San Francisco is. San Francisco - history, geography, interesting places of the city

One of the most beautiful and popular tourist cities in the world is located in California, USA. Despite the crowds and thanks to the location near the water, an abundance of parks and hilly terrain, you rarely see more than a few blocks at once. In San Francisco, it always feels like you are in a small town, and not in the center of a metropolis with more than 4 million people.

Video: San Francisco

Basic moments

Many famous films were filmed in San Francisco, the most recognizable being "Escape from Alcatraz" and "The Rock". San Francisco is consistently ranked among the most visited cities in the US. Just one visit and you will remember the famous lines: "I left my heart in San Francisco."

Quite compact, the fourth largest city in California, San Francisco covers only 18 km², which makes it the most densely populated city in America after New York. Despite this, thanks to the location near the water, hills and many parks, the city does not seem so small.

The main feature of the city is the steepness of the streets, which is frightening and charming at the same time. When you are in San Francisco for the first time, you will definitely ask yourself the question “how can everything be built so vertically when there is no horizontal section longer than 100 meters in the city?”. This city is located not so much on the hills, no, it is located on earth waves, some of which can safely compete with the steepness of the sea "ninth wave", leaving the most sophisticated "Roller coaster" far behind. Renting a car will make you feel like a surfer hero.

You can safely forget about the gas pedal in San Francisco, the main thing is to take care of timely braking. You have to brake often. You can start laughing, as the figurative meaning of braking willy-nilly will accompany you, especially the first hours of getting to know the city and its habits as a driver.

Whether you're looking for sightseeing, dining out, exploring culture and history, playing sports, or just enjoying the great views, San Francisco is sure to please.

San Franciscans openly love their way of life, and at every step you find confirmation of their assurances that this is "the city beloved by all." The very location on the hills around the bay makes it an unusually cozy place; there is an invigorating freshness in the air, and even the sea fog covering the city gives it not an ominous, but a romantic coloring, while the haze creeping over Twin Peaks, enveloping the Golden Gate Bridge or Golden Gate Park creates a bewitching view.

Psychedelic drugs, groundbreaking technology, gay rights, environmental movements, free speech, and food experimentation have long been commonplace in San Francisco. After one hundred and sixty years of ups and downs, the Rebel Race has become a favorite pastime of the locals with a very liberal views for clothes, gay parades and idleness on Baker Beach on hot sunny days. It is not customary to be shy here: in a crowd of eccentrics of all stripes, no one will notice traces of a swimsuit. Goodbye, bans. Hello San Francisco.

Landmarks of San Francisco

All sights of San Francisco

Story

Until 1848, the tables of residents in the settlement of San Francisco, which was under the rule of Mexico, were at best oysters and acorn bread - but only a year and a few gold nuggets later, these tables were already bursting with champagne and Chinese stew. Thanks to gold discovered in the neighboring foothills of the Sierra Nevada, a coastal village of eight hundred inhabitants turned into a port city of one hundred thousand, where miners, scammers, prostitutes and honest people flocked, trying to earn their conscience - and only luck could tell who was who. A friendly bartender would put drugs in your glass and you would wake up a mile offshore on some ship that took you as a slave to Argentina.

By 1850, California had been taken from Mexico and hastily annexed to the United States, and San Francisco tried to bring two hundred saloons and an untold number of brothels and gambling establishments under public order. When Australia flooded the gold markets in 1854, panic set in, and absurd fury fell upon the Chinese community in San Francisco. From 1877 to 1945, anti-Chinese laws were in effect in the United States that restricted the rights of Chinese Americans to live and work in Chinatown. The main way to pay off debts was to work building railroads, dangerous because of the bandits and thieves who mined the tracks, dynamite blasted them, clearing their way to the Golden West, and built magnificent mansions in Nob Hill above Chinatown.

The considerable ambitions of the city and more than 20 theaters were destroyed in 1906, after an earthquake, when a terrible fire claimed the lives of three thousand people and left one hundred thousand homeless. Much of the city was reduced to dust - including almost all the mansions of Nob Hill. Theater troupes and opera prima donnas performed in the heart of the city, among the smoldering ruins, starting a tradition of free public concerts in the parks.

In the 1930s, ambitious public projects continued as Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and government-funded muralists brought left-wing influences to painting, as can be seen in some 400 wall paintings in the Mission District.

Second World War brought global changes to the city. Women and African Americans working in the San Francisco shipyards sparked a new economic boom. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Emergency Executive Order 9066 authorized the forcible removal of the historic Japanese American community from the city. This was followed by a forty-year lawsuit that ended with an unprecedented apology from the American government. San Francisco became a proving ground for civil rights and free speech when, in 1957, Beat poet Lawrence Ferlingeggi challenged in court a ban on publication of Allen Ginsburg's marvelous, incendiary work, Howl and Other Poems.

US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) hoped that an experimental drug called LSD would turn test subject Ken Kesey into a fighting machine, a fighter without rules, but instead, the author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest hooked his friends on LSD and thereby began the era of the psychedelic 60s. "Summer of Love" meant freedom in food, love and music in Haight Ashbury until the 70s, when enterprising gay hippies founded Castro (Castro) gay community. In the 1980s, San Francisco witnessed the devastating toll caused by AIDS, but the city rallied and showed the world how to treat and prevent the disease.

In the mid-1990s, geeks and cyberpunks came to San Francisco. They created the Internet, sparking the dot-com boom - until the bubble burst in 2000. However, San Francisco loves risk and continues to launch new ideas. And while recession reigns elsewhere, the city is developing social media, mobile applications and biotechnology

What to see and try

San Francisco's forty-three hills and over eighty museums keep your feet and your imagination busy: (literally) breathtaking scenery awaits. Market Street, heretically diagonal. All downtown attractions are close to Market Street, but be very careful and prudent, especially around the South of Market areas (SoMa) and Tenderloin (between 5th St and 9th St). The main historical sights are located in the Mission area, and the most interesting of the newest ones are in the Golden Gate Park.

San Francisco's Chinatown, the largest Chinese community outside of China, begins at the entrance to the ornate colored gates on Bush and Stockton Streets. There is a great variety of tea and grocers, shops selling the most incredible knick-knacks, pharmacies, restaurants, bakeries, flower stalls and animal markets, a real sea of ​​​​people splashing and a raging cacophony of exotic sounds and aromas.

Not far from Chinatown is North Beach, which is called "Little Italy". Poets Alan Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac loved to visit and perform at City Light Bookstore. Here is Washington Square Park with a wonderful church, street fairs are held, there are many restaurants with real Italian cuisine and coffee houses where you can refresh yourself before continuing your walk.

From the nearby Fisherman Wharf, where you can watch sea lions, you can take a ferry to Alcatraz, the most secure prison where the world's hardened criminals were once imprisoned, and also visit the historic Angel Island, home to a national park. From here you can also go to two trendy coastal resorts - Sausalito and Tiburon.

On the slope of Russian Hill is one of the most crooked streets in the world - Lombard Street. The slope of this small and winding street is 27%, so the traffic here is one-way and is limited to eight kilometers per hour.

Embarcadero - a shady boulevard with palm trees near the new building of the ferry crossing - the place where fairs of organic products are held, there are many incredible restaurants, bars and shops, and all this is somewhat reminiscent of European railway stations. Stop here and spend the morning tasting the best varieties local cheese, fruit and bread before heading to Golden Gate Park. Often shrouded in fog, the park is famous for its beautiful botanical garden, ponds and lakes. The Golden Gate Park is home to a museum and one of the best botanical gardens in the world, and it's also a great place for a picnic. A herd of bison also lives here.

On the edge of the park is Hythe Ashbury, another colorful area where hippies of the 1960s and 1970s made free love. Teenagers and regulars of organic cafes still gather here, so walking around Hayt is like traveling back in time.

Another well-known area is Castro, home to a significant part of the city's "blue" population, it is also known for its abundance of cafes and many small art galleries.

In front of the Letterman Digital Art Center is Marina Green, a place famous for its golf courses, jogging trails and a beautiful beach that offers the most spectacular view of the famous Golden Gate Bridge.

Be sure to visit Alcatraz Island and the prison, which is said to be impossible to escape. Be sure to ride the Golden Gate Bridge, only go there on a sunny day.

The Museum of Modern Art is located in a stunning building in the South of the Market, while the Palace of Fine Arts is located in Pacific Heights, and there is also a popular science museum. The Palace of the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park is interesting for European painting. Other museums include the Museum of the African Diaspora, the history of San Francisco, crafts and folk art, Mexican, Chinese, Jewish culture.

Take a ride on the cable cars - start from Fisherman Pier or Union Square and go up to the rich mansions of Nob Hill.

Other attractions include the luxurious Fairmont, Huntington, and Mark Hopkins hotels, the fine boutiques in the Marina/Cow Hollow area, and Fillmore Street, which goes up, up, up - past the mansions of the rich and famous. residents of the city.

The best way to see the city from afar is to take the 49 Mile Scenic Highway and drive through the parks and past the beaches to see the many historical and scenic sights. You also need to take a ride on one of the famous trams, so don't forget to bring your camera!

Hills of San Francisco

San Francisco is famous for its 40 hills. Introduction to Nob Hill (by cable car from Powell Street or California Street)(by bus) and Russian Hill (by cable car) will give you a complete picture of the past and present luxury of wealthy citizens.

The majestic Victorian buildings of the residential area of ​​Nob Hill, where the nabobs lived, that is, the nouveau riche, were destroyed by an earthquake in 1906, sparing only James Flood's luxurious brownstone-clad mansion, which now houses the prestigious Pacific Union Club. You can't get there, but you can (with a sedate look) look into two notable hotels: Fairmount and Mark Hopkins. In the latter there is a bar with a circular view; ordering an overpriced drink is worth the view, especially at sunset, and the cocktail bartenders will not let you down.

Climbing Telegraph Hill is justified by one breathtaking view from the observation deck of Coit Tower. The tower, built in 1934 in honor of the firefighters of the local fire station with money bequeathed by the local widow Lilly Hitchcock Coit, was supposed to resemble a fire hose in its appearance.

Russian hill is not as luxurious as the other two, but its gardens and neat houses look very nice. The name comes from the Russian colony that settled here. The humped streets of San Francisco culminate in Lombard Street, between Leavenworth and Hyde Streets. Having overcome the dizzying ups and downs of the winding street with its seven sharp turns, you will no longer object that this is the most winding street in the world.

A convenient means of transportation through the hills of San Francisco is the car of the famous funicular. This is the most pleasant form of transport in the city, as from here you can admire the local views unhurriedly unfolding in front of you. Night trips are especially romantic. Routes are shortened at this time, and the night scene is especially charming. The carriages run until 22.00.

