ShonTron
Moderator
Upon entering the city limits, I head straight for the Golden Gate Bridge.
Greeted by a M-Ocean View LRV
The bridge is as magnificent as I expected. I walked halfway across - I would later drive across to Marin County.
The cable cars are a lot of fun. The gripman and conductor (all were male) on each ride were friendly, a bit comedic and each one a bit of a character. A great way to see the city. (Tip: the cash fare is $5 per ride on the cable cars, no transfers. Buy a one, three or seven day passport - $11/18/27, with unlimited rides on all Muni vehicles).
Taken from the Powell-Mason cable car (obviously on separate occasions):
At Market Street, are the historic PCCs of the F-Market line, which runs on the Embarcadero at Fisherman’s Wharf to the Castro District. Each is painted in the colours of North American PCC operators. One has been delivered in Toronto colours, but is not yet in service.
A PCC in LA's Pacific Electric colours.
Milan Witt laying over in the Castro District.
Castro District
Nearby to the west is the Haight-Asbury District, known as a major hippie centre in the 1960s. Even the clerk at the Ben and Jerry's looked like a hippie.
The requisite picture from Alamo Square.
Bay waterfront. Still lined with ferry terminals, cruise ship terminals and former dock buildings. Fisherman's Wharf is mostly tourist-oriented stores and restaurants, two of the three cable cars terminate here as do the F-Market cars. There's lots of parks, but the beaches are on the Pacific Coast, the waterfront parks towards the Golden Gate Bridge/Presido.
Heading back downtown on the Powell-Hyde Line.
I went out to Berkeley as part of a round trip using AC Transit over the Bay Bridge, and back by BART. Travelling though Oakland was interesting - is relatively poor compared to San Francisco, and has a large Black and Hispanic population, while San Francisco is mostly white or Asian (except the southeast, now served by the new T-Third LRT).
Berkeley is a nice town. BART is interesting as it is somewhere between commuter rail and subway, kind of like RER in Paris. It is underground though sections, like most of San Francisco and in downtown Berkeley and Oakland.
The bus stop sign gave me a chuckle.
Chinatown
I rode the new T-Third Street line (opened for regular service only a few weeks before I arrived, just like the CTA Pink Line opened just before I went to Chicago. Nice timing!). It passes through a waterfront redevelopment area that I thought reminded me a lot of Toronto. Read my thoughts here. (Shameless plug for my periodic contributions at Spacing)
Upon the advice of several friends, I took the Alcatraz tour. It certainly isn't a tourist trap, the island itself is operated by the National Parks Service, which provided a very interesting self-guided audio tour. I took the evening tour, which included a few extra goodies such as them opening the hospital floor (creepy!) and doing a cell door demonstration. As it also includes a boat tour with a great view of the city, it is highly recommended.
Going in the evening also ensured a smaller crowd. It was nice being able to take pictures without people in the way.
The prison's OR. Creepy!
D-Block, the "hole".
The next day, I take the J-Church Line out past Mission Park. The story of my experience with the J-Church will make into the transportation issues thread I'm writing. Outside the Muni Metro, the route is street-running. However, Church Street is relatively quiet, so traffic is not as much of a problem.
Twin Peaks.
Union Square. All the big department stores (Macy's, Bloomingdales, Neiman Marcus) and other retailers centre around here. There's a downtown mall, but it's not as busy.
Around Downtown:
City Hall. Here, the United Nations was formed in 1945.
Market Street west of Union Square area is sketchy at night.
I found the street funiture a bit interesting. The ad pillars are also newstands:
There are few bike lanes in SF, and not a lot of bicyclists (understandably), but the signage is rather interesting, they use numbered routes like Toronto adopted.
Most bus stops are rather, er, simple.
Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge to Marin County.
I've become a Frank Lloyd Wright fan. This is the FLW-designed Marin County Civic Center, which is administrative offices, a court house, a library, amongst other things. It was his last commission before his death. I logged into UT from the library! How many others logged in from a FLW building?
I left San Francisco heading back south via San Jose by driving across Lombard Street to it's most famous one-block section, and then down Stockton to US 101.
Stockton Tunnel.
