GOLDEN GATE PARK & MAJOR FEATURES

Golden Gate Park, located in San Francisco, California, is a large urban park consisting of 1,017 acres (411.6 ha) of public grounds. Configured as a rectangle, it is similar in shape but 20 percent larger than Central Park in New York, to which it is often compared. It is over three miles (4.8 km) long east to west, and about half a mile (0.8 km) north to south. With 13 million visitors annually, Golden Gate is the fifth most-visited city park in the United States after Central Park in New York City, Lincoln Park in Chicago, and Balboa Park and Mission Bay Park in San Diego.

The Music Concourse Area is a sunken, oval-shaped open-air plaza originally excavated for the California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894. Its focal point is the Spreckels Temple of Music, also called the "Bandshell," where numerous music performances have been staged. It includes a number of statues of various historic figures, four fountains, and a regular grid array of heavily pollarded trees. Since 2003, the Music Concourse has undergone a series of improvements to include an underground 800-car parking garage and pedestrianization of the plaza itself. It is surrounded by various cultural attractions, including:


 De Young Museum is a fine arts museum that was opened in January 1921. Its original building had been part of the 1894 Midwinter Exposition, of which Mr. de Young was the director. The de Young was completely rebuilt, and the new building opened in 2005. 

The California Academy of Sciences is the "largest public Platinum-rated building in the world, and also the world’s greenest museum", and also houses the Steinhart Aquarium and the Morrison Planetarium. The Academy of Sciences carries exhibits of reptiles and amphibians, astronomy, prehistoric life, various gems and minerals, earthquakes, and aquatic life. A completely new building for the Museum opened in September 2008 designed by Renzo Piano

Japanese Tea Garden the 5 acres (2.0 ha) Japanese Tea Garden is the oldest public Japanese garden in the United States. The garden was designed by Makoto Hagiwara for the 1894 Midwinter Exposition, including still-standing features such as the Drum Bridge and the tea house. Subsequent additions included a pagoda and Zen garden. It is one reported site of the introduction of the fortune cookie to America.

 

The Conservatory of Flowers is one of the world's largest conservatories built of traditional wood and glass panes. It was prefabricated for local entrepreneur James Lick for his Santa Clara, California, estate but was still in its crates when he died in 1876. A group of San Franciscans bought it and offered it to the city, and it was erected in Golden Gate Park and opened to the public in 1879. In 1883, a boiler exploded and the main dome caught fire. A restoration was undertaken by Southern Pacific magnate Charles Crocker. It survived three earthquake of 1906 only to suffer another fire in 1918. In 1933 it was declared unsound and closed to the public, only to be reopened in 1946. In 1995, after a severe storm with 100 mph (160 km/h) winds damaged the structure, shattering 40 percent of the glass, the conservatory had to be closed again. It was cautiously dissected for repairs and finally reopened in September 2003

The San Francisco Botanical Garden was laid out in the 1890s, but funding was insufficient until Helene Strybing willed funds in 1926. Planting began in 1937 with WPA funds supplemented by local donations. This 55 acres (22 ha) arboretum contains more than 7,500 plant species. The arboretum also houses the Helen Crocker Russell Library, northern California's largest horticultural library.

The AIDS Memorial Grove has been in progress since 1988. In 1996, it was designated a national memorial by an act of Congress, becoming an affiliated area of the National Park System. The Grove's former executive director and current board member, Thom Weyand, has said that "part of the beauty of the grove is that as a memorial which receives no federal money, it is blessedly removed from the fight over the controversy of AIDS."

Stow Lake surrounds the prominent Strawberry Hill, now an island with an electrically pumped waterfall. Rowboats and pedal boats and e rented at the boathouse. Much of the western portion of San Francisco can be seen from the top of this hill, which at its top contains one of the reservoirs that supply a network of high-pressure water mains that exclusively supply specialized fire hydrants throughout the city.