The funicular was first operated in 1873, and one of the wagons of that time is now in the Cable Car Museum (Cable-Car Museum; Washington and Mason streets), which is also the control room of the existing cable car. Hand-assembled wagons are constantly updated and repaired, so don't be surprised if a line doesn't work. It is forbidden to enter the ice cream car due to the shaky road, so as not to stain the passengers.

Festivals and events

Chinese New Year Parade

Go chasing a 200 foot dragon and see costumed dancers and kung fu kids in February. Details at www.chineseparade.com

San Francisco International Film Festival

Every year in April, stars and directors begin their premieres at the country's oldest film festival. Details at www.sffs.org

Rebel Run

Take part in the run (in suit or naked) from the Embarcadero to Ocean Beach on the third Sunday in May, as the pink-clad runners move forward. The cost of registration for the race will be $44-48. Learn more at www.baytobreakers.com

Carnival

Is it Brazilian or fake tan and oil? Shake it up at the Mission this last weekend in May. Read more www.carnavalsf.com

Gay Pride in San Francisco

One day is not enough to be proud: June starts with LGBT International Film Festival (International LGBT Film Festival; www.frameline.org) and ends in style with a dyke march (Dyke March; www.dykemarch.org) on the "pink Saturday" of the last weekend and a crazy gay pride parade of many thousands (www.sfpride.org).

Do not miss

• Coit tower.
• Rope trams.
• Trip to Auckland across the bay.

Should know

• Don't call the city "Frisco", the locals don't like it.
• San Francisco is considered the gay capital of the world.

Special offers for hotels

Excursions from San Francisco

Gulf surroundings

North of San Francisco, at the southern end of Marin County, are two pretty port towns, Sausalito and Tiburon, accessible either by car via the Golden Gate Bridge or by ferry. The quietest of them is Tiburon, although there is a bright Mediterranean atmosphere. Nearby you can see the famous giant sequoias that stand as a wall in the Muir Woods National Park. Some of the trees are a thousand years old and reach 75 meters in height.

Viticultural region

Wine lovers will enjoy a trip through the vineyards of Napa Valley and along the Sonoma Valley, hidden behind the Beacon Mountains. Napa, located less than 81 kilometers northeast of San Francisco, lies between the Mayakmas and Howell mountains, stretching from the town of Napa in the south to the town of Calistoga in the north. Highway 29 serves as the main road through the valley. The Silverado hiking trail, which runs parallel to the highway, is a slower, more relaxed, and scenic route. The wineries organize tours and wine tasting in the cellars, as well as picnics among the vineyards. The largest wineries are Sterling, Mondavi, Martini, Beaulieu and Beringer in the Napa Valley, as well as Sovereign and Sebastiani in the Sonoma Valley.

Homesick French wine connoisseurs may want to visit the Domaine Chandon vineyard, owned by the famed Moët et Chandon winery. Small, family-run wineries offer exceptional wine tasting in showrooms in a relaxed atmosphere. Napa Valley Information Desk (Napa Valley Conference and Visitors Bureau; 1310 Town Center Napa; men.: 707-226-74-59; www.napavalley.com) provide maps and necessary information. The best restaurants in the area are usually closed on Tuesdays.

Leave San Francisco south on Highway 101, crossing at Castroville on Pacific Highway Route 1 (Pacific Highway, Route 1) and you will find yourself in Monterey - the ancient Spanish and Mexican capital of Upper California. The local bay was discovered in 1542, but began to be inhabited only from 1770, when the Franciscan monk Junipero Serra founded a mission here under the protection of the garrison of the fortress of the governor Gaspar de Portola. Monterey was a windswept region where disease raged, so Portola advised that it be handed over in the form of God's punishment to the Russians, who also claimed Monterey their rights. But the Franciscan Serra was not afraid of adversity, taking up the conquest of the wild places of Monterey. His statue stands guard on the track of Corporal Ewing.

In the city, you can take a guided tour of the historical buildings of the old city, including the period of Mexican rule in the 19th century. and the beginning of American rule. There are two-story houses with a balcony, combining the features of both Spanish adobe buildings and American wood-paneled buildings in colonial style: this mixture is called "Monterey style". At the Monterey Chamber of Commerce (380 Alvarado Street; tel: 831-648-53-60; www.mpcc.com) you can get a map showing the main buildings.

Visit the Larkin House Museum (Jefferson and Calle Principal streets), residence of the first (and last) U.S. Consul in Mexican Upper California in the 1840s Thomas Oliver Larkin, and the Robert Louis Stevenson House Museum (530 Houston Street), the hotel where the writer lived while working on Treasure Island. On Church Street you will find the location of the church of the monk Serra, built of mud bricks; the building built in its place in 1795 now houses the Royal Fortress Chapel, otherwise the Cathedral of San Carlo Borromeo. To the left of the altar is a statue of the Virgin Mary of the 18th century. from Spanish Mexico.

Closer to the water in Customs Square is the Pacific House with a pretty shady courtyard lined with flowers and fenced off with arcades, as well as the customs itself. (1827) - the first federal building on the Pacific coast.

The First Theater in California has a more pronounced American look. (First Theater; Scott and Pacific streets)- a hut built of pine in 1847 by Jack Swan as a saloon with furnished rooms of dubious purpose on top. Visitors were attracted (and attract) Victorian melodramas, but the furnished rooms are gone.

Fisherman's Wharf, like the San Francisco landmark of the same name, is the same cluster of shops and restaurants on the pier, only the boats sway closer. The fish here is always fresh, and yet it doesn't change the shabby look of Cannery Row. From 1921 to 1946 it was the main sardine-producing site in the entire western hemisphere, but by 1951 the sardines in the local waters were gone. Today, the wooden cannery buildings made famous by John Steinbeck house restaurants, fashion stores and art galleries.

Monterey Bay Aquarium enjoys great success (tel.: 831-648-48-00; www.mbayaq.org), containing the inhabitants of the bay. In the aquarium with a capacity of 4.5 million liters of the exhibition hall "Outer Bay" (Outer Bay) spectators are surrounded inside and out by barracudas, Californian tritooth sharks, anchovies and graceful jellyfish. During feeding, divers put on a diving suit and, once under water, tell visitors something through a microphone.

A little further on, a scenic toll road winds its way through the Monterey Peninsula. (27.5 km) where it is forbidden to ride a motorcycle. However, you can go straight south to Carmel - a wonderful resort town, where there was once a colony of artists. This is a place created for relaxation and shopping.

Just outside the city is the entrance to the Cape Lobos State Nature Reserve - a real necklace of bizarre weathered rocks, tiny beaches and picturesque cliffs. To the southeast of the city lies the restored mission-fortress of Carmel in the form of the church of San Carlo Borromeo de Carmelo, where the Reverend Father Serra is buried. The coastal road from Carmel to Big Sur is only 48 km, but it takes an hour of careful driving to overcome it, where after each sharp turn there is another scenic view.

Big Sur Township and Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park offer great opportunities for outdoor recreation, camping, hiking and fishing on the Big Sur River. This place, where the writer Henry Miller was born, allows you to retire.

The road winding along the rugged coast, after 105 km, will take you to the town of San Simeon, where newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, who was immortalized by Orson Welles in his cinematic masterpiece Citizen Kane, built his dream home, called Hearst Castle (Hearst Castle; guided tours, tickets recommended in advance; tel: 800-444-44-45; www.hearstcastle.org). Hearst himself called 50 hectares of land with a castle, guest houses, palaces, terraces, gardens, Roman baths, his own menagerie and tennis courts "estate". Construction began in 1919 and was still not completed when the magnate died in 1951.

The 110,000-hectare estate is spread over hilly terrain at an altitude of 500 meters above sea level. Leaving your car in the parking lot, you board a tour bus that will take you past zebras, maned sheep and goats grazing on the slopes - all that remains of the Hearst menagerie.

San Francisco architect Julia Morgan built the "homestead" according to Hirst's directions as a "convenient showcase" for his art collection. The scope of the collection itself becomes clear already at the sight of a 30-meter swimming pool with a Greek colonnade and a cast of the Florentine statue of David by Donatello on two baroque Venetian fountains of the 17th century. Above the huge main entrance rises a genuine statue of the XIII century. Madonna and Child.

Information

Emergency and Medical Services

American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine (American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine; tel: 415-282-9603; www.actcm.edu; 450 Connecticut St; 8:30-21:00 Mon-Thu, 9:00-17:30 Fri and Sat) Acupuncture and herbal medicine.

Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic (Haight Ashbury Free Clinic; tel: 415-746-1950; www.hafci.org; 558 Clayton St) free doctor visits no arrangement; drug and alcohol addiction and mental health services.

Pharmaca (Tel: 415-661-1216; www.pharmaca.com; 925 Cole St; 8:00-20:00 Mon-Fri, 9:00 Sat-Sun) Pharmacy and naturopathic medicines.

Police, fire and ambulance (tel.: 911) San Francisco General Hospital (San Francisco General Hospital; emergency room tel.: 415-206-8111, main tel.: 415-206-8000; www.sfdph.org; 1001 Potrero Ave) Open 24 hours Trauma Rehabilitation and Abuse Care Center (Trauma Recovery & Rape Treatment Center; tel: 415-437-3000; http://traumarecoverycenter.org) 24/7 hotline. walgreens (Tel: 415-861-3136; www.walgreens.com; 498 Castro St; 24 hours) Pharmacy with branches throughout the city (see website).

Internet

There are free Wi-Fi hotspots scattered throughout San Francisco - find your nearest one using www.openwifispots.com. Free signal in Union Square, in most cafes and hotel lobbies.

Apple Store (www.apple.com/retail/sanfran cisco; 1 Stockton St; 9.00-21.00 Mon-Sat, 10.00-20.00 Sun) Free Wi-Fi and internet terminals.

San Francisco Main Library (http://sfpl.org; 100 Larkin St; 10:00-18:00 Mon and Sat, 9:00-20:00 Tue-Thu, 12:00-17:00 Fri and Sun) Free Internet access for 15 minutes; Wi-Fi is available in some places.

mass media

• KALW 91.7 FM (www.kalw.org) National Public Radio affiliate (National Public Radio, NPR).
• KPFA 94.1 FM (www.kpfa.org) Alternative news and music.
• KPOO 89.5 FM (www.kpoo.com) public radio; jazz, rhythm and blues, blues and reggae.
• KQED 88.5 FM (www.kqed.org) Branch of National Public Radio and State Broadcasting (Public Broadcasting, PBS), podcasts and video streaming.
• San Francisco Bay Guardian (www.sfbg.com) Free alternative weekly covering politics, theatre, music, art and film.
• San Francisco Chronicle (www.sfgate.com) Main daily newspaper; news, poster of entertainment and events.