Parting shot, with a BART train entering SFO Airport.
Greeted by a M-Ocean View LRV
The bridge is as magnificent as I expected. I walked halfway across - I would later drive across to Marin County.
The cable cars are a lot of fun. The gripman and conductor (all were male) on each ride were friendly, a bit comedic and each one a bit of a character. A great way to see the city. (Tip: the cash fare is $5 per ride on the cable cars, no transfers. Buy a one, three or seven day passport - $11/18/27, with unlimited rides on all Muni vehicles).
Taken from the Powell-Mason cable car (obviously on separate occasions):
At Market Street, are the historic PCCs of the F-Market line, which runs on the Embarcadero at Fisherman’s Wharf to the Castro District. Each is painted in the colours of North American PCC operators. One has been delivered in Toronto colours, but is not yet in service.
A PCC in LA's Pacific Electric colours.
Milan Witt laying over in the Castro District.
Castro District
Nearby to the west is the Haight-Asbury District, known as a major hippie centre in the 1960s. Even the clerk at the Ben and Jerry's looked like a hippie.
The requisite picture from Alamo Square.
Bay waterfront. Still lined with ferry terminals, cruise ship terminals and former dock buildings. Fisherman's Wharf is mostly tourist-oriented stores and restaurants, two of the three cable cars terminate here as do the F-Market cars. There's lots of parks, but the beaches are on the Pacific Coast, the waterfront parks towards the Golden Gate Bridge/Presido.
Heading back downtown on the Powell-Hyde Line.
I went out to Berkeley as part of a round trip using AC Transit over the Bay Bridge, and back by BART. Travelling though Oakland was interesting - is relatively poor compared to San Francisco, and has a large Black and Hispanic population, while San Francisco is mostly white or Asian (except the southeast, now served by the new T-Third LRT).
Berkeley is a nice town. BART is interesting as it is somewhere between commuter rail and subway, kind of like RER in Paris. It is underground though sections, like most of San Francisco and in downtown Berkeley and Oakland.
The bus stop sign gave me a chuckle.
Chinatown
I rode the new T-Third Street line (opened for regular service only a few weeks before I arrived, just like the CTA Pink Line opened just before I went to Chicago. Nice timing!). It passes through a waterfront redevelopment area that I thought reminded me a lot of Toronto. Read my thoughts here. (Shameless plug for my periodic contributions at Spacing)
Upon the advice of several friends, I took the Alcatraz tour. It certainly isn't a tourist trap, the island itself is operated by the National Parks Service, which provided a very interesting self-guided audio tour. I took the evening tour, which included a few extra goodies such as them opening the hospital floor (creepy!) and doing a cell door demonstration. As it also includes a boat tour with a great view of the city, it is highly recommended.
Going in the evening also ensured a smaller crowd. It was nice being able to take pictures without people in the way.
The prison's OR. Creepy!
D-Block, the "hole".
The next day, I take the J-Church Line out past Mission Park. The story of my experience with the J-Church will make into the transportation issues thread I'm writing. Outside the Muni Metro, the route is street-running. However, Church Street is relatively quiet, so traffic is not as much of a problem.
Twin Peaks.
Union Square. All the big department stores (Macy's, Bloomingdales, Neiman Marcus) and other retailers centre around here. There's a downtown mall, but it's not as busy.
Around Downtown:
City Hall. Here, the United Nations was formed in 1945.
Market Street west of Union Square area is sketchy at night.
I found the street funiture a bit interesting. The ad pillars are also newstands:
There are few bike lanes in SF, and not a lot of bicyclists (understandably), but the signage is rather interesting, they use numbered routes like Toronto adopted.
Most bus stops are rather, er, simple.
Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge to Marin County.
I've become a Frank Lloyd Wright fan. This is the FLW-designed Marin County Civic Center, which is administrative offices, a court house, a library, amongst other things. It was his last commission before his death. I logged into UT from the library! How many others logged in from a FLW building?
I left San Francisco heading back south via San Jose by driving across Lombard Street to it's most famous one-block section, and then down Stockton to US 101.
Stockton Tunnel.
Parting shot, with a BART train entering SFO Airport.
