USA - California - San Francisco Bay

A spectacular natural harbor

(photos of April 2010)

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View from San Francisco

One of the best vantage points for viewing San Francisco Bay is Coit Tower (Wikipedia) on San Francisco's Telegraph Hill (map), shown next. Coit Tower may resemble a fire hose nozzle, but was actually designed in art deco style to beautify San Francisco.

On a clear day, the view from Coit Tower is breathtaking in its sweep, as shown in the next scrollable 360-degree panorama.

Starting from the left, we can see the following main sights (linked to Wikipedia):

Russian Hill in front of the Presidio, a large park that was a military post until 1994.
The Golden Gate Bridge spanning the Golden Gate from San Francisco to Marin County.
An enclosed harbor housing the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park and Fisherman's Wharf.
On the horizon in Marin County, the peak of Mt Tamalpais, 2571 ft or 784 m high.
The tourist attraction of Pier 39, with marinas on either side, in front of Alcatraz Island, small but famed as a prison, and Angel Island, much larger but less well known, now a park, formerly an immigration station.
The man-made flat Treasure Island, beyond the triangle formed by Piers 29 and 27, and behind which lies the university town of Berkeley on the east side of San Francisco Bay.
Flat Treasure Island links up to hump-backed and natural Yerba Buena Island, beyond which are the city and harbor of Oakland, with distant Mt Diablo rising to 3,864 feet (1,178 m) behind the Oakland Hills.
From Yerba Buena Island emerges the western half of the long San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge, whose eastern section (under reconstruction since being damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieto Earthquake) is hidden by the island from this vantage point.
The Bay Bridge, as it is more commonly known, leads from Yerba Buena Island to the Financial District of San Francisco, with its many skyscrapers. The two tallest among these are the Transamerica Pyramid (260 m, 850 ft) and the former Bank Of America Center (237 m, 779 ft).
The hills of San Francisco Peninsula, including Twin Peaks, on which stands Sutro Tower that carries numerous radio and TV transmitters (the top of which stands at 1811 ft or 552 m above sea level).
At far right is Nob Hill, another of San Francisco's hills, whose steep slopes the straight streets simply ignore. Nob Hill links back up to Russian Hill (see next photo).

The famous steep streets of San Francisco are better seen in the next view of Nob Hill and Russian Hill. At far right near the top of the hill is well-known Lombard Street, the "crookedest street" around, down which cars can zigzag for a block.

The following view proves that strange things happen in San Francisco, even without earthquakes. (Actually, we are seeing normal parking on a steep street below Coit Tower.) Note the characteristic local architectural style.

Also iconic of San Francisco is the Transamerica Pyramid (map), seen up close here:

The Golden Gate

The next panorama shows the San Francisco Bay from the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge (map). At left is big Angel Island and left of center small Alcatraz. Near the right end of the Bay Bridge, we can see Coit Tower standing alone on Telegraph Hill. In the foreground is former Fort Baker, one of many military installations that used to defend the entrance to the bay.

The Golden Gate Bridge is a magnet for tourists and a busy commuter route between San Francisco and Marin County. It occupies a team of painters full-time to keep it in top condition despite its ripe old age of over 70 years.

On the other side of the bridge is another military installation, Battery Spencer (map), which gives possibly the best view of the bridge against the backdrop of San Francisco (note the same painters). The bridge spans the Golden Gate (Wikipedia), a deep natural waterway that can be very treacherous due to strong tidal currents and fog.

Moving to the ocean side of the Golden Gate (map), near Point Bonita and its lighthouse (Wikipedia), we can look back at bridge and city, as well as up and down the rugged Pacific coast, in this 360-degree panorama.

The military ruins seen above at far right date from the Second World War. The Cold War also left its traces nearby, as in the following Nike missile site, now a museum (map). Those missiles could carry nuclear weapons to defend American cities from bomber attacks.

The value of the Point Bonita lighthouse becomes clear when we see the rocky coast up close (note that the light is purposely located low, so as to shine underneath the frequent fog of this coast).

Sheltered behind Point Bonita, sea lions enjoy an undisturbed rest.

Large patches of so-called ice plant cover the ground here: their fatty leaves are quite slippery to walk on, while their flowers paint the scenery.

Sausalito

On the bayside of Marin County lies the artsy town of Sausalito (Wikipedia, map). The traffic pileup is an artifact of panorama stitching, as are the twins...

The above panorama tempts us to zoom in on the horizon to see much more detail across the bay. The next picture of Alcatraz shows how much detail the shimmering of the air allows: click on it to open a new window with a large and detailed panorama of this horizon (the very narrow picture below shows the shape and extent of this panorama).

Mount Tamalpais

Marin County is topped by Mount Tamalpais (commonly called Mount Tam, 2571 ft or 784 m high, Wikipedia, map). The following panorama looks from its highest peak toward the north at left, San Pablo Bay at center (which is the northern part of San Francisco Bay), and San Francisco at far right. Distant double-peaked Mt Diablo is prominent on the horizon.

The next four views were also taken from the top of Mount Tam. First we take a closer look at San Francisco, beyond the Marin Headlands.

Next we zoom in closer on the Financial District, with Sausalito and its extensive marinas in the foreground, and Alcatraz at left.

Angel Island takes center stage in the next view, with the wealthy residential communities of Tiburon at left (map) and Belvedere at right (map), split by Belvedere Lagoon.

The next photo shows the long Richmond-San Raphael Bridge crossing the bay (map), as well as famous San Quentin State Prison at bottom left (map).

The final 360-degree panorama was taken from a ridge on the oceanside of Mount Tam (map). It spans, from left to right: double-peaked Mt Diablo on the distant horizon; Angel, Yerba Buena and Alcatraz Islands in the bay; San Francisco hidden partly by the Marin Headlands overlooking the Golden Gate; and San Francisco's main beach.