Money

Bank of America (www.bankamerica.com; 1 Market Plaza; 9.00-18.00 Mon-Fri)

Mail

Post office in Rincon Center (Rincon Center post office; www.usps.com; 180 Steuart St; 8:00-18:00 Mon-Fri, 9:00-14:00 Sat) Postal services plus historical murals.

Information for tourists

San Francisco Tourist Information Center (Tel: 415-391-2000; www.onlyinsanfrancisco.com; lower level, Hallidie Plaza; 9:00-17:00 Mon-Fri, until 15:00 Sat and Sun)

Web sites

• Craigslist (http://sfbay.craigslist.org) Resource San Francisco; jobs, dates, free junk, Buddhist babysitters, whatever.
• Yelp (www.yelp.com) A review site dedicated to shops, bars, services and restaurants. Join the verbal battles of the locals.

Transport

Information about transportation routes in the Bay Area (bay area) and flight schedule, call 511 or visit www.511.org.

Transportation from San Francisco International Airport

BART (www.bart.gov; one way ticket $8.10). Fast direct connection to downtown San Francisco.

SamTrans (www.samtrans.com; one way ticket $5). Express KX will take you to the bus station (Temporary Transbay Terminal) in about 30 minutes.

Super Shuttle (tel: 800-258-3826; www.supershuttle.com; one-way ticket $17). Door-to-door passenger vans depart from the baggage claim terminal. Most areas of San Francisco are within a 45-minute drive.

Taxi. The cost of a trip to downtown is $35-50.

Transportation from Auckland International Airport

The cheapest way to get from Oakland Airport to San Francisco is by high-speed BART trains. AirBART buses ($3) every 10-20 min. leave for the Coliseum station, where you can take the BART train to downtown San Francisco ($3.80, 25 min). Taxi fares from Oakland Airport to Oakland average $25 and to San Francisco about $50-60. The cost of a trip to downtown in a multi-seat SuperShuttle van is $25-30 (Tel: 800-258-3826; www.supershuttle.com). Airport Express buses (Tel: 800-327-2024; www.airportexpressinc.com) follow the schedule every 2 hours. (from 6.00 to 0.00) from Oakland Airport to Sonoma County ($32) and Marin ($24) .

ships

Blue & Gold Ferries (www.blueandgoldfleet.com) departures on the Alameda - Oakland route from Pier 41 (Pier 41) and ferry terminal (Ferry building). Golden Gate Ferries (www.goldengate.org) go to Sausalito and Larkspur (Larkspur) in Marin County (Marine County) departing from the ferry terminal (Ferry building).

Cars

Try not to drive in San Francisco: parking is harder than finding true love, and counters know no mercy. Downtown parking spaces are located at the Embarcadero Center complex, on Fifs Street (5th St), Mission Street (Mission St), Union Square (Union Sq), Sutter Street (Sutter St) and Stockton Street (Stockton St). Offices of national car rental agencies are located at the airport and downtown.

Public transport

To the municipal transport network MUNI (Municipal Transit Agency; www.sfmuni.com) includes buses, trams and funicular lines. Two funicular lines start at Powell Street (Powell St) and Market Street (Market St), the third - on California Street (California St) and Market Street (Market St). A detailed MUNI Street & Transit Map can be downloaded for free from the website or purchased for $3 at a kiosk (Powell MUNI kiosk). The standard fare for the bus or tram is $2, for the funicular $6. MUNI Passport (for 1/3/7 days $14/21/27) gives the right to unlimited travel on all types of municipal transport, including the funicular; it's on sale at the San Francisco Tourist Information Center (San Francisco's Visitor Information Center) and at the TIX Bay Area ticket kiosk in Union Square. Seven Day City Pass (adult/child $69/39) gives the right to travel in municipal transport and to visit five attractions.

BART electric trains link San Francisco to the east side of the bay. They pass under Market Street (Market St) and follow Mission Street (Mission St) and south to San Francisco International Airport and Millbrae (Millbrae), where they intersect with the CalTrain branch.

Fares are approximately $2.25 per mile; the amount on the counter at the beginning of the trip is $3.50.

• DeSoto Cab (tel: 415-970-1300)
• green cab (tel: 415-626-4733; www.626green.com)
• Luxor (tel: 415-282-4141) yellow cab (tel: 415-333-3333)

The road there and back

By plane

San Francisco International Airport (San Francisco International Airport, SFO; www.flysfo.com) located 22.4 km south of the city center, next to the highway (Highway) 101. You can get to it by high-speed trains Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART).

By bus

Until new terminal not completed in 2017, Temporary Transbay Terminal remains San Francisco's intercity terminal (Howard St and Main St). AC Transit buses depart from here (www.actransit.org) to the eastern parts of the Bay Area (east bay), Golden Gate Transit buses (http://goldengatetransit.org) going north to Marin and Sonoma counties and SamTrans (www.samtrans.com) carries passengers south to Palo Alto (Palo Alto) and on the Pacific coast. Greyhound buses (tel: 800-231-2222; www.greyhound.com) depart daily to Los Angeles ($56.50.8-12h), Truckee (Truckee) at Lake Tahoe ($33, 5.5 hours) and in other directions.

By train

Amtrak trains (tel: 800-872-7245; www.amtrakcalifornia.com)- this is not only a low emission of pollution into the environment, but also a quiet road to San Francisco and back. Coast Starlight follows an exciting 35-hour route from Los Angeles to Seattle with a stop in Oakland. California Zephyr is coming (51 hours) from Chicago via Rokys (Rockies) to Auckland. Both trains have sleeping cars and dining cars. (bars) With big windows. The Amtrak network also includes free shuttle buses to the ferry terminal. (Ferry building) in San Francisco and CalTrain Station.

CalTrain trains (www.caltrain.com; corner of Force Street (4th St) and King Street (King St)) connect San Francisco with Silicon Valley and San Jose.

Airfare low price calendar

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San Francisco - Big City on the west coast of the USA in the state of California. In terms of population, the city ranks 4th in the state and 12th in the United States. In 2013, the city has over 837 thousand inhabitants. At the same time, San Francisco ranks second in the United States in terms of population density (among cities with a population of more than 200 thousand inhabitants). Geographically located in the north of the San Francisco Peninsula, the city covers an area of ​​121 square kilometers. San Francisco is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the large San Francisco Bay Area, with a population of 7.4 million.

Located halfway between London and Tokyo, between Seattle and San Diego, San Francisco is of great economic importance and attracts the attention of big business. One of the bases of the local economy is, of course, tourism. San Francisco ranks third in the US in terms of the number of foreign tourists visiting the city. So in 2007 the city was visited by over 16 million people.

Downtown view

The San Francisco region is home to the major port of Oakland, eight other smaller ports, and three key airports that account for about 30 percent of the entire West Coast's trade. Since the days of the gold rush, San Francisco has been considered an important financial center. Many high-tech industries, companies, research centers are concentrated in the region. In addition, do not forget that the famous Silicon Valley is located south of San Francisco Bay - a huge technological center that has a strong impact on the region's economy. The pharmaceutical industry is highly developed, hundreds of companies engaged in medical electronics, genetic engineering, and biotechnology operate in the region.

Over 53% of the city's adults have a bachelor's degree or higher. High levels of education of the population and the presence of a mass of skilled workers in the region cause strong competition in the labor market. In turn, the tight labor market, as well as the high cost of housing, food, and other consumer goods, mean that the cost of living in San Francisco is one of the highest in the United States.

The unemployment rate for the summer of 2014 is low - only 4.6%. About 14% of residents have low incomes and live in poverty, however, this is lower than the national average. At the same time, there are many homeless people in the city, who are attracted by the normal climate and social assistance from local authorities.

Statistics for 2013

Racial composition:

• Whites - 41.4%
• Asians - 33.3%
• Hispanics - 15.3%
• African Americans - 5.5%
• Mixed race - 3.4%
• Pacific origin - 0.4%
• Indians - 0.2%

income and housing

• Average per capita income - $51,686
• The average cost of a house is $778,000
• The average cost of renting a house - $1491
• Unemployment (June 2014) - 4.6%
• Residents living below the poverty line - 13.8%

• More than a third (35.4%) of San Francisco residents were born outside the United States.
• San Francisco is known for its progressive views and tolerance for the gay community. It is believed that about 15% of the city's population belong to sexual minorities. This is the largest number of gays and lesbians per capita compared to any other US city.

City on the hills

San Francisco is located in a very picturesque place where the Pacific Ocean cuts into the mainland through the narrow Golden Gate Strait and forms the San Francisco Bay. The city of San Francisco is located on the northern part of the peninsula of the same name and is surrounded by water on three sides: from the west by the Pacific Ocean, from the north by the Golden Gate Strait and from the east by the San Francisco Bay. Other large cities in the region are Oakland and San Jose.

For the most part, the city is built up with low-rise buildings that tightly surrounded the high-rise center. San Francisco is a fairly compact city with more than 800 thousand people, due to workers and tourists. total number people often exceed 1 million. The city occupies the 2nd position in the list of large US cities in terms of population density after New York. The lack of free land holds back the growth of the city's population and directly affects the growth in property prices.

The famous San Francisco Hills are one of the city's landmarks. Due to discrepancies in terminology, various sources give different data on the number of hills within the city, we can definitely say that there are definitely more than 50 of them. Many hills are attractions in themselves, while others offer wonderful views. For example, the Twin Peaks hill, popular with tourists, overlooks a large part of the city.

There are about 40 districts in San Francisco, many of which are very individual and do not look alike. The most notable central areas of the city are: Castro District, Chinatown, Financial District, Civic Center, Haight-Ashbury, Union Square, Nob Hill, Russian Hill, North Beach, Fisherman's Wharf, Embarcadero, South of Market (SoMa).

Embarcadero - Northeast neighborhood along the San Francisco waterfront.

Fisherman's Wharf - the Fisherman's Wharf area is one of the busiest attractions in San Francisco. The area is home to the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, the popular Pier 39, an excellent aquarium, many restaurants and shops.

Embarcadero and fur seals from the pier at Fisherman's Wharf

Financial District ("FiDi") - San Francisco's tallest buildings 555 California Street and the memorable Transamerica Pyramid are located in the city's financial center. This is the area of ​​banks, law firms, corporate headquarters. There are also several large shopping centers here.

