Pondering whether to invest in a copy of Portal (or at least check it out from your local library)? Maybe this will help -- five excerpts that range from the 1890s to 2023, as distilled in five publications. Enjoy!
* How the building came to be conceived, courtesy of Architectural Record
* The Chronicle's choice of an excerpt recounted perhaps my favorite narrow escapes for our icon-by-the-bay -- a state-government-blessed plan to tear it down after World War II. Complete with photos from The Chronicle morgue that I wish were in the book. Read all about it here.
* Did you know that the Ferry Building was on display at the 1904 Worlds Fair in St. Louis? This unexpected journey caught the eye of the Delancey Place newsletter, and it's a snippet stranger than fiction.
* One of the odd sagas of semi-recent S.F. history is that voters in 1986 REJECTED a ballot initiative to remove the Embarcadero Freeway! Streetsblog dipped into my tome for the tale: Read the strange saga here.
*Portal's final section, "The Unknown," includes a chapter on the challenges posed by sea level rise to the Ferry Building and Embarcadero. Here's the excerpt from Heatmap. (registration required)