''Chrysopolis'' (

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

for "city of gold") was a famous side-wheel

steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. The term ''steamboat'' is used to refer to small steam-powered vessels worki ...

that ran between

Sacramento Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...

and

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

from 1860 to 1875 when it was rebuilt as a ferry that continued in service for more than 60 years. ''Chrysopolis'' was built in San Francisco, by shipbuilder

John Gunder North John Gunder North (December 15, 1826 – September 19, 1872) was a Norwegian born ship builder in San Francisco. During his career, he built 273 hulls of all kinds with 53 bay and river steamers, including the famed paddle steamers ''Chrysopolis ...

in his new shipyard in the Potrero District. Launched in 1860, it was a side-wheel

paddle steamer A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine driving paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, whereby the first uses were wh ...

of 245 feet long with a 40-foot beam, displacing 1050 tons. It was equipped with a 1,357 horsepower, single cylinder, vertical-beam engine powered by two 32 ton boilers. It had two side-wheels 32 feet in diameter with 8 foot buckets (the wooden blades of a paddle wheel). It could carry 1,000 passengers and 700 tons of cargo at great speed. On December 31, 1861, it made the record setting run for a steamboat over the 120 mile distance between Sacramento and San Francisco in 5 hours and 19 minutes, making an average speed of 19.8 knots.

Rebuilt as Ferry "Oakland"

''Chrysopolis'' was rebuilt in 1875 by Patrick Henry Tiernan as the

San Francisco Bay ferry San Francisco Bay Ferry is a public transit passenger ferry service in the San Francisco Bay, administered by the San Francisco Bay Area Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA) and operated under contract by the privately owned Blue and ...

Oakland. Tiernan turned it into a double ended ferry-boat, cutting it in two and extending her length to 282 feet 7 inches overall with depth of hold amidships, 17.5 feet. It was destroyed by fire in 1940.MacMullen, Jerry, Paddle-Wheel Days in California, Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1970.

Notes

Sidewheel steamboats of California Ferries of California Ships built in San Francisco Transportation in the San Francisco Bay Area California Steam Navigation Company {{California-transport-stub