In 1898, 33-year-old local architect A. Page Brown completed San Francisco's Union Depot and Ferry House at the foot of Market Street, a structure intended to befit the city's rising prominence. Crowned by a 240-foot clock tower, the steel-framed terminal stretched its neck out along the bay, extending the continent with 660 feet of beaux-arts confectionery. Inside, passengers awaiting their passage strolled beneath 44 yellow brick arches studded by scrolled terra-cotta brackets. The nave didn't just look solid, it was: It survived the 1906 earthquake that leveled most of the city. It survived the subsequent firestorms that leveled what remained.
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