San Francisco Sights: Landmarks

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The Palace of Fine Arts

• The Golden Gate Bridge, located at the Golden Gate, is perhaps the most recognizable landmark in San Francisco and one of the most famous bridges in the United States, and has been called one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. The bridge spans the Golden Gate, a strait between San Francisco and Marin County to the north, and is one of the major road routes into and out of the city.
• The famous cable cars run up and down the hills of San Francisco between Market Street and Fisherman's Wharf and offer quite a ride. See above under Get around for more info.
• The Presidio, located in the Golden Gate district, was founded in 1776 and was the longest-running military post in the U.S. before closing as a base in 1994. It is now a part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and contains the Fort Point National Historic Site. From its vantage point overlooking the spectacular Golden Gate, Fort Point protected San Francisco harbor from Confederate and foreign attack during and after the U.S. Civil War. Its beautifully arched casemates display the art of the master brick masons from the Civil War period. The Palace of Fine Arts is a beautiful building, built for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition and reminiscent of Roman and Greek architecture.
• Coit Tower, atop Telegraph Hill in North Beach, is dedicated to the San Francisco firefighters (who fought a massive blaze in 1906 after the earthquake that destroyed much of the city center), and the tower is rumored to be designed to resemble the nozzle of a fire hose. At 250' high, it is a healthy hike from the nearby neighborhoods just below the hill.
• The Transamerica Pyramid is the tallest and most recognizable building in the San Francisco skyline, located among the skyscrapers and highrises of the Financial District.
• Alamo Square Park in the Western Addition district is home to the famous Painted Ladies row of Victorian houses on its east side along Steiner Street, with many other pretty Victorians encircling the lovely park.
• Lombard Street. The (nearly) crookedest street in America, between Hyde & Leavenworth on Russian Hill. The city has a twistier but less scenic hill-climb along Vermont Street, south of McKinley Square on Potrero Hill. You can get a view of Lombard from the Powell & Hyde cable car line.
• 22nd Street between Vicksburg and Church in Noe Valley and Filbert Street between Leavenworth and Hyde on Russian Hill - At a 31.5% grade, these streets share the honor of steepest streets in San Francisco.
• The Mission Dolores Church in the Mission District is one of the oldest structures in the city with superb city views from Dolores Park. The walls of many nearby buildings, especially on alleys between Market and Valencia, are painted with a fantastic collection of murals of all sorts.

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