 Food, supplies and passengers were the main cargo coming to California; but there were only a limited return trade of returning passengers, mail and gold.Many of the sailing ships that arrived in San Francisco Bay were abandoned there or converted into warehouses or landfill.The Panama and Nicaragua routes provided a shortcut for getting from the East Coast to California and a brisk maritime passenger trade developed, featuring fast paddle steamers from cities on the east coast, New Orleans, Louisiana and Havana Cuba to the Caribbean mouth of the Chagres River in Panama and the mouth of San Juan River in Nicaragua.