labor – Sunnyside History Project

By Amy O’Hair

Note: This article does not include anything about the new net that was recently installed on the Golden Gate Bridge to prevent suicides.

Sometimes in my research I come across people whose lives have had a real impact on San Francisco, but whose stories have never been told; the best of those stories shine a new light on an old familiar subject. This post is about a little invention—and the person who designed it—which played a part in dramatically improving worker safety during the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge in 1936-1937. A small metal clip, invented for the purpose, enabled the fabrication of the giant nets that caught falling workers. Such nets subsequently became standard safety gear on similar work sites—a worldwide phenomenon that prevented an untold number of deaths, and a story that is anchored in San Francisco ingenuity and initiative.

Although I had found out about the man who invented the clip—he was the father of the first owner of my Sunnyside house—I am now prompted to put the story together after visiting a new local bar and restaurant, The Halfway Club, on Geneva Avenue. [January 2025: The bar was nominated for an important award.]

The Halfway Club at 1166 Geneva Avenue, San Francisco. Photo: Amy O’Hair

The place was named by its owners, Ethan Terry and Greg Quinn, in honor of the club formed by the construction workers who survived falling into the net: The Halfway to Hell Club.

More about that later. First, the net and how it got made.

Workers in the Golden Gate Bridge net. 1936. SAN FRANCISCO HISTORY CENTER, SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC LIBRARY. — Construction workers in the Golden Gate Bridge net. 1936. SAN FRANCISCO HISTORY CENTER, SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC LIBRARY.

A Revolutionary Net

Continue reading “Halfway to Safety: The Tale of a Little Clip and a Big Net” →

By Amy O’Hair

Investment money that funded the Sunnyside Land Company in 1890 was largely sourced from the hefty profits of some of San Francisco’s biggest late nineteenth-century breweries: Philadelphia Brewery, Albany Brewery, and United States Brewery—all overseen by the Brewer’s Protective Association. Men who were heirs to these fortunes, or wrapped up in the racket of propping up prices and selling off franchises to foreign capitalists, were among the most prominent initial investors in the Sunnyside project.

Behrend Joost, President of Sunnyside Land Company, was a notorious and irascible teetotaler^[1], but he had no problem accepting beer-drenched money from his investors, who altogether put in one million dollars to fund the property speculation project. In return, many got their names or the places in Germany they came from on the newly laid-out streets.

Five of the original Sunnyside streets—Mangels Avenue, Spreckels Avenue, Wieland Avenue, Baden Street, and Hamburg Street—I trace directly to these men.

Portion of the original Sunnyside Land Company homestead map, submitted to the city in 1891.

In addition, Edna Street is likely to have been named for the beloved daughter of one of these brewery men. Continue reading “Built on Beer: The Streets of Sunnyside and San Francisco Brewery Profits” →