Bird's-eye view of Monterey, California, 1908

About this postcard

A bird's-eye view looks down over Monterey, California, with white and red-roofed buildings spread along the shore of Monterey Bay and low hills rising behind. In the foreground a large old iron cannon rests on a stone mount in a grassy field. The cannon is on the Presidio, on a hill about a mile east of the barracks. Monterey was the capital of Alta California under Spanish and Mexican rule, and its adobe landmarks and old Presidio made it a familiar subject for early twentieth-century view cards. By the 1900s the town was also tied to the growing sardine fishing industry on the bay.