San Francisco Travel Guide
San Francisco is the cultural, commercial, and financial center in Northern California and a popular tourist destination, known for its cool summers, fog, steep rolling hills, eclectic mix of architecture, and landmarks, including the Golden Gate Bridge
Places to See in San Francisco
Alcatraz Island
Maximum security federal prison on Alcatraz Island, 1.25 miles off the coast of San Francisco, California. Today, Alcatraz is a public museum and one of San Francisco's major tourist attractions
Fabrice Florin, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Image Size Adjusted
Balmy Alley
One-block-long alley that is home to the most concentrated collection of murals in the city of San Francisco
Chinatown
The oldest Chinatown in North America and the largest Chinese enclave outside Asia
Stilfehler, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Image Size Adjusted
Coit Tower
210-foot tower in the Telegraph Hill neighborhood of San Francisco, offering panoramic views over the city and the bay
Bob Collowan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Image Size Adjusted
Fisherman's Wharf
Neighborhood and popular tourist attraction in San Francisco that roughly encompasses the northern waterfront area of San Francisco
-400.jpg)
CucombreLibre from New York, NY, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Image Size Adjusted
.jpg){kind=link}
Ghirardelli Square
Landmark public square with shops and restaurants and a 5-star hotel in the Marina area of San Francisco
Christian Mehlführer, User:Chmehl, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Image Size Adjusted
Golden Gate Bridge
Suspension bridge spanning the one-mile-wide strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean is one of the most internationally recognized symbols of San Francisco and California
Tarwin Stroh-Spijer, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Image Size Adjusted
Golden Gate National Recreation Area
National Recreation Area protecting ecologically and historically significant landscapes surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area and is one of the largest urban parks in the world
Taras Bobrovytsky, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons; Image Size Adjusted
Golden Gate Park
Large urban park of public grounds 20 percent larger than Central Park in New York City, is the third most-visited city park in the US after Central Park and the Lincoln Memorial
-400.jpg)
Mike McBey, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Image Size Adjusted
.jpg){kind=link}
Haight-Ashbury
Neighborhood is known as one of the main centers of the hippie and counterculture of the 1960s
Lombard Street
East-west street in San Francisco that is famous for a steep, one-block section with eight hairpin turns
Mission San Francisco de Asis
Mission commonly known as Mission Dolores, is a Spanish Californian mission and the oldest surviving structure in San Francisco, located in the Mission District
Painted Ladies
Best-known group of Victorian and Edwardian houses and buildings repainted, in three or more colors that embellish or enhance their architectural details across from Alamo Square park
-400.jpg)
Palace of Fine Arts
Monumental structure originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition including the most prominent building of the complex, a 162 feet high open rotunda
Chris6d, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Image Size Adjusted
Pier 39
Shopping center and popular tourist attraction built on a pier including shops, restaurants, a video arcade, street performances, the Aquarium of the Bay, virtual 3D rides, and views of California sea lions
Jeff P from Berkeley, CA, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Image Size Adjusted
.jpg){kind=link}
San Francisco Cable Car Museum
Interactive exhibits and historic machinery illustrate the inner workings and legacy of a unique transportation system that shaped urban mobility.
,_Mason_Street,_Cable-Car-Haltestelle_--_2022_--_2947-400.jpg)
Jeff P from Berkeley, CA, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Image Size Adjusted
San Francisco Cable Car System
World's last manually operated cable car system and an icon of San Francisco, the cable car system forms part of the city's intermodal urban transport network
Adbar, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Image Size Adjusted
San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park
National historical park featuring a fleet of historic vessels, a visitor center, a maritime museum, and a library/research facility
Pavel Špindler, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Image Size Adjusted
Transamerica Pyramid
48-story modernist skyscraper is the second tallest building in the San Francisco skyline
Daniel Schwen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Image Size Adjusted
Twin Peaks
Two prominent hills with an elevation of about 925 feet (282 m) located near the geographic center of San Francisco
Daniel Schwen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Image Size Adjusted
Union Square
One-block plaza and surrounding area is one of the largest collections of department stores, upscale boutiques, gift shops, art galleries, and beauty salons in the United States
Overview
San Francisco is a cultural, commercial, and financial center in Northern California. Its is a popular tourist destination known for its cool summers, fog, steep rolling hills, eclectic mix of architecture, and landmarks, including the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, the former Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, Fisherman's Wharf, and its Chinatown district. San Francisco has several prominent Chinese, Mexican, and Filipino ethnic neighborhoods including Chinatown and the Mission District.
Tourism is one of the city's largest industries. The city's frequent portrayal in music, film, and popular culture has made the city and its landmarks recognizable worldwide. Lombard Street is a popular tourist destination in San Francisco, known for its "crookedness". Some of the most popular tourist attractions in San Francisco include the Golden Gate Bridge and Alamo Square Park, which is home to the famous "Painted Ladies". Both of these locations were often used as landscape shots for the hit American sitcom Full House. Tourists also visit Pier 39, which offers dining, shopping, entertainment, and views of the bay, sun-bathing seals, and the famous Alcatraz Island.
With the arrival of the "beat" writers and artists of the 1950s and societal changes culminating in the Summer of Love in the Haight-Ashbury district during the 1960s, San Francisco became a center of liberal activism and of the counterculture that arose at that time.
There are more than 220 parks maintained by the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department. The largest and best-known city park is Golden Gate Park, which stretches from the center of the city west to the Pacific Ocean. Once covered in native grasses and sand dunes, the park was conceived in the 1860s and was created by the extensive planting of thousands of non-native trees and plants. The large park is rich with cultural and natural attractions such as the Conservatory of Flowers, Japanese Tea Garden and San Francisco Botanical Garden. Lake Merced is a fresh-water lake surrounded by parkland and near the San Francisco Zoo, a city-owned park that houses more than 250 animal species, many of which are endangered. The only park managed by the California State Park system located principally in San Francisco, Candlestick Point was the state's first urban recreation area
Economy
The legacy of the California Gold Rush turned San Francisco into the principal banking and finance center of the West Coast in the early twentieth century Montgomery Street in the Financial District became known as the "Wall Street of the West", home to the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, the Wells Fargo corporate headquarters, and the site of the now-defunct Pacific Coast Stock Exchange.
Since the 1990s, San Francisco's economy has diversified away from finance and tourism towards the growing fields of high tech, biotechnology, and medical research. San Francisco became a center of Internet start-up companies during the dot-com bubble of the 1990s and the subsequent social media boom of the late 2000s. Since 2010, San Francisco proper has attracted an increasing share of venture capital investments as compared to nearby Silicon Valley.
History
San Francisco was founded on June 29, 1776, when colonists from Spain established the Presidio of San Francisco at the Golden Gate and Mission San Francisco de Asís a few miles away, both named for Francis of Assisi. The California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time. San Francisco's status as the West Coast's largest city peaked between 1870 and 1900. After three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. After World War II, the confluence of returning servicemen, significant immigration, liberalizing attitudes, along with the rise of the "beatnik" and "hippie" countercultures, the Sexual Revolution, the Peace Movement growing from opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War, and other factors led to the Summer of Love and the gay rights movement, cementing San Francisco as a center of liberal activism in the United States.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "San Francisco", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0
Transamerica Pyramid Building
Saints Peter And Paul Church
