Lower Georgia Street: California's Forgotten Barbary Coast

It was a sailor's dream: more than 100 bars, casinos and whorehouses, just a short boat ride across the Napa River that separated the sprawling Mare Island Naval Shipyard from Vallejo, California.
Why bother to head for San Francisco, about 25 miles to the south, when you could raise hell in Vallejo's Lower Georgia Street district?
This was the city's original business zone, but over time the grocery stores, clothing shops and offices for doctors and lawyers were replaced by brightly lit join...