Discover some of the best San Francisco landmarks you should visit on a trip to this amazing city. San Francisco, technically the City and County of San Francisco, is an economic, cultural, and political center of Northern California. The San Francisco Examiner, one of the Bay Area’s major business newspapers, proclaimed in June of 1996 that “The Golden Gate Bridge is just a passing tourist attraction” and added that the ferry to the ferry terminal is “not worth the cost”. San Francisco is America’s fifth largest city, after New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Atlanta. San Francisco was the second largest city to switch from a rural to an urban zoning code, after San Diego, where urban sprawl appeared to favor high-rise condominium developments. San Francisco is now the eighth most populated city in California, with a population of 881,539 as of February of this year.
The Ferry Building is the oldest ferry terminal on the West Coast, as well as one of the most famous San Francisco landmarks. Built in 1931, it served as a crossing point for bargains between the eastern and western sides of the bay, until the advent of the modern ferry system. The building today serves as a restaurant, retail shop, public library, as well as an office building for Kinko’s. It is located at the corner of Market Street and Presidio Park, near the Presidio Trust.
Two buildings near the Ferry building contain two famous names, both in San Francisco history and architecture: The Presidio Hotel and its sister, the Presidio Trust. Both have been featured in films, books, and popular TV shows, including the 1980 television series, The Munsters. Others worth mentioning in San Francisco include the Presidio Country Club, which has an outdoor pool, as well as the Presidio Tennis Center, a tennis facility on the grounds of the historic hotel. Several buildings near the Embarcadero are significant places in San Francisco’s skyline, such as the Presidio Convention Center, the Hilton Laguna, and Pier 1, the former site of the San Francisco Ferry building.