1864
- The Alameda County Infirmary is established (Fairmont Hospital pictured)
- literary newspaper The Californian begins publishing in San Francisco, with Bret Harte as editor, and Mark Twain as a writer
- The Bank of California (pictured) is founded in San Francisco by William Chapman Ralston
- The Napa Valley Railroad Company is founded by Samuel Brannan to shuttle tourists between ferry boats docked in Vallejo to the resort town of Calistoga
- The San Francisco and San Jose Railroad completes its 49.5-mile (80 km) route from San Francisco to San Jose along the San Francisco Peninsula, becoming the first railroad to link the two cities