Two bridges connect the inner island to the surrounding mainland

BAY BRIDGE

The bridge consists of two sections of roughly equal length; the older western section connects downtown San Francisco to Yerba Buena Island and the newer eastern section connects the island to Oakland. The western section is a double suspension bridge. Originally, the largest span of the original eastern half was a cantilever bridge. During the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, a section of the eastern section's upper deck collapsed onto the lower deck and the bridge was closed for a month. Reconstruction of the eastern section of the bridge as a causeway connected to a self-anchored suspension bridge began in 2002; the new bridge opened September 2, 2013 at a reported cost of over $6.5 billion, and is currently the world's widest bridge, according to Guinness.
Artwork
the bay lights is the world's largest LED light sculpture, 1.8 miles wide and 500 feet high. inspired by the Bay Bridge's 75th Anniversary, its 25,000 white LED lights are individually programmed by artist Leo Villareal to create a never-repeating dazzling display across the Bay Bridge West Span through March 2015.

 Impact
The Bay Bights is a monumental tour to force eight times the scale of the Eiffel Tower's 100th Anniversary lighting. Shining from dark until 2:am for two years. it will impact over 50 million people in the Bay Area, with billions more seeing it in the media and online. By conservative estimates,$97 million dollars will be added to the local economy.

A

THE MOST VISITED PLACES

ALCATRAZ ISLAND

Alcatraz Island is an island located in the San Francisco Bay, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) offshore from San Francisco, California.
Today, the island is a historic site operated by the National Park Service as part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and is open to tours. Visitors can reach the island by ferry ride from Pier 33, near Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. In 2008 the nation's first hybrid propulsion ferry started serving the island. Alcatraz has been featured in many movies, TV shows, cartoons, books, comics, and games.

FISHERMAN'S WHARF

 Fisherman's Wharf gets its name and neighborhood characteristics from the city's early days during the Gold Rush when Italian immigrant fishermen settled in the area and fished for the Dangeness crab. From then until the present day. It remained the home base of San Francisco's fishing fleet from Ghirardelli Square or Van ness Avenue east to Pier 35 or Kearny Street. The F Market streetcar runs through the area, the Powell-Hyde cable car lines runs to Aquatic Park, at the edge of Fisherman's Wharf, and the Powell-Mason cable car line runs a few blocks away.

PIER 39

Pier 39 is a shopping center and popular tourist attraction built on a pier in San Francisco, California. At Pier 39, there are shops, restaurants, a video arcade, street performances, an interpretive center for the Marine Mammal Center, the Aquarium of the Bay, virtual 3D rides, and views of California sea lions hauled out on docks on Pier 39's marina. The marina is also home to the floating Forbes Island, restaurant. A two-story carousel is one of the pier's more dominant features, although it is not directly visible from the street and sits towards the end of the pier. The family-oriented entertainment and presence of marine mammals make this a popular tourist location for families with kids.

CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

The California Academy of Sciences is among the largest museums of natural history in the world. The academy began in 1853 as a learned society and still carries out a large amount of original research, with exhibits and education becoming significant endeavors of the museum during the 20th century.
Steinhart Aquarium - which takes up most of the basement area, as well as four-story dome that emulates a rain forest. Morrison Planetarium - devoted to things astronomical. Kimball Natural History Museum - which, in addition to African Hall and a Foucault pendulum.

PALACE OF FINE ARTS

The Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District of San Francisco, California, is a monumental structure originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in order to exhibit works of art presented there. One of only a few surviving structures from the Exposition, it is the only one still situated on its original site. It was rebuilt in 1965, and renovation of the lagoon, walkways, and a seismic retrofit were completed in early 2009. In addition to hosting art exhibitions, it remains a popular attraction for tourists and locals, and is a favorite location for weddings and wedding party photographs for couples throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, 

BEAUTIFUL VIEW

THE FINANCIAL DISTRICT

 is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, that serves as its main central business district. It is home to the city's largest concentration of corporate headquarters, law firms, insurance companies, real estate firms, banks, savings and loans, and other financial institutions.

