This large 19th century cannery building in San Francisco is now home for a group of retail shops, including boutiques and restaurants. At one time, this vital Pacific Coast cannery processed tons of seafood, including clams, sardines and salmon. The canning process relied directly on the seldom honored metal can. In the early 1800s, Europeans replaced fragile glass containers with metal cans, a revolutionary idea in food preservation.
Once, cans were handmade. Today's canning machinery can pump out 2,500 cans a minute, becoming the steel industry's third largest consumer. Americans use more than 200 million cans every day.