North Beach - being a historically Italian area, today it is an area of ​​nightclubs, restaurants and bars. Coit Tower atop Telegraph Hill is a very popular San Francisco landmark.

Transamerica skyscraper and Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill

Union Square - The area around Union Square is very popular with tourists with a large concentration of shops, restaurants and entertainment venues.

Chinatown is a "city within a city" with exotic shops, markets, temples and small museums.

Union Square and a photo of Chinatown San Francisco

Nob Hill is an expensive and prestigious area where wealthy people live. Here are the most famous and expensive hotels in San Francisco. The Grace Cathedral is also located there.

Russian Hill is an upscale neighborhood best known for its winding Lombard Street.

Civic Center - here is the San Francisco City Hall, two large squares Civic Center Plaza and United Nations Plaza, as well as a number of buildings in a classical architectural style.

Grace Cathedral and "the most crooked street" Lombard Street

South of Market (SoMa) is a large and diverse neighborhood that is home to several museums, notably the popular Zeum Children's Museum and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Haight-Ashbury - since the 1960s - the center of the counterculture, a favorite place for hippies and punks. Alamo Square park is lined with rows of Victorian houses known as the Painted Ladies.

Castro is the "gay capital of the world".

Row of Painted Ladies lodges and architecture in the Nob Hill area

Attractions and interesting places

One of the main attractions of San Francisco is Golden Gate Park. Stretching for 5 km, the western part of the park goes to Ocean Beach. The wide Ocean Beach runs along the west coast of San Francisco, from the San Francisco Zoo to the park with the symbolic name "Edge of the Earth" - Lands End. The rocky shores of the Lands End offer breathtaking views of the Golden Gate Bridge, the Pacific Ocean and the entrance to the bay.

Not far from Lands End is Lincoln Park, in the center of which is the Legion of Honor Art Museum. Further north lie the territories of the Presidio of San Francisco, or simply the Presidio. A military site for more than 200 years, it is now a mostly wooded park area with wonderful views from the hills. The main attraction of the Presidio is the Golden Gate Bridge.

Golden Gate Bridge

The eastern part of the Presidio borders the Marina area. Approximately on the border of these areas, the architectural composition of the Palace of Fine Arts is located - a favorite place for tourists and wedding ceremonies. Behind the Palace of Fine Arts is the innovative interactive museum Exploratorium.

To the east of the Marina area are areas that are directly adjacent to the center of San Francisco and are very popular with tourists: Russian Hill ("Russian Hill" Russian Hill), Fisherman's Wharf, North Beach, Telegraph Hill, Embarcadero.

There are many islands in the bay area, the most notable of which are three islands. First of all, this is the former prison island of Alcatraz (Alcatraz), as well as the islands of Angel Island and Treasure Island. Alcatraz is the most popular attraction. You can get to the island by ferry, which departs from one of the piers of Fisherman's Wharf.

The Port of San Francisco was once considered the largest and most promising seaport on the West Coast. With the development of container traffic, the importance of the port has decreased and many berths have been abandoned. Although the Port of San Francisco is still in operation, the center of maritime commercial traffic has shifted to neighboring Oakland. Today, the infrastructure of the port is used as an integral element of urban tourism and recreation.

The famous San Francisco Ferry Building, located on the Embarcadero waterfront, has a dual purpose and is used as a shopping center and as a marina. Every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, the most famous food market in San Francisco is held here. The terminal tower, with an old clock on top, is located directly opposite the main street of San Francisco - Market Street (Market Street) and is visible from several kilometers.

San Francisco is home to 2 professional clubs that play in the top sports leagues. These include the San Francisco Giants baseball team at AT&T Park and the San Francisco 49ers American football team. "49ers" - the nickname of the gold miners who arrived in Northern California in 1849 and participated in the "gold rush". The football team plays at the outdoor stadium Candlestick Park, but will be built in 2015 new stadium in Santa Clara near San Jose.

The climate in San Francisco is special. Its location at southern latitude (south of Sochi), combined with cold currents, results in a remarkably mild climate with little seasonal temperature variation. The average temperature of January - the coldest month - is 9.7 C. The warmest - September - 17.7 C. The rainy season lasts from November to January, it is quite cold at night, but the temperature does not fall below zero. February and March can be rainy but can be relatively dry, with flowers and trees starting to bloom. April, May - clear and dry, fog is possible. This is one of the best times to visit San Francisco. From June to August, there are warm days without rain, but the evenings can be cold when fog forms. September, October is another good time to visit the city, clear days and some fog. Wet and cold fog enveloping the city is one of the hallmarks of San Francisco. It very quickly covers entire areas of the city and also quickly recedes.

The city of San Francisco, best known as the pearl of the West Coast, is surrounded and lapped by the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean. The city is rightfully called one of the most beautiful places in the United States for travel lovers, as well as quality recreation. Such interest is caused, first of all, in connection with the geographical location, as well as the natural features and rich history of this region. This city frightens and shocks someone, fascinates and drives others crazy. Nevertheless, there is no person on Earth who would be left indifferent by this magnificent city.

Climate in San Francisco

Going on a long journey to San Francisco, tourists often confuse it with another Californian resort - Los Angeles, located a little closer to the south.

Remember, the weather conditions in this city are far from the resort ones, as in. The Mediterranean climate dominates here, which is characterized by predominantly rainy winters and fairly dry summers.

San Francisco is surrounded by water on all sides, which is why the weather is largely influenced by cold currents. In summer, the average temperature is 24 C, closer to winter, the temperature is likely to drop to 10 C. The most abundant precipitation falls from November to March, snow is extremely rare here. The most favorable time for exploring the city is summer, late spring (May) or early autumn (until October).

Getting to San Francisco

Due to the cancellation of direct flights from Moscow, flights with transfers in other cities became the only way to get to San Francisco. In terms of saving money, transit routes through New York and Los Angeles will be the surest solution for you. The cost of a flight to San Francisco from the Russian capital varies from $600 to $700 one way. The duration of such a trip is at least 17 hours.

If you have already arrived in the USA or, then you can use the services of intercity buses. The country has a well-developed bus service between settlements. The main Greyhound bus station is located at 425 Mission Street in San Francisco.

Another way to get to San Francisco from any location you need is by train. Trains of the state company Amtrak provide transportation throughout the country. However, keep in mind that there are no direct flights to San Francisco. You can get to the neighboring cities of Auckland and Emeryville.

Basic prices for travelers to San Francisco

The cost of 1 day of living in San Francisco, at first glance, may seem high (from $100), but you must admit that life in this beautiful city is worth it. In addition to expensive pleasures, there are huge selection splendors that you get completely free of charge, such as the beauty of the city, frequent street festivals, green parks, open galleries and much more. For an experienced tourist, it will not be difficult at all to spend a great time with minimal cash costs.

Prices in hotels depend on the category. For example, if you want to stay in a luxury 5-star hotel, then be prepared to pay $ 200-1000 per night. A more economical option is hostels, the cost of one night is from $15 to $80.

The fare in public transport is $1.5, in a taxi - $2.25 per mile (plus $3.5 for landing). Do you want to move freely around the city? Use the car rental service, it will cost you $40 plus gasoline (1l. $1). Be sure to have $4 with you just in case you have to park somewhere in the city, otherwise you will pay 7 times more for the wrong parking. Remember - saving often costs us more.

When shopping in San Francisco, be careful, because the amount on the price tag is excluding VAT (from 7 to 11%). This is a clever move to deceive a gullible buyer, especially a tourist. Be prepared for the fact that when buying clothes, household goods, and even in a cafe, you will have to add about 10% to the amount indicated on the check.

Do you think American prices "bite"? Not at all, especially if you fall on sale days. During this period, prices for most goods are reduced by an average of 60%, the maximum price reduction is about 2 weeks before the end of sales.

What are the sights to see in San Francisco?

Acquaintance with the city must begin with a walk around downtown. Here, and busy street traffic, and high skyscrapers, and crowds of people - everything is like in American films. In addition, the oldest and, perhaps, the largest Chinatown in America is seething in the city center! There is a special atmosphere here: the famous Chinese pagodas, exotic products in shop windows, narrow lanes.

Decided to take a break? Head to the museums of San Francisco. The most popular of them: the de Young Memorial Museum with huge collection American painting, the Museum of Modern Art, the Asian Art Museum, which exhibits artifacts from most Asian countries, the Wells Fargo Historical Museum. And finally, the Golden Gate Museum-Park. You must visit it! Over 1700 plant species are represented here!

After visiting parks and museums, head to the main symbol of San Francisco - the Golden Gate. By the way, you can buy a cruise around it, as well as go to the island with the Alcatraz prison. These cruises depart from Pier 39, which itself is a landmark in the city. There is an incredibly large number of souvenir shops, restaurants, attractions and so on. entertainment. Nearby is the Aquarium of the Bay, an aquarium with over 20,000 different marine life.

You can complete your trip around San Francisco by visiting the most luxurious area of ​​the city, Nob Hill, as well as the Russian Hill district, which is distinguished by the fact that it is located on the highest point in the city.

Shopping in San Francisco

San Francisco is undoubtedly one of the best places to shop. Among the shopping and entertainment centers, first of all, it is worth noting one, Westfield - this is perhaps the largest complex, uniting over 170 fashionable and expensive stores such as Prada, Diesel, Gucci, Escada, etc. under its roof. There are other options for shopping centers: Crocker Gallery, Japan Center. In addition, it is recommended to visit the large Ferry Building indoor market and walk through the picturesque Chinatown area. The points with the highest concentration of stores are: Sacramento street, Hayes Valley, Fillmore, Union Square, Mission. However, here everyone will find something for themselves.

San Francisco is a city in the western United States on the Pacific coast. San Francisco received such a sonorous name in honor of the Catholic Saint Francis of Assisi. The city is part of the state of California and is the fourth most populated in it. The total area of ​​the city is 600.6 km², of which only 121.4 km² is occupied by land. San Francisco occupies the northern tip of the peninsula of the same name and is washed on three sides by the waters of both the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay. The city's recent population is 884,363 (2017).

The year 1776 is considered the founding of San Francisco. It was in this year that the Spaniards settled the coast of the peninsula, establishing a mission in honor of St. Francis on it and erecting a fort at the Golden Gate Strait. The resulting small town was named Yerba Buena, which means "good grass". The modern name appeared in 1848, when the city began to grow irrepressibly due to the California gold rush. The second birth of San Francisco dates back to 1906. This year, the city was badly damaged by an earthquake, fire and flood, and then was almost completely rebuilt.

