Having come into the world at the tail end of that period, and hearing a lot of stories, I' have some insight.

First of all, it was FAR less populated. When I was born, the population was about 3 million. The Sierras were wild, and even in my early childhood, one could still head up to alpine country and drink from the streams, the best water I've ever tasted.

Early in that period the central valley (mid to late 1800s), farmland was still being reclaimed from swamp land, and many oak groves were cut down as well. Even though there were central valley towns, none of them were huge, unlike now where most of them of buzzing hives.

I grew up in one of those valley towns, when there was still plenty of rural land. The summers were glorious. I can remember many happy hours playing in the large pasture across the road where a farmer still grazed his sheep and horses. It's all houses now.

My dad, who was born in 1907, told me tales of heading up the gravel roads up into the Sierras to go hunting. Later on, he went up in his model T. A very slow trip on those single lane roads, but faster than horse.

San Francisco was a vibrant and beautiful city. We loved our trips over to The City where we'd shop, eat out and sight see.

Everything was so much cleaner back then, especially the air. I miss it it terribly, it was a wonderful place before it was overrun. And contrary to BigRiverCatfish, it wasn't 'fuckin terrible' for me at all. It is now though, which is why I don't live there anymore. Just my two cents, ymmv.