Sutro, Adolph, 1830-1898

Mining engineer and mayor of San Francisco.

Adolph Heinrich Sutro, born in Prussia in 1830, was a mining engineer who planned the Sutro Tunnel, which was constructed through Mount Davidson to reach the Comstock Lode. In 1878 sold his interest in the tunnel and invested in San Francisco real estate. He served one term as mayor of San Francisco and died in 1898.

Mining engineer. Soon after the discovery of the Comstock Lode in Nevada, Sutro conceived the idea of a tunnel through Mount Davidson to improve miners' access to the lode. In 1866 his Sutro Tunnel Company received from Congress the right of way to public lands crossed by the tunnel. Construction lasted from 1869 to 1878. The tunnel revolutionized western mining, and Sutro sold his interest and retired to San Francisco, where he served a term as Mayor.

Adolph Sutro (1830-1898), mining engineer, mayor of San Francisco, 1894-98.

Adolph Sutro came to San Francisco in 1851. He ran a tobacco store until 1860 when he went to Nevada, attracted by silver mining. He constructed a tunnel under the Comstock Lode to drain the mines. He amassed a library of over 250,000 books, built the Cliff House and Sutro Baths in San Francisco. Elected mayor of San Francisco on the Populist ticket in 1894.

Mining engineer and businessman, Sutro came to California in 1851. He worked as both merchant and engineer, making a fortune constructing the Sutro Tunnel in the Comstock Lode. He then became one of the most powerful landowners in San Francisco and served as mayor of city from 1894 to 1896.

Mining engineer.

Sutro was a San Francisco businessman and mining engineer who made his fortune constructing the Sutro Tunnel at the Comstock Lode in Nev. He served as mayor of San Francisco from 1894-1896.

Adolph H.J. Sutro (1830-1898) emigrated in 1850 to the eastern United States from Prussia and very soon thereafter went to San Francisco to sell supplies to miners during the Gold Rush. The discovery of silver on the Comstock Lode in Nevada prompted him to establish the Sutro Metallurgical Works in 1861, and in 1862 he had constructed a ten-stamp mill. He conceived the idea of a tunnel to relieve the problems of floods, high temperatures, and noxious gases in the mines of the Comstock Lode, and the Sutro Tunnel was completed in 1868. He sold his interest in the tunnel and returned to San Francisco in 1880, where he increased his land holdings, took part in city affairs, and served as mayor from 1894-96. His book collection became the foundation of the Sutro Branch of the California State Library in San Francisco.

Biographical Information

Adolph Heinrich Joseph Sutro, originator of the Sutro Tunnel in Nevada and well-known figure in San Francisco, born of Jewish parents in 1830 at Aix-la-Chapelle in Germany, left school at sixteen, but continued his education by reading voraciously. From his father, a cloth manufacturer, Sutro learned factory management. After his father's death in 1847, with business ruined by the Prussian war, his mother, having to raise seven sons and four daughters, decided to emigrate to the United States in 1850.

Adolph Sutro soon left for California via Panama, the rest of the family remaining in Baltimore. Sutro became a merchant in San Francisco and Stockton from 1851 to 1859. In 1855 he married Leah Harris, and from this marriage were born six children, four girls and two boys. As early as 1860, Sutro visited Nevada, learned to amalgamate tailings and created stamp mills in Carson and Virginia City. Here he planned his famous Tunnel, to drain and ventilate mines in the Comstock Lode, hoping to reach lucrative financial agreements with mining companies who would thus be benefited, hoping also to strike a rich vein himself while digging the tunnel. He eventually succeeded in obtaining financial backing in this country and in Europe, got a charter from Nevada in 1865 and an authorization from Congress in 1866. A company, known as the Sutro Tunnel Company, was formed, stock sold, and work started in October 1869.

Until 1880 Sutro fought many legislative battles in Washington, D.C., against the Bank Ring and the Bonanza owners, traveled to New York and Europe incessantly to consult with engineers and capitalists, and at times stayed in his mansion in the town of Sutro to supervise the tunnel work. Although the tunnel reached the Comstock Lode in 1879, Sutro, weary of the constant hassles within the Company, sold his interests, investing the proceeds in real estate in San Francisco. He occupied the decade 1880 to 1890 with a trip around the world, a sojourn in Europe, one in Mexico, the organization of the Cliff House and Sutro Heights, tree planting, and the collection of rare books. In 1892 he constructed the Sutro Baths. In 1894 he was elected Mayor of San Francisco on the Populist Party ticket. The last year of his life his health declined greatly. He died in 1898.