The climatic features of San Francisco include summer fogs and cold winds. However, despite such inhospitable weather, the city is very popular with tourists. Tourism forms the backbone of the city's economy. In terms of the number of foreign tourists, San Francisco ranks fifth in the United States. Connoisseurs of Victorian and modern architecture, museum art, ethnic festivals and fairs, as well as fans of surfing and other water sports come here. US attractionslocated directly in San Francisco deserve special attention. Tourists especially appreciate Alcatraz Island, Pier 39, the famous Golden Gate Bridge and the largest Chinatown in the world.

Another booming industry in San Francisco is the banking system. It was here that the Bank of America was founded at the beginning of the 20th century, and today the main financial center of the country's west coast, called the "Wall Street of the West", is located. A significant rise in the economy of San Francisco occurred with the advent of Silicon (Silicon) Valley in the district. It is the leading center of innovative technologies in America, where the main part of the scientific and technological potential of the country is located. It houses high-tech companies involved in the creation of computers and software. The pharmaceutical industry in the city is no less developed. The region is home to hundreds of companies in regenerative medicine, biotechnology and biomedicine, genetic engineering and medical electronics.

San Francisco is considered a city of diverse religions, racial groups, nationalities, and interests. At the same time, more than a third of the city's residents were born outside the United States. One obvious problem in San Francisco is the high number of homeless people. This is a "chronic disease" of the city, which appeared in the 1980s and influenced the growth of the crime rate. It is curious that large communities of the Russian-speaking population live in some areas and suburbs of San Francisco. For example, the Richmond area is famous for its large concentration of Russian restaurants and shops, and the Consulate General of the Russian Federation has been operating in one of the most prestigious areas of the city of Pacific Heights for a long time. The Museum of Russian Culture and St. Nicholas Patriarchal Cathedral deserve special attention. Another feature of San Francisco is the progressive views of the townspeople towards gay minorities. According to some reports, about 15% of the population belongs to sexual minorities, which puts San Francisco in first place in the number of gays and lesbians in the United States.

Founded: 1776
Square: 600.6 km 2
Population: 884 363 people (2017)
Currency: American dollar
Language: English
Off.site: http://www.sfgov.org

Current time in San Francisco:
(UTC -8)

San Francisco is a city of amazing beauty, mysteries and a dozen hills. Even pragmatic Americans distinguish it from other major cities, calling it "the pearl of the West Coast." In this city, such iconic personalities as Jack London, Isadora Duncan, Clint Eastwood were born and spent a lot of time, Steve Jobs, Bruce Lee. The Soviet actor Savely Kramarov spent the last years of his life in the suburbs of San Francisco. Picturesque views of the city are known from many films and TV shows. For example, "Basic Instinct", "Intuition", "Between Heaven and Earth", "Detective Nash Bridges", "Zodiac", the television series "Sliders". San Francisco is also well known for modern computer games. Among them are the games Mafia, Need for Speed, Homefront, Resistance 2.

How to get to San Francisco

On the this moment direct flights from Russian cities to San Francisco are not carried out, however, many European and Asian airlines fly to San Francisco airport with connections at their home airports. Below is a list of all airlines flying from Russia to San Francisco. The transfer city is indicated in parentheses.

• Lufthansa (Frankfurt am Main): Moscow, St. Petersburg, Samara, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod
• British Airways (London): Moscow, St. Petersburg
• Air France (Paris): Moscow, St. Petersburg
• KLM (Amsterdam): Moscow, St. Petersburg
• Emirates (Dubai): Moscow, St. Petersburg
• Korean Air (Seoul): Vladivostok, Irkutsk
• Swiss (Zurich): Moscow, St. Petersburg
• Asiana (Seoul): Vladivostok, Khabarovsk
• Cathay Pacific (Hong Kong): Vladivostok, Khabarovsk
• Delta (Los Angeles / New York): Moscow
• SAS (Copenhagen): Moscow

An alternative way to get to San Francisco is via Los Angeles, which is easier and often cheaper to get to. Read more about this in the section "How to get to Los Angeles". In this case, you can explore the city famous for Hollywood films, and San Francisco proper. You can get from the City of Angels in various ways - by bus, train, rented car or plane, read more about this.

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Story

Long before the arrival of Europeans on the continent, the San Francisco peninsula was inhabited by Indian tribes. The Europeans managed to catch one of these tribes called Oloni, which in translation meant "Western people". The Oloni tribe's camp was found on the coast of Big Sur. In November 1769, a group of Spanish explorers led by Gaspar de Portula visited San Francisco Bay for the first time, and seven years later the Mission of St. Francis of Assisi, otherwise known as Mission Dolores, appeared here. For cover, a small military fort was erected, where the Presidio Park is now located.

In 1821, Mexico officially declared its independence from Spain. Since then, San Francisco, as well as the entire state of California, began to belong to Mexico. The first city plan was created in 1835 by the Englishman William Richardson. He renamed the mission Yerba Buena. In 1846, during the Mexican-American War, the United States gained rights to California. In the same year, the population in Yerba Buena doubled, thanks to the newly arrived Mormons. A couple of years later, the city was renamed San Francisco. Swamps were drained in it for the emergence of new land for construction.

In 1848, the famous California fever began, attracting tens of thousands of immigrants to the state. By 1849, the population of San Francisco had grown from 1,000 people to 25,000, and this continued growth continued for the next 50 years. A large number of Chinese workers were recruited to work in the gold mines. After the gold rush, they continued to work on the transcontinental railway. Thus, the San Francisco Chinese founded the largest Chinatown in the country and one of the largest Chinese communities in the world.

During the gold rush, rich bankers and magnates began to appear in San Francisco, whose names are known to this day. They are Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, Charles Cocker, Colins P. Huntington. These happy mine owners quickly built up mansions in the Nob Hill area. Today, many of their buildings have become famous hotels, such as the Mark Hopkins Hotel or the Huntington Hotel. It was a period of great migration, and as the townspeople needed new jobs, new companies began to appear. These include Levi Strauss & Co., Ghirardelli, Wells Fargo, etc.

Not everything went smoothly in the rise of San Francisco. Unrest soon began over the brutal exploitation of immigrants, followed by riots in Chinatown. In this regard, in 1882, a law was passed to reduce the allowed number of immigrants in the city. This law lasted until 1943.

Other serious problem, affecting San Francisco, appeared in 1855, when a ship arrived in the city with refugees from Far East infected with cholera. It was possible to solve this problem with the help of the Sisters of Mercy, who worked at that time in the hospitals of the city, but this epidemic greatly affected the demographics of San Francisco. In 1900, another infected ship moored to the city. This time the city was engulfed by an epidemic of bubonic plague and the peddlers were rats.

One of the most difficult periods in San Francisco was 1906, which brought a devastating earthquake and then a fire. The city was partially flooded, then burned from the fire. Most of the inhabitants were trapped between these elements, and 80% of the city, including its center, were destroyed. Many people were saved thanks to the organized evacuation through the bay. Refugee camps have opened in the park near the Golden Gate Bridge, in Ocean Beach and some other undeveloped areas. According to official figures, more than 3,000 people became victims of the disaster, and most of the survivors were left homeless for a long time. Immediately after the earthquake, a plan was developed to rebuild and rebuild San Francisco. Again, Daniel Burnham acted as the main planner. By the end of the 19th century, San Francisco was suffering from corruption and the mafia. It was time for reform and change. Elected in 1896, Mayor James D. Phelan came up with a new system to increase the city's fund and a redevelopment plan. His dream was to turn San Francisco into "the Paris of the West". 17 new schools were built, the main library and hospital, a new sewerage system, 2 parks. Later, with the help of renowned American architect Daniel Burnham, Phelan developed a plan to expand the boulevards, create open parks and squares, and complete a fifty-year global redesign of the city. As a result, not everything was implemented, but many ideas were implemented. These include the current subway lines under Market Street, Fisherman's Wharf, Embarcadero Boulevard, Opera House across from City Hall.

The period after World War II was marked by the construction of new high-speed highways in San Francisco. However, an unexpected problem arose during the implementation of this plan. Due to population density, the construction of highways meant that many of the city's residents could be left homeless. For this reason, in 1959, it was decided to suspend the construction of roads. Moreover, another earthquake in 1989 partially damaged the Central Highway and destroyed the Embarcadero road. Residents of the city decided not to restore these sites, but to rebuild them. Thus, a historic embankment appeared on the site of the Embarcadero highway.

Justin Herman, a Harvard graduate, played a big role in the reconstruction of San Francisco. In the 1950s, he started the renewal of nature reserves and the division of the city into large areas built up with modern buildings. His projects include Yerba Buena Gardens, Japantown, Embarcadero Center, Geary Street.

In the 1960s, San Francisco experienced the hippie era, and even became the epicenter of boiling music, psychoactive drugs, creative and sexual freedom. by the most important event The hippie era became the Summer of Love in 1967. During this period, thousands of hippies from all over the world came to the Haight-Ashbury area to celebrate freedom and love. This unique phenomenon was akin to a cultural, social and political revolution.

Successive mayors of San Francisco brought something new. So, for example, Dianne Feinstein, who ruled from 1978 to 1988, organized the Manhattanization of the city. It was a global reconstruction associated with the appearance of many skyscrapers. Especially Manhattanization affected the financial district of the city. There were many who disagreed with the massive building of skyscrapers in San Francisco and the "high-rise revolution" began. As a result, there were restrictions on construction.

The 1980s saw the emergence of many homeless people in US cities. This problem has not bypassed San Francisco. Many mayors tried to solve it, each in their own way. If Mayor Art Egnos allowed the homeless to camp and coexist peacefully, then Mayor Jordan solved this problem by forcibly expelling all the homeless from the city. The next mayor, Willie Brown, simply ignored the problem, and the homeless again flooded the streets of San Francisco. Gavin Newsom, who succeeded him, developed the Care Not Money program, according to which all homeless people were provided with rehabilitation services and were given employment opportunities.

In the 1990s, San Francisco became the city of computer companies. Not the last role in this was played by close proximity to Silicon Valley. Internet businessmen, leading programmers and other high-tech specialists began to come here more and more often, which greatly influenced the city's economy and employment. Thus, the field of computer technology has become the main one in the city.

