San Francisco - Alison Bing [39]
The plot of sand at Aquatic Park on the north shore of the bay sports its share of idle suntan fans, as well as a surprising number of swimmers willing to brave the frigid waters of the bay even in winter.
The Embarcadero skirts the central waterfront, beginning at South of Market (SoMa) at AT&T Park, passing Downtown, the Financial District and North Beach before reaching Fisherman’s Wharf. Back in 1849 when adventurers and miners arrived here, most of this area was under water. A steady buildup of sludge, debris, docks, saloons, and ships abandoned by crews with gold fever extended the waterfront east, and a retaining wall was built to keep the piers from drifting. Fisherman’s Wharf moved from Embarcadero and Union St to its current location, where Italian fishermen began doing brisk business in local Dungeness crab.
Levi Strauss originally set up shop for his new denim dungarees in the Mission, but now the global headquarters of his legendary jeans empire are in Levi’s Plaza, near the north end of the Embarcadero.
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top picks
EMBARCADERO & THE PIERS
Alcatraz (left)
Ferry Building
Sea lions at Pier 39
Musée Mécanique
USS Pampanito
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ALCATRAZ off Map
Alcatraz Cruises 415-981-7625; ticket info http://alcatrazcruises.com, park info www.nps.gov/alcatraz; day tickets adult/child under 5yr/child 5-11yr/senior/family (2 adults, 2 children) $26/free/16/24.50/79, night tours adult/child under 5yr/child 5-11yr/child 12-17yr/senior $33/free/19.50/30.50/32; call center 8am-7pm, ferries depart from Pier 33 every half hour 9am-3:55pm, night tours 6:10pm & 6:45pm; F to Pier 33 for ferry
Alcatraz: for almost 150 years, the name has given the innocent chills and the guilty cold sweats. Over the years it’s been the nation’s first military prison, a forbidding maximum-security penitentiary and disputed territory between Native American activists and the FBI. No wonder that first step you take off the ferry and onto ‘the Rock’ seems to cue ominous music: dunh-dunh-dunnnnh!
It all started innocently enough back in 1775, when Spanish lieutenant Juan Manuel de Ayala sailed the San Carlos past the 12-acre island he called Isla de Alcatraces (Isle of the Pelicans). In 1859 a new post on Alcatraz became the first US West Coast fort, and soon proved handy as a holding pen for Civil War deserters, insubordinates and those who had been court-martialed. Among the prisoners were Native American scouts and ‘unfriendlies,’ including 19 Hopis who refused to send their children to government boarding schools where speaking Hopi and practicing their religion were punishable by beatings. By 1902 the four cell blocks of wooden cages were rotting, unsanitary and otherwise ill-equipped for the influx of US soldiers convicted of war crimes in the Philippines. The army began building a new concrete military prison in 1909, but upkeep was expensive and the US soon had other things to worry about: WWI, financial ruin and flappers.
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TRANSPORTATION: EMBARCADERO & THE PIERS
BART Embarcadero station
Bus Most Market St Muni lines terminate near the Ferry Building. The 49 skirts the north shore along the Piers.
Streetcar F streetcars run down Market St to San Francisco Bay, then follow the northern curve of the Embarcadero to Fisherman’s Wharf. The N-Judah line runs underground down Market St, then follows the Embarcadero south to AT&T Park. The T goes from the Embarcadero station past AT&T Park, down 3rd St past Dog Patch.
Parking There are parking lots south of the Ferry Building at Pier 2 and at Embarcadero Center.
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When the 18th Amendment to the Constitution declared selling liquor a crime in 1922, rebellious Jazz Agers weren’t prepared to give up their tipple – and gangsters kept the booze coming. Authorities