The area is marked by the cluster of high-rise towers in the triangular area east of Grant Avenue, south of Washington Street, west of the Embarcadero that rings the waterfront, and north of Market Street. The city's tallest buildings, including 555 California Street and the Transamerica Pyramid, and many other tall buildings, such as 101 California Street and 345 California Street are located there. Montgomery St

LOMBARD STREET

The worlds most twisted street. Lombard Street is an east-west street in San Francisco, California. It is famous for having a steep, one-block section that consists of tight hairpin turns.

Lombard Street is best known for the one-way section on Russian Hill between Hyde and Leavenworth Streets, in which the roadway has eight sharp turns that have earned the street the distinction of being the crookedest street in the world.

GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE

The Golden Gate Bridge

 is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the opening of the San Francisco Bay into the Pacific Ocean. The structure links the U.S. city of San Francisco, on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula, to Marin County. It is one of the most internationally recognized symbols of San Francisco,California, and the United States. It has been declared one of the Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
 Before the bridge was built, the only practical short route between San Francisco and what is now Marin County was by boat across a section of San Francisco Bay. Ferry service began as early as 1820, with regularly scheduled service beginning in the 1840s' for purposes of transporting water to San Francisco.
 The Sausalito Land and Ferry Company service, launched in 1867, eventually became the Golden Gate Ferry Company, a Southern Pacific Railroad subsidiary.
 Irving Morrow, a relatively unknown residential architect, designed the overall shape of the bridge towers, the lighting scheme, and Art Deco elements such as the tower decorations, streetlights, railing, and walkways. The famous International Orange color was originally used as a sealant for the bridge. The US Navy had wanted it to be painted with black and yellow stripes to ensure visibility by passing ships, the largest ferry operation in the world by the late 1920s' Once for railroad passengers and customers only.

SAN FRANCISCO CITY AND COUNTY

HISTORY
San Francisco, officialy the City and Couty of San Francisco, is the fourth most populous city in California and the 12th most populous city in the United States, the only consolidated city-county in California.
Today San Francisco is popular international tourist destination, renowned for it is chilly summer fog, steep rolling hills, ecletic mix of victorian and modern architecture, and it is famous landmarks. Including Golden Gate Brigde, Cable cars, and China Town.

 Telegraph Hill & Coit Tower

The city is also a principal banking and finance center, and the home to more than 30 international financial institution, helping to make San Francisco eighteenth place in the world's top producing cities, ninth in the United States and fifteenth place in the top twenty global financial center.

GEOGRAPHY
San Francisco is located in the West Cost of the United State at the tip of the San Francisco peninsula and includes significants of the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay within it is boundaries.
Several Islands - Alcatraz, Treasure Island and the adjacent Yerba Buena Island.
San Francisco is famous for it is Hills there are more than 50 Hills within city limitis. Some neighborhoods are named after the Hill on which they are cituated, including Nob Hill, Pacific Heights, and Russian hill, Twin Peaks a pair of Hills.
The nearby San Andreas and Hayward faults are responsible for much earthquake activity.
San Francisco's shoreline has grown beyond limits. Entire neighborhoods such as the Marina and Hunter Point as well as large section from Embarcadero.

CLIMATE
Since it is sorrounded on three sides by water, San Francisco'weather is strongly influenced by the cold currents of the Pacific Ocean which moderates temperatures swings and produces a remarkably mild year around climate with little seasonal temperature variation.
It has the coldest daly mean,maximum and minimum temperatures for June,July and August.
The dry period of May to October is mild warm
The rainy period of November to April is slaghtly cooler.
Snow is extraordinarily rare.

  NEIGHBORHOODS
The historic center of San Francisco is the northeast quadrant of the city bordered by Market Street to the south. Financial District is centered with Union Square,The principal shopping and  Hotels district, Nob Hill,
Fisherman's Wharf a tourist area featuring  Dangenesses Crab, Russian Hill a residential neighborhood with the famously crooked Lombard Street, North Beach the city's little Italy and Telegraph Hill which features Coit tower, Chinatown established in 1840s The Mission District was popolated  in the 19th century by Californias, Haight Ashbury famously associated with 1960s hippie,The Castro is the center of gay life in the city, Japantown district suffered when its Japanese American residents were forcebly removed and interned during the War World ll, Wester Adidtion became stablished with a large African American and  a row of well restored of Victorian homes,Pacific Heights, The Marina are a lively area with many young urban professionals,The Richmond the vast region north of Golden Gate Park, Sunset with a predominantly Asian population.

