San Diego Then and Now

San Diego was founded when Sebastian Vizcaino entered the bay in 1602 on the feast day of San Diego de Alcala and named the place accordingly but it was not until 1867 when San Francisco speculator and businessman Alonzo E Horton acquired 960 acres of waterfront land and promoted it as New Town that San Diego really took off. The arrival in the 1920s and 1930s of the aviation and maritime industries, and regular income from naval and military bases helped San Diego get through the Great Depression. Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the headquarters of the US Pacific Fleet was moved to San Diego. The metropolis’s wartime role and the associated publicity finally marked San Diego as an important city. San Diego Then and Now looks at how the city developed from a small village into a beautiful beach city.