Signal Station Telegraph Hill San Francisco 1 Stock Photo

It is hard to imagine today a time without telephones. But prior to 1876 when the telephone was invented, prior to 1837 when the telegraph was invented, the only way to get massages sent over long distances was to either have someone physically deliver them, or if there were some good hills, send messages by semaphore, the process of holding a flag in each outstretched hand. By moving the arms to certain positions it could represent the 26 letters of the alphabet or the numbers 0 through 9. Just off the parking lot where Coit Tower now stands there was such a station, during the Gold Rush period starting in 1850, to let the people below know about the ships coming in through the Golden Gate, and what country it was coming from, by raising the nations colors of the ship. A telegraph was finally installed in 1853, making the semaphore system obsolete. As seen 10 April 2024.