Climate and weather in San Francisco

Weather forecast

Wednesday 27.03

Thursday 28.03

Friday 29.03

Saturday 30.03

Sunday 31.03

Monday 01.04

on "Pogoda.Tourister.Ru"

Monthly weather in San Francisco

	Temperature day, °C	Temperature at night, °C	Temperature water, °C	Quantity precipitation, mm
	14	11	12	104
	12	9	12	105
	14	11	12	76
	16	13	12	33
	17	14	11	16
	20	15	12	5
	21	16	13	1
	19	15	15	1
	19	14	15	4
	19	14	14	26
	16	12	14	53
	13	10	13	98

Reviews of tourists about San Francisco by month

January 1 February 1 March 6

April 15 May 28 June 1

July 7 August 1 September 10

October 11 November 7 December 1

Transport San Francisco

San Francisco is considered to have the most advanced public transportation system on the West Coast of the United States. More than a third of the urban population uses public transport every day, which is represented by buses (diesel and hybrid), trolleybuses, surface and underground high-speed trams, and even historic cable trams. All transport within the city is part of the MUNI system.

Photos of San Francisco

Districts

The urban landscape of San Francisco is diverse. It is based on hills, ethnic districts and quarters, picturesque parks and coastal areas.

It is not known for certain how many hills there are in the city, but their approximate number is 50. Many of the hills of San Francisco are so famous that they are ranked among the sights of the city. For example, the popular hill Twin Peaks, luxury Nob Hill and Russian Hill.

Geographically, San Francisco is divided into forty, dissimilar districts. Many of them are residential and are divided into groups of quarters. However, the following areas are especially popular among tourists: Union Square, Chinatown, Castro, Haight Ashbury, Sunset, Richmond, Treasure Island, Civic Center, South of Market, Mission, Fisherman's Wharf.

There are over 200 parks in San Francisco. The largest and most famous of them is Golden Gate Park, which stretches from the city center to the Pacific coast.

The coastal strip of San Francisco is represented by a long beach Ocean Beach. The water here is not calm and not particularly suitable for swimming, but this does not stop brave surfers who are not afraid of low temperatures and strong ocean currents.

Twin Peaks

Twin Peaks means "twin hills" in English. In accordance with the name, the hill is represented by two identical hills. This place has become especially popular among tourists since the release of the action-packed TV series Twin Peaks, although it has no direct relation to the hills. The main advantage of the hills is that from their top there is a magnificent view of San Francisco. This is a kind of observation deck of the city, which the locals call Christmas tree point. It is best to visit the hills in the late afternoon, when everything around is lit up with colorful lights. Telescopes have been installed on Twin Peaks for a better view. Geographically, Twin Peaks is located in the central part of San Francisco and is the second highest point in the city. The hills are located at a distance of 200 meters from each other and have proper names. So, for example, the southern hill is called Noe Peak, and the northern hill is called Eureka Peak. During grand celebrations accompanied by fireworks, Twin Peaks is packed. This is especially noticeable on the Independence Day of the United States - July 4th. On the top all year round it can be windy, so it is better to go there in outerwear.

Nob Hill

Nob Hill is a favorite haunt of the wealthy and the most luxurious neighborhood in San Francisco. The top of Nob Hill is famous for its luxurious hotels, superb views of the surrounding area and the cable car. Nob Hill has always attracted wealthy people from all over the world. They tried to buy a house or mansion here. However, even the height of the famous hill did not save them from the earthquake that struck California at the beginning of the 20th century. Of all the buildings in the area, only one house, owned by James Flood, survived. Today it houses the Pacific Union Club, and luxurious Victorian buildings have grown on the site of the destroyed houses. Until 1850, the hill was called California, in honor of the street adjacent to the east - California-Street. The current name is an abbreviated version of the word nobility, which means “to know, nobility”. The best way to get to the top of the hill is by funicular. Of particular interest to tourists is the neo-Gothic cathedral in the center of the district. Nob Hill is adjacent to areas such as Union Square and Chinatown.

Russian Hill (Russian Hill)

Russian Hill is another upscale neighborhood on a hill in San Francisco, located near Nob Hill. The name Russian Hill in translation means "Russian hill". The most famous part of the area is Lombard Street. It is considered the most winding serpentine street in the world. And also there are many green pedestrian alleys and a surprisingly beautiful panorama of the bay. Another area attraction is the San Francisco Art Institute. Historically, there have always been extensive Russian settlements in San Francisco. The hill got its name during the Gold Rush, when a small Russian cemetery was discovered on its top. Over time, the cemetery was moved. Presumably, these were the burial places of Russian sailors and entrepreneurs from Fort Ross, a Russian settlement on the shores of Northern California in the 19th century. It is known that at the beginning of the 20th century Russian Hill was also densely populated by Russian emigrants, in particular Molokans. The hill was visited by the writers Ilf and Petrov, which they later wrote about in one of their books. Today, there are almost no Russian residents on the hill, since most of them are based in the Richmond area. You can get to Russian Hill both by car and by the Powell-Hyde cable car line.

union square

Union Square is located in the middle of downtown San Francisco. This is the official center of art, theatrical life of the city and shopping. The area surrounding the square is also called Union Square. This name came from the demonstrations that took place here in support of the northern states at the beginning of the civil war (1861-1864). Currently, it is the tourist and commercial epicenter of the city, where life is in full swing 24 hours a day. Union Square is home to six large department stores, many luxury boutiques and hotels, art galleries, first-class restaurants and beauty salons. Solemn events, public events and concerts are often organized on the square, and at Christmas a tall spruce is traditionally set up here. In winter, there is a skating rink.

In the very center of the square rises a granite column with a Corinthian capital at the top. On the capitals you can see a bronze girl in a light dress, balancing on a ball on one leg, as well as kissing seahorses. The monument of the girl raises a trident and a laurel wreath in her hands. This composition was created in honor of Admiral Dewey, the hero of the Spanish-American War of 1898. Another attraction of the square is the Westin Saint Francis Hotel, named after the patron saint of the city, St. Francis. Once, at this hotel, radical Sarah Jane Moore tried to kill President Gerald Ford. In addition to outstanding sights, the Union Square area has many attractive streets for tourists. So, for example, Maiden Lane, which is closed from 11.00 to 18.00 for cars and turns into a cozy pedestrian area. At the same time, all the cafes of the quarter take out tables and chairs to the street. Geary Street also attracts many tourists, especially the five-story building at number 49. It houses, at last count, about nineteen art galleries.

Chinatown

One of the most interesting and visited places in San Francisco is Chinatown. The area has a long history and is the largest settlement of Chinese immigrants outside of Asia. According to the latest data, total strength There are more than 150,000 Chinese in the city. And this number is constantly increasing. Global immigration refers to the period of the Gold Rush, when for work in the mines and for the construction of a transcontinental, railroad attracted an impressive number of Chinese.

Geographically, Chinatown is located in the heart of San Francisco and consists of 24 compact blocks. Most San Francisco Chinese actually live in other areas of the city, such as Richmond or Sunset, but Chinatown is their cultural and political center. One of the attractions of the area is the Dragon Gate, also known as the Gate to Chinatown. This is the official entrance to the area, located at the corner of Grant and Bush streets. This gate appeared in the city in 1970 as a gift from the People's Republic of China. They are typical of Chinese architecture in style and form and are guarded on both sides by formidable lions. A favorite place for tourists is Grant Street. This is the main commercial artery of the area, covering seven blocks. In addition to a whole string of shops with colorful and inexpensive goods, there are restaurants, bakeries, tea clubs, traditional medicine pharmacies and other authentic establishments.

Quite out of place, but here is the Old Cathedral of St. Mary. This cathedral is the only building in the area that survived the earthquake and fire in 1906. In those days, Chinatown had a bad reputation and was called "Little Shanghai". There were many brothels and gambling houses, and in some lanes there were opium dens. Having been in Chinatown, tourists will certainly visit the Ross Alley lane. It is here that the factory that produces Chinese fortune cookies, the so-called fortune cookies, is located.

Castro

Castro (The Castro) is a legendary area that is very popular with gay people from all over the world. It was once called "Little Scandinavia" due to the large concentration of people from Northern Europe. However, in the 1970s, gay bars began to open here and the cultural center of the gay movement gradually formed. In Castro, there is absolute freedom of morals: lovers, without hesitation, walk in an embrace, cafes are full of couples on the verandas, pornographic posters are full of shop windows, and the roofs of houses are decorated with a colored rainbow - the official symbol of all gays and lesbians. In other words, Castro is the cultural center of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, that is, LGBT. The world's first gay bar, the Twin Peaks Tavern at 401 Castro Street, is also located here. One of the oldest cinemas in the United States, Castro Theatre, is especially popular in the area. At night, the Castro is incredibly crowded. All the bars and nightclubs that are considered the best in San Francisco are opening.

In 2011, the country's first LGBT Historical Museum opened between Castro and Collingwood Streets. On normal days, admission to the museum costs about $5, but admission is free on the first Wednesday of the month. Another interesting place in Castro is Cliff's Variety Store. This is a kind of gay supermarket where you can buy everything from kitchen utensils to feather hats. The Castro area is impossible to miss. After all, its rainbow signs and flags can be seen from afar. The best way to get here is by electric tram, which runs through the Castro and Fisherman's Wharf. By the way, historical vintage trams brought to San Francisco from all over the world pass along this line.

Every year on the last weekend of June, San Francisco hosts the most important city event - the gay parade. This holiday is called Pink Saturday, translated as "Pink Saturday". At this grand event, the city is painted in all the colors of the rainbow, and the streets are filled with muscular guys in swimming trunks, painted transgenders in wigs, naked bikers on motorcycles and topless girls. The main local hero is considered the first openly homosexual - Harvey Milk, who later was awarded the post of politician in California. Although Kastro is a gay and lesbian area, locals and tourists of all orientations are always welcome here.

haight ashbury

Haight-Ashbury is another unique neighborhood in San Francisco that rose to fame in the late 1960s as the epicenter of the hippie movement and their Summer of Love. This name appeared in connection with the location of the area at the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets. This place does not lose its popularity among creative people. To this day, fans of the hippie movement and vintage lovers actively come here. The shops of Haight-Ashbury are always in the fashion of the sixties, and in cafes and restaurants - a motley audience. Showcases are full of psychedelics, phonograph records and underground comics. Sometimes there are inhabitants of the city bottom, who love to beg for a trifle.

The most notable year in Haight Ashbury was the summer of 1967, when tens of thousands of young hippies from all over the world came here to celebrate love and freedom. The entire local and national press was full of news about 14-year-old boys who flooded the Haight and became drugged. More and more young people flocked to San Francisco during their summer holidays. There were sensational stories of "free love" parties held on the floor or old mattresses. There were cases when drug addicts tried to take off from the windows of skyscrapers. However, the area could not withstand such a flow of people. Chaos reigned everywhere: the streets were full of drugs, the homeless, the hungry, and the crime rate also increased. To officially close the hippie movement in October of the same year, the "Death of the Hippie" ceremony was held. The youth dispersed, and the area remained in decline and ruin until the 1980s. To address this problem, Haight Ashbury has been turned into a tourist area by local authorities.

