Search results for: near Palo Alto, CA

The Campanile at Berkeley, also known as the Sather Tower, is 307 feet (or 94 meters) tall. Completed in 1915, the Gothic Revival-style tower, designed by architect John Galen Howard, is the tallest structure on the UC Berkeley campus and is the third-tallest clock and bell tower in the world. The tower’s observation platform is located at the 200-foot level. Read more...

The lighthouse on Alcatraz Island is still operational with its light beacon rotating once every five seconds as a navigational aid for shipping in San Francisco Bay. It has been automated since November 22nd, 1963, the same year the island’s penitentiary closed. Read more...

Because it was the first school in the University of California system, before the UC system expanded to other California cities, the Berkeley campus was known simply as the University of California and often shortened to Cal. UC Berkeley’s sports teams are called the California Golden Bears and in athletic competition referred to as California or Cal. Read more...

The Sand Ladder steps from the north end of Baker Beach emerge on the California Coastal Trail that runs alongside Lincoln Boulevard. Heading north on this trail for approximately 1 mile will lead to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. Read more...

The Burning Man festival started as a gathering held on San Francisco’s Baker Beach to mark the 1986 summer solstice. On June 22nd, 1986, Larry Harvey and Jerry James burned a 9-foot wooden human effigy they built at the northern end of Baker Beach, in the presence of a small group of friends. While the beach was already a place Read more...

Robert Franklin Stroud, nicknamed the Birdman of Alcatraz, was a convicted murderer, imprisoned in US federal penitentiaries continuously from 1909 until his death in 1963. First incarcerated in 1909 on McNeil Island, Washington, for 12 years for manslaughter, Stroud gained a reputation for violent behavior. In 1912 he moved to the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas, where, in 1916, he Read more...

During its 29 years as a federal penitentiary, 14 escape attempts were made from Alcatraz Island by a total of 36 inmates, of which 2 prisoners tried twice. Official reports state that 23 were caught, 6 were shot and killed, 2 drowned trying to swim from the island, and five are listed as “missing and presumed drowned”. Only one, John Read more...

Notorious American gangster Al Capone spent 4½ years in the prison on Alcatraz Island after being transferred there in August 1934 from the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta. Capone was serving an 11-year sentence for tax evasion, during which time his mental health seriously declined due to syphilis contracted prior to his incarceration. He spent his final year at Alcatraz on Read more...

The last registered prisoner at Alcatraz was Frank Clay Weatherman, who arrived on December 14, 1962. He was also the last of the final prisoners to board the boat leaving Alcatraz Island when the prison closed on March 21, 1963. Read more...

The name Alcatraz Island originates from a name given to one of the islands in San Francisco Bay during Spanish rule of California, La Isla de los Alcatraces. That translates to ‘The Island of the Gannets’ but it is widely suggested that the original meaning was ‘The Island of the Pelicans’, based on an archaic Spanish word for pelican, alcatraz. Read more...

The element berkelium is named after the city of Berkeley, California. Berkelium was first produced in December 1949 by Stanley Thompson, Albert Ghiorso, and Glenn Seaborg in the 60-inch cyclotron housed at the University of California at Berkeley’s Crocker Laboratory. They bombarded americium-241 with helium nuclei (alpha particles) for several hours in the cyclotron to synthesize tiny amounts of the Read more...

Baker Beach in San Francisco has a clothing-optional area at the very north end of the beach. It is a public beach that attracts mostly clothed visitors, but nude beachgoers frequent the northernmost part nearest the Golden Gate Bridge, so be warned if visiting with children. Read more...

San Francisco’s Sutro Baths building was destroyed by fire caused by arson on June 26th, 1966. The landmark structure, opened by Adolf Sutro in 1896, stood below the Cliff House and housed indoor bathing pools, with an ice rink and penny arcade added later. It struggled financially because of high operating costs, and was sold in a deteriorated condition in Read more...

Tideline Marine operates a weekday scheduled water taxi commuter service as a loop from Berkeley Marina to San Francisco Pier 1.5 (next to the Ferry Building), onward to Pier 52 (for Mission Bay and the Chase Center) and back to Berkeley. There are two morning departures from Berkeley Marina’s K Dock (in front of the Harbormaster’s office) at 7:30 am Read more...

The Daily Californian is the student-run newspaper covering the University of California, Berkeley campus and the city of Berkeley. The newspaper has been independent of the university since 1971 and is run entirely by current or recently-graduated UC Berkeley students and published by the nonprofit Independent Berkeley Students Publishing Company, Inc. Known informally as The Daily Cal, it is published Read more...

San Francisco artist Eduardo Aguilera built the circular labyrinth of rocks at Lands End covertly in 2004 and it has become an unofficial attraction off the Coastal Trail near Mile Rock Beach. Despite being vandalized and destroyed many times, public volunteers continue to restore and maintain the creation. Read more...

There are open air parking lots surrounding North Berkeley BART station. Permit lots are permit parking only between 4 am and 10 am, after which they operate as normal daily fee parking lots. Payment or permit is required in Fee parking lots on weekdays from 4 am to 3 pm and is free on weekends and holidays. The lots are Read more...

The building under the San Francisco side of the Golden Gate Bridge is Fort Point, built by the US Army at the height of the Gold Rush between 1853 and 1861 as part of a defense system to protect the harbor from foreign attack. When it was no longer needed as a defense position, it served as barracks and military Read more...

The first Peets Coffee store was opened by Alfred Peet in 1966 on Vine Street and Walnut Street in Berkeley, California. The location remains open today as a Peet’s coffee shop, but originally just sold coffee beans rather than drinks. Read more...

All vehicles crossing the Golden Gate Bridge in the direction of San Francisco are required to pay a toll charge. Toll payments cannot be made on the bridge, so rental car drivers have the option of paying the toll through their rental company, but this is likely to be more expensive and subject to convenience fees. Alternatively, one-time toll payments Read more...