BEACHES & PARKS
Ocean Beach wich runs along the Pacific Ocean shoreline and is frequented by a vibrant surfing community,and Baker Beach which is located in a cove west of the Golden Gate and part of Presidio.
Several of San Francisco's park and nearly all of its beaches form part of the regional Golden Gate National recreation Area., one of the most visited units of the National Park System in the United States with over 13 million visitor a year.
There are more than 200 parks by the San Francisco recreation and parks department, the largest and best know city park is Golden Gate Park. The large park is rich with cultural and natural attractions such as the Conservatory of Flowers, Japanese Tea Garden, and San Francisco Botanical Garden.
California State Park system located principally in San Francisco. Candle Stick was the State's first urban recreation area.


ENTERTAINMENT AND PERFORMING ARTS

San Francisco's War Memorial and Performing Arts Center hosts some of the most enduring performing-arts companies in the U.S. The War Memorial Opera House houses the San Francisco Opera, the second-largest opera company in North America^[119] as well as the San Francisco Ballet, while the San Francisco Symphony plays in Davies Symphony Hall. The Herbst Theatre stages an eclectic mix of music performances, as well as public radio's City Arts & Lectures.

The Fillmore is a music venue located in the Western Addition. It is the second incarnation of the historic venue that gained fame in the 1960s under concert promoter Bill Graham, housing the stage where now-famous musicians such as the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin and Jefferson Airplane first performed, fostering the San Francisco Sound. Beach Blanket Babylon is a zany musical revue and a civic institution that has performed to sold-out crowds in North Beach since 1974.

MUSEUMS

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) houses 20th century and contemporary works of art. It moved to its current building in the South of Market neighborhood in 1995 and now attracts more than 600,000 visitors annually.^[120] The Palace of the Legion of Honor holds primarily European antiquities and works of art at its Lincoln Park building modeled after its Parisian namesake. It is administered by Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, which also operates the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. The de Young's collection features American decorative pieces and anthropological holdings from Africa, Oceania and the Americas. Prior to construction of its current copper-clad structure, completed in 2005, the de Young also housed the Asian Art Museum, which, with artifacts from over 6,000 years of history across Asia, moved into the former public library next to Civic Center in 2003.

Opposite the Music Concourse from the de Young stands the California Academy of Sciences, a natural history museum that also hosts the Morrison Planetarium and Steinhart Aquarium. Its current structure, featuring a living roof, is an example of sustainable architecture and opened in 2008. Located on Pier 15 on the Embarcadero, the Exploratorium is an interactive science museum founded by physicist Frank Oppenheimer in 1969. Two museum ships are moored near Fisherman's Wharf, the SS Jeremiah O'Brien Liberty ship and USS Pampanito submarine. On Nob Hill, the Cable Car Museum is a working museum featuring the cable car power house, which drives the cables, and the car depot

SPORTS AND RECREATIONS

The San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League (NFL) are the longest-tenured major professional sports franchise in the city. The team began play in 1946 as an All-America Football Conference (AAFC) league charter member, moved to the NFL in 1950 and into Candlestick Park in 1971. In 2006, the team's owners announced plans to move the team to nearby Santa Clara, California by 2015; the team will still be named the "San Francisco 49ers", even though they will be much closer to the city of San Jose.^[128][129] The 49ers have won five Super Bowl titles in the 1980s and 1990s behind coaches Bill Walsh and George Seifert, and stars such as Joe Montana, Steve Young,Ronnie Lott, and Jerry Rice.

Major League Baseball San Francisco Giants left New York for California prior to the 1958 season. Though boasting such stars as Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Barry Bonds, the club went 52 years until its first World Series title in 2010, and won an additional title in 2012. The Giants play at AT&T Park, which opened in 2000, a cornerstone project of the South Beach and Mission Bay redevelopment.