Since the Summer of Love, the area has not changed much and retained its status as the world capital of the hippie revolution. Many world celebrities were also involved in the hippie movement. So, for example, in the summer of 1967, Janis Joplin and Jerry Garcia came here, and The Beatles wrote the songs “All you need is love” and “She’s leaving home” especially for the Summer of Love.

sunset

Sunset is the largest area of ​​San Francisco, located in the central-western part of the city. Once there were only sand dunes on the Sunset site, but today it is a developed residential and commercial area. From the north, the area is surrounded by the Golden Gate Park, and to the west by the Pacific Ocean. The eastern and southern borders of the district are slightly blurred. The Sunset area is divided into two parts:

• Inner Sunset
• Outer Sunset

Inner Sunset is located closer to the center of city life and away from the ocean. In fact, this is a relaxed student area where the University of California is located. Since there is a vast park area nearby, students can relax during breaks from study in the bosom of nature. And in the evening, they are beckoned by the lights and noise of the big city.

Outer Sunset is always foggy and smells like the sea as it stretches along the Pacific coast. This area is very different from the central parts of the city. It is always quiet and calm here, and on the streets there are shops with farm products, modest restaurants and inconspicuous cafes.

richmond

Richmond is an area in the northwestern part of San Francisco, surrounded on all sides by greenery. If in the south Richmond connects with Golden Gate Park, then in the north it borders on Lincoln and Presidio parks. In the west, the area is washed by the Pacific Ocean. San Francisco has a large Russian-speaking community. The bulk of Russian residents live in Richmond along Geary Boulevard. Here is the only Russian Orthodox Church in the city - the Cathedral Holy Mother of God. This building of unique beauty stands out noticeably against the background of other buildings in the area. Richmond also hosted a large number of Chinese immigrants. Locals sometimes call it the "New Chinatown". There is always a calm atmosphere in Richmond. There are no trendy boutiques and noisy clubs, but there are modest restaurants serving delicious food. The name of the area is taken in honor of one of the suburbs of Melbourne.

Treasure Island (Treasure Island)

The artificial Treasure Island is a former US naval base in San Francisco Bay. Today it is a thriving oasis visited by many tourists. Treasure Island was created in 1936 and 1937 specifically for the Golden Gate International Exhibition. The name of the island is translated as "Treasure Island" in honor of the book by R. L. Stevenson, who once lived in San Francisco. Treasure Island is connected to the mainland by the neighboring island of Yerba Buena, through which the San Francisco-Oakland Bridge passes. A bus route to the city center also runs through the island. On Treasure Island, hangars have been preserved since the time of the international exhibition, which are of particular interest to tourists. After all, it was in them that many scenes from famous films were shot. Among them are "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", "The Matrix", "What Dreams May Come" and others. There is a version according to which Treasure Island is planned to be turned into one of the "green" cities of the future.

Civic Center (Civic Center)

The largest state and cultural institutions of San Francisco are located in the Civic Center area. In addition to the city municipality, there are two huge squares here: Civic Center Plaza and United Nations Plaza. Lovers of beautiful architecture will appreciate the range of classical buildings. The name Civic Center literally means "civic center". The following buildings can be seen in the area: California Supreme Court, Asian Museum of Art, War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco Art Institute, Conservatory of Music. The area also includes the Fox Plaza condominium. Due to the fact that the district has a central location, almost all city parades, marches and ceremonies pass through it. Among them are the famous Gay Pride, Love Parade, St. Patrick's Day, etc. Next to the Civic Center is another remarkable area - the South of the Market.

South of Market

The South of Market is a fairly large area in downtown San Francisco, stretching from the Embarcadero to 11th Street. The area is rapidly changing its face and is interesting for its new buildings, skyscrapers, as well as the stadium of the Giants baseball team called AT&T Park. South of Market (South of Market) is popularly abbreviated as SoMa (SoMa). There are many hotels, chic nightclubs and restaurants on the territory of SoMa, storage facilities, art venues, modern penthouses, furniture showrooms, and tenacious internet companies that managed to weather the tech crash. Recently, more and more new skyscrapers have appeared, but there are still enough empty blocks here. The area owes its name to the adjacent Market Street and literally translates as "south of Market Street." The most attractive points for tourists are located near South Park, on 11th Street and where the Yerba Buena Gardens are located. Attractions in the South of Market area include the Museum of Cartoon Art, the California Historical Society, the Contemporary Jewish Museum, the Museum of the African Diaspora, and the famous Museum of Contemporary Art.

Mission

The Mission is a vibrant neighborhood in eastern San Francisco that is mostly populated by Spanish immigrants and hipsters. This name came from the original Mission of St. Francis of Assisi, after whom the city was named. Tourists who have already seen all the sights of the city and want to see something colorful go to the Mission. This is a hospitable corner of the city, where various subcultures and ethnic groups peacefully coexist. This area is like a melting pot. It has everything from expensive restaurants to shabby bars and street food. On the streets of the Mission, stalls cluttered with baskets of products side by side with colorful shops and roadside cafes where excellent freshly brewed coffee.

Many consider this area the most interesting in San Francisco. Among tourists and locals, the various restaurants in the Mission are especially famous. There are dozens of first-class Mexican eateries, the so-called taquerias, many restaurants with Guatemalan, Nicaraguan and Salvadoran food, as well as traditional places of French, Chinese, Italian cuisine. The Mission District stands out from other parts of San Francisco with its colorful painted houses and buildings. This is the work of Latin American activist artists dating back to the 1970s. Mission is like a magnet for creative people. There are dozens of art studios, galleries, exhibition sites. At the intersection of Mission Street and 16th, you can often see a collection of poets, musicians and artists.

- a city that grew out of the Good Grass.
Located in the west of the state of California, the administrative center of the district of the same name. The largest commercial, financial and industrial city of the American West. The epicenter of the "gold rush" of the XIX century. The capital of all informal youth movements of the 20th century.

San Francisco. With what only enthusiastic epithets he was not awarded! Beautiful, dazzling, mysterious… Connoisseurs say: San Francisco is the most picturesque city in America. Solid and reliable, with many banks and corporations, and at the same time free and rebellious. He is hailed by the staunch romantic Jack London as "the world's home port of romantic adventures." And Robert Stevenson remarked: “This is the City of Gold, to which adventurers are carried by all the winds of heaven. I am amazed that the charm of a thousand and one nights has become a reality in a single generation.”

By American standards, San Francisco is not very big. Bounded by the ocean and natural terrain, it covers an area of ​​122 sq. kilometers. And in terms of population (730 thousand), it is not among the ten largest cities in the United States. But, nevertheless, with the suburbs of the Santa Clara Valley and the city of San Jose, San Francisco forms a huge metropolis (6.3 million people). Silicon Valley, where engineers and programmers work and new "high" technologies are created, is just in its line. The US Electronics Industry Center produces a fifth of the world's electronics.

The city is located at the very tip of the peninsula and is surrounded on three sides by the ocean. But the resort of San Francisco can be called conditionally. It is washed by the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean. Thick fog envelops the city every night, and cool sea breezes disperse it only in the morning. There are no cold winters here, but there are no really hot summers either. The temperature throughout the year is kept within +20 ° C. Mark Twain said about the local weather: "The coldest winter in my life was in the summer in San Francisco." Romantics call San Francisco the city of eternal spring, and skeptics call it eternal autumn.
"Frisco", "City", "City by the Bay" - the Americans awarded their favorite with such nicknames. And if California in America is called the "Golden State", then San Francisco can be called the "Golden City". There is a lot in it, one way or another, reminiscent of the noble metal. The Golden Gate Bay, the bridge that connects the peninsula to the mainland, is the Golden Gate. The beautiful city park is also called the Golden Gate.

But do not forget that the history of the city began much earlier than the time of the "gold rush". The first, in 1542, the ships of the Portuguese Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, who served the Spanish crown, visited here. In 1579, the famous English pirate F. Drake sailed along these shores. But the first settlement was founded only in 1775, when Spanish sailors discovered a bay with a convenient bay. They founded Fort Presido and the village of Yerba Buepa in this place, which in translation meant “Good Grass”. It is from this “Good Grass” that the future city actually grew. Later, the indefatigable Spanish missionaries built a church, which received the name of St. Francis of Assis. In 1848, Mexico lost the war with the United States and gave them the upper part of California, which also included a small seaside village. The Americans began to call the town the same as the church - San Francisco.
The city is counting down its prosperity on August 19, 1848. It was on that day that the New York newspaper Herald published a sensational report: in California, a gold deposit was discovered on the Sacramento River. This information was later confirmed by US President James Knox Polk. Since that time, settlers began to arrive in a small town with a population of five hundred people in search of happiness. In 1849, the city was inhabited by more than 10,000 adventurers, and in 1850 there were already a hundred thousand. Not only Americans came here for good luck. Chinese, Japanese, Russians, Greeks, Filipinos, Scandinavians, Mexicans, that's far from complete list nationalities. All of them settled in their communities around the city, forming a kind of conglomerate. Now, traveling around San Francisco, you can get into amazing corners where residents sacredly preserve the traditions of their native places.

Chinatown is San Francisco's Chinatown. This is one of the largest Chinese settlements outside of Asia with more than 60 thousand people, and the largest in America. Walking through the streets of the quarter, you plunge into the unique atmosphere of the Chinese city - numerous buildings in the form of pagodas, ethnic restaurants, souvenir shops. All inscriptions on cafes and shops are duplicated on Chinese and are made in oriental style, and the houses of the inhabitants are painted in colors that, according to legend, should bring good luck to their owners. Red gives happiness, green - longevity, yellow promises the owner a good fortune, and black - money.

Describing the history of San Francisco, it is impossible not to touch on the "Russian question" in North America. One of the 42 hills on which the city is located is called the Russian Hill. here in the middle of the 19th century. graves of Russian fur seal hunters who worked for the Russian-American Company were discovered. And not far from the city, if you go north along Freeway No. 1, there are the restored remains of the wooden fortress Fort Ross, founded by Russian settlers in 1812. It is sad to realize that it was from the Russians that the enterprising American Sutter bought the land on which, eight years after the sale, gold was first found. Now the "Russian quarters" are located in the Richmond area. Russians, like other ethnic groups of emigrants, are trying to preserve their identity. There are Russian restaurants, Russian cinemas showing exclusively Russian cinema, Russian newspapers, many of which are delivered from Moscow.

