PORTALS OF THE PAST
Portals of the Past is a monument at Lloyd Lake in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.
It is the portico--the last remnant-- of railroad tycoon A.N. Towne's mansion on Nob Hill, which was destroyed in the earthquake and fire of 1906.
Photographer Arnold Genthe captured the ruins of the city through this portal. The photograph became a symbol of the loss of an era.
As Abdu'l-Bahá walked along the shore during his visit in 1912--six years after the earthquake and fire--he remarked:
"The world and its condition will change to such a degree...that nothing but a remnant — like these pillars — will remain of the previous order".
