Pacific Gas and Electric Company

The Pacific Gas and Electric Company , commonly known as PG&E, is the utility that provides natural gas and electricity to most of the northern two-thirds of California, from Bakersfield almost to the Oregon border. It is a subsidiary of the PG&E Corporation. PG&E was founded in 1905 and is currently headquartered in the Pacific Gas & Electric Building in San Francisco. In the 1850s, manufactured gas was being introduced as means of lighting for the first time and coal gasification works were being built in the larger eastern American cities. San Francisco pioneer foundryman... and blacksmith Peter Donahue and his brothers established a foundry below North Beach, and later in the south of Market area. The foundry would become the Union Iron Works, the greatest industrial concern in 19th century San Francisco. Donahue learned all he could about gas manufacturing and with his brother James and a young engineer named Joseph G. Eastland incorporated the San Francisco Gas Company on August 31, 1852. The original location for the gas works was bounded by First, Fremont, Howard and Natoma streets south of Market, on the then shore of the San Francisco Bay.
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