California also attracts the Americans themselves with its own lifestyle, so unlike other states. Not only emigrants from abroad move here, internal immigration is strong here. The incredible mixture of races and peoples in the city has created here an extraordinary freedom of morals and tolerance for someone else's way of life. For its free inhabitants, there are absolutely no strict Puritan traditions. The bars of the city have entered the legend. The weakness of local residents for strong drinks was emphasized by “Mr. San Francisco” - Herb Kane, a well-known local historian who devoted his whole life to studying his city: “San Francisco learned to drink in the days of the gold rush and has been improving in this quality all his life.” And in the 50-60s of the XX century. San Francisco has become the capital of a global counterculture that has challenged the morals and tastes of a world of well-fed and limited laymen.

Young rebels Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg created in the 1950s the Beat generation philosophy and its new values, among which the motorcycle, alcohol, poetry and jazz are in the first place. You can go to City Light, where Allen Ginsberg was reading The Howl. Or visit City Lights in North Beach, the former headquarters of the Beats. Now it is one of the richest and most interesting bookstores in the United States.
Hight-Ashbury is a neighborhood in San Francisco from which a generation of hippies roamed the world. Compared to the more aggressive beatniks, the "flower children" preferred passing cars, drugs, oriental teachings and rock. The hippies staged a half-million "Summer of Love" here in 1967, the culmination of their movement. Now the area for tourists has been put into museum order. One of its attractions is the wild-colored psychedelic bus that Ken Kesey, the author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, cultized by Hollywood Czech Miklash Forman, drove across America.

One of the symbols of free America, the famous jeans, was born here. Work pants for gold miners from Levi Strauss have become the iconic clothes of the rebellious generation. The mass fashion for them came with the beatniks, from the Hollywood images of James Dean and Marlon Brando. Against the backdrop of all the ups and downs, the history of this clothing is very indicative. It was working, then rebellious, and now the average American or European cannot imagine his life without comfortable casual trousers.
San Francisco is still one of the world leaders in non-standard attitude to life. The city is the most prominent center of the gay civil rights movement. On Christopher Street, seven-color flags are hung in the windows of many houses so that no one doubts the sexual orientation of their residents.

San Francisco is located in a seismically dangerous and not - under it passes the crevice of San Andreas. Now Oma "behaves" relatively calmly - 100 shocks per month with a force of less than 1 point. AT modern houses such small shocks are almost imperceptible. You notice them only when the paintings on the walls periodically change their position. But there were times when the element showed itself in all its might. Strong earthquakes were noted here in 1812 and in 1865. From 1849 to 1852, San Francisco experienced six major fires caused by underground vibrations. In 1906, it was almost completely destroyed by a strong earthquake and a large fire that followed. But the city has always been rebuilt. It is no coincidence that its coat of arms is adorned with the legendary Phoenix bird, reborn not from the ashes, but from a ring of flame. After the last destruction, restoration proceeded at a truly "Stakhanovite" pace. Already in 1915, San Francisco was restored to such an extent that it was able to host the international exhibition "Panama International".
The city's desire for continuous development is characterized by the fact that during the years of the Great Depression, when the United States was going through hard times, an ingenious project was implemented here, which has now become a symbol of San Francisco - the Golden Gate Bridge. This is one of the longest (total length - 2730 m, central span - 1280 m) and beautiful bridges in the world. It spread across the bay and connects the city to the mainland. It has six lanes of traffic, and for walkers there are two walking paths. If you look down from the bridge, at the fog swirling below, then there is a fantastic feeling of flight. The romantic image of the bridge and the strait of the same name was sung by Jack London: “The Golden Gate really gilded in the rays of the setting sun, and behind them the immense expanses of the Pacific Ocean opened up. Behind them is the Pacific Ocean, China, Japan, India, and ... Coral Islands. You can sail anywhere through the Golden Gate, to Australia, to Africa, to seal rookeries, to the North Pole, to Cape Horn.

The history of the bridge is very interesting. The need for its construction began to be thought about at the very beginning of the 20th century, when cars appeared in the life of citizens. The initial estimate for the project was $100 million.
The amount was really very solid, so such projects were not taken seriously. But Joseph Straus, an experienced engineer, said that he would meet the construction cost of 27 million. By the way, the real estimate did not exceed the promised one by much - by 8 million. Construction began in 1933, and in 1937 the bridge was inaugurated. From now on, you can get into the city directly from the mainland, paying $ 3 per car. And at the entrance to the bridge there is a bronze figure of engineer Joseph Straus, protecting his offspring from all sorts of troubles.

In some ways, the city is typically American, in some ways it has its own unique features. Repeatedly rebuilt after fires, each time it became a little different, reflecting the inclinations and tastes of its architects. The central street of San Francisco - Markst Street. It was drawn by the Irishman Jasper O'Farrell diagonally to the already laid streets, taking the Champs-Elysées of Paris as a model. As elsewhere, the city center is decorated with huge skyscrapers made of glass, steel and concrete. For example, the office of the Transamerica Corporation, built in 1972, is a pyramidal building 260 meters high. Or a complex of five skyscrapers - the Embarcodero Center, designed by D. Portman.

Named after the carpenter who first discovered gold, John Marshall Square is home to the San Francisco Civic Center. The majestic buildings of gray granite, built in a classical style, were declared a landmark of national importance in 1978. The building of the City Hall (Town Hall), built in 1915, is also located here, the object of special pride of the townspeople. The dome of the Town Hall is modeled on the dome of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, the main Catholic church. It has a height of 102 m and is 4 m higher than the Washington Capitol.

Despite its business rhythm, San Francisco is conducive to unhurried walks. It is very good to walk here on foot or on special sightseeing trams - cable cars. The city even has a museum dedicated to the townspeople's favorite type of gransporg. The tram rises along the "humped" streets with the help of steel ropes. The elevation changes of the hilly terrain are practically not felt here. On the contrary, each new road turn reveals another facet of the beautiful city. Almost all of modern San Francisco was built up before 1935. Since the 50s of the XX century. building a helstio in a city bounded by natural terrain has been reduced. In the 1990s, a moratorium was declared on the demolition of any buildings. Therefore, houses built in the Victorian style are replacing buildings in the neoclassical style. Further you can see luxurious Italian mansions and Moorish turrets - the Palace of Fine Arts, the community center, the Morris store. From the height of the Coit Tower, you can admire the opening panorama of the city with its sights - Telegraph Hill, Fort San Francisco, Historic ships (historical ships).

There are a lot of museums in the city, and they all differ in variety - from serious academic to interesting everyday ones: the Museum of Asian Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the California Palace of the Legion of Honor. M. H. de Young Memorial Museum of Painting, Wells Farto Historical Museum, Maritime Museum, Wine Museum. They exhibit collections of antiques, works of art, including ancient Indian.
There are more than 140 theaters in the city, of which the most famous are the Opera House, the Alcazar Theater, the Orpheus Theater, as well as concert halls - Curran, Little Fox, On Broadway.

San Francisco - major center science and education. The most famous educational establishments- University of San Francisco, University of California, San Francisco State University, Conservatory. It is also home to the California Academy of Sciences, founded in 1853. It manages the Morrison Planetarium (Morrison Planetarium), and the Steinhart Aquarium (Steinhart Oceanarium), open to tourists.
A distinctive feature of the city can be called its streets. Some of them have a slope of up to 35 degrees. Cars park at a sharp angle to the pavement, otherwise they will roll, despite the most reliable brakes. The steepest and most winding street in the world is Lombard Street, which is located on Russian Hill. Laid in the 20s of the XX century, it has become one of the symbols of the city and is listed in the Guinness World Records. The round slope of the hill gives the street a broken outline. Without the zigzags, descending the slope would be like moving down the chute of a ski jump. Except without snow.

A fairly dense building still provides space for flowers and trees. There are more than 130 parks in the city.
Among them is the most and (the local "Golden Gate" is the National Recreation Area. A powerful green massif is the pride of not only the residents of San Francisco. This is the largest urban man-made park in the United States, it covers an area of ​​​​411 hectares. It is hard to imagine that such beauty was created The park was laid out on a sandy stretch of the seashore, the sand was reinforced with grass, and the territory was fenced with a rampart from the winds from the Pacific Ocean.
Here all the lakes, waterfalls, green valleys and hills are created by caring human hands. Walking along the paths of the park (their total length is 43 km), you can go to the Rhododendron Valley, where the largest collection of these plants in the world is collected, or visit the elegant Japanese Garden with a traditional Japanese house for tea ceremonies, and your feet will lead you to the exquisite Aroma Garden , or the Bible Garden.

You can't miss the romantic Shakespeare's Flower Garden. The author of such a "literary-botanical" masterpiece is Alice Eastwood. According to experts, she "created a collection full of poetic harmony." There is a wall in the garden, in which six bronze slabs with 88 quotations from Shakespeare are mounted. In the center of the wall is a safe containing a copy of the sculptural portrait of the great playwright, made from a death mask in 1620 by G. Johnson. This rarity (there are only two such portraits) was handed over to the garden from the inhabitants of Stratford-upon-Avon, where Shakespeare died.
The Botanical Garden of the California Academy of Sciences is also located on the territory of the park complex. Here, more than 500 species of plants from all over the world are collected in the natural-scientific collection.

Park "Golden Gate" is a favorite vacation spot for citizens. Here you can not only admire nature, but also have a festive picnic. Or listen to one of the many concerts organized right under the open sky. And for fans of roller skates - this is a traditional gathering place. But even this park could not contain all the natural attractions of San Francisco. For example, in Sutro Park there is an End of Land ("End of the Earth"), the westernmost point of the Earth's continental surface in the direction of its rotation around its axis.
If we talk about the nature of the city, one cannot but mention the majestic Pacific Ocean, its beaches and embankments. There is constant surf here. Watching the endless full distance, you renounce everything earthly, from the anxieties and worries of the crazy rhythm of life. On the piers and piers, you can see the rookeries of fur seals basking in the sun. The city dwellers say funny stories about how you can "nose to nose" in the water with these funny animals. The beaches are located at Point Reyes, and although the water is rather cool, there is no shortage of people who want to swim and sunbathe.

The final touch of urban features is the local cuisine. Fast food restaurants are not particularly favored by the townspeople. Residents of San Francisco know a lot about the refined niche. Here they catch the most delicious crabs in the world, white sturgeon, Chikun salmon. Excellent restaurants on Rybachaya Embankment will not leave indifferent the most demanding gourmet.
Yes, San Francisco is one of the most beautiful and distinctive cities in the United States. And Robert Stevenson very rightly said in his time: "San Francisco has only one drawback: it is difficult to leave it."