The Golden Gate Exposition was a boon for western railroads. The Burlington, Rio Grande, and Western Pacific combined to create the Exposition Flyer to take easterners to the fair. Santa Fe started the Valley Flyer to bring people from California’s Central Valley to the fair. But the Southern Pacific probably benefitted the most as it had trains to San Francisco from the north, south, and east.

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The tower in this menu’s cover photo, which was also on yesterday’s menu, is the Tower of the Sun. At 400 feet, it was taller than any other building at the expo and as the symbol of the fair it was featured on posters, commemorative postage estamps, and postcards. The tower’s carillon bells were later installed in San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral.

The fair itself celebrated the opening of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge and was dedicated to peace and trade in the Pacific Rim, an aspiration that obviously failed. Japan contributed an expensive pavilion that, historians would later find, was specifically aimed at deflecting attention away from the atrocities it was committing in China and other Pacific Rim countries. Soon after the fair ended, the site was turned into a naval base to help fight World War II.

This menu has a blank space for table d’hôte luncheons, indicating that an insert was meant to be included that probably changed daily. The a la carte side has a sirloin steak for $1.50 ($34 in today’s money), filet mignon for $1.25, lamb chops for 45¢ or 85¢ for two, oysters, and much more.