flood occurred that devastated the city. The rushing waters uprooted homes and drowned livestock. The city was almost destroyed. Due to the efforts of [[Hardin Bigelow]], Sacramento's first elected mayor, the construction of the city's first levee was completed in early 1852 (the city became known as "The Levee City"). However, a month after it was completed, it was breached during the first major storm of the season and the city flooded again. A new levee was built for $50,000, but it also broke, causing more flooding of the city.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Solomon |first1=Samantha |title=When Sacramento became 'Levee City' {{!}} Marking the 170-year anniversary of the flood that started it all |url=https://www.abc10.com/article/news/history/when-sacramento-became-levee-city/103-48d5063b-ad48-4b32-9709-c7ca4fe8ea79 |website=abc10 |date=January 10, 2020 |publisher=KXTV-TV |access-date=August 20, 2022}}</ref> Between October and December 1850, Sacramento was hit with a cholera epidemic that killed 1,000 residents, including Mayor Bigelow and 17 of the city's 40 physicians. Up to 80 percent of the populace left town.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Gibbons |first1=H. |title=The Cholera in California in 1850 |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=DAC18651009.2.4&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1 |website=UCR California Digital Newspaper Collection |publisher=DL Consulting |access-date=August 20, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The 17 Doctors of the 1850 Sacramento Cholera Epidemic |url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=12485 |website= The Historical Marker Database |access-date=August 20, 2022}}</ref> On November 2, 1852, a fire known as the Great Conflagration burned more than 80 percent of the structures in the city. It is estimated that the total damage was around six million dollars. Within a month 761 structures were re-built, many of them in brick.<ref>{{cite web |title=This Day in History, November |url=http://sachistorymuseum.org/field-trips/fun-facts/ |website=Sacramento history Museum |date=February 23, 2015 |access-date=August 20, 2022}}</ref> In spite of all these hardships the new city's location just downstream from the [[Mother Lode]] in the [[Sierra Nevada (U.S.)|Sierra Nevada]] proved irresistible, and it grew rapidly during the early 1850s, attracting a population of 10,000. The [[Great Flood of 1862]] from December 1861 to January 1862 caused the worst flooding in Sacramento's history. In 1861, Governor [[Leland Stanford]], who was inaugurated in early January 1862, traveled to his inauguration in a rowboat.
[[File:'Sacramento Railroad Station' by William Hahn.JPG|thumb|left|An 1874 depiction of a Sacramento railway station by painter [[William Hahn]]]]
The [[California State Legislature]], with the support of Governor [[John Bigler]], moved to Sacramento in 1854. The capital of California under Spanish (and, subsequently, Mexican) rule had been [[Monterey, California|Monterey]], where, in 1849, the first [[Constitutional Convention (California)|Constitutional Convention]] and state elections were held. The convention decided [[San Jose, California|San Jose]] would be the new state's capital. After 1850, when California's statehood was ratified, the legislature met in San Jose until 1851, [[Vallejo, California|Vallejo]] in 1852, and [[Benicia, California|Benicia]] in 1853, before moving to Sacramento. During the 1850s the city was [[Consolidated city-county|consolidated with]] the County of Sacramento.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=P_sBAAAAYAAJ&num=9 ''The California State register and year book of facts: for the year 1859''], Henry G. Langley and Samuel A. Morison, San Francisco, 1859, p.315</ref> In the [[California Constitutional Conventions|Sacramento Constitutional Convention of 1879]], Sacramento was named the permanent state capital.

The [[Classical Revival]]-style [[California State Capitol]], similar to the national Capitol, was started in 1860 and completed in 1874. In 1861, the legislative session was moved to the [[Merchants Exchange Building (San Francisco)|Merchants Exchange Building in San Francisco]] for one session because of the massive flooding in Sacramento. From 1862 to 1868, part of the [[Leland Stanford Mansion]] was used for the governor's offices during Stanford's tenure as the Governor; and the legislature met in the Sacramento County Courthouse. The legislative chambers were first occupied in 1869, while construction continued around them.
[[File:Construction_of_the_California_Capitol_in_1868.jpg|thumb|The [[California State Capitol]], built between 1860 and 1874, shown here under construction in 1868]]
With its new status and strategic location, Sacramento quickly prospered. It was designated as the western terminus of the [[Pony Express]]. Later it became a terminus of the [[First transcontinental railroad]], which began construction in Sacramento in 1863 and was financed by "[[The Big Four (Central Pacific Railroad)|The Big Four]]"—[[Mark Hopkins Jr.|Mark Hopkins]], [[Charles Crocker]], [[Collis P. Huntington]], and [[Leland Stanford]]. Both the American and especially Sacramento rivers were key elements in the economic success of the city. Sacramento effectively controlled commerce on these rivers, and public works projects were funded through taxes levied on goods unloaded from boats and loaded onto rail cars in the historic [[Sacramento Railyards|Sacramento Rail Yards]].

From 1862 until the mid-1870s, Sacramento raised the level of its downtown by building reinforced brick walls on its downtown streets and filling the resulting street walls with dirt. The previous first floors of buildings became [[basement]]s, with open space between the street and the building, previously the [[sidewalk]], now at the basement level. Over the years, many of these underground spaces have been filled or destroyed by subsequent development. However, it is still possible to view portions of the "[[Old Sacramento State Historic Park#Old Sacramento Underground|Sacramento Underground]]".