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...
San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge weighs approximately 887,000 tons (or 804,670 metric tons), including anchorages and approaches. In the 1980s, the original concrete road deck was replaced with a lighter, stronger, orthotropic steel deck, reducing the bridge’s total mass by some 12,300 tons (or 11,160 metric tons). Excluding the anchorages and approaches, the bridge structure weighs approximately 419,800 tons (or Read more...
The depth of water under the Golden Gate Bridge is approximately 377 feet (or 115 meters) at its deepest point. The US Geological Survey, with other research partners, have mapped central San Francisco Bay and its entrance under the Golden Gate Bridge using multibeam echosounders. In 2006, they published a topographical image with indicative depths of the sea floor around Read more...
The Golden Gate Bridge’s suspension span, including the main span and side spans, is 1.2 miles (or 1,966 meters) long. The length of the main span between the towers is 4,200 feet (or 1,280 meters). Read more...
At its center, the height of the Golden Gate Bridge from the water to the underside of the bridge deck averages 220 feet (or 67 meters) at high tide, increasing to 225 feet (or 68.5 meters) at low tide. The bridge towers stand 746 feet (or 227 meters) above the water and 500 feet (152 meters) above the road deck. Read more...
The vermilion orange color of the Golden Gate Bridge has its origins in the red lead primer coating the steel used to construct the bridge. The hue seemed to complement the bridge design and surroundings, so a similar shade called International Orange was chosen as its permanent paint color. Read more...
San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge never gets repainted from end to end. Instead there is continual program of spot painting and corrosion repair undertaken by a dedicated maintenance team. Read more...
Pedestrians can cross the Golden Gate Bridge on the East Sidewalk, which faces San Francisco, from 5 am daily until 9 pm during Daylight Savings Time and 6:30 pm during Pacific Standard Time. Dogs are not allowed on the bridge, except for service dogs. Read more...
The Golden Gate Bridge gets its name from the Golden Gate strait, the body of water it spans between San Francisco and Marin County, California. The name has nothing to do with the bridge’s distinctive orange red color. Read more...
The Gap’s first store was in San Francisco’s Ingleside district at Ocean Avenue and Fairfield Way, next to the El Rey Theater. The store opened in 1969, initially selling only Levi’s jeans, records and tapes, but closed in 1974 as The Gap grew into a chain of clothing stores. Read more...
The accuracy of the Ingleside sundial in San Francisco varies throughout the year. Its longitudinal location means it runs anything up to 24 minutes behind Pacific Standard Time for most of the year, being slowest around February 11th. Ignoring the hour difference caused by daylight saving time, the Ingleside sundial is within a minute or so of clock time from 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...
The Beatles’ final live commercial concert took place on August 29th, 1966 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, although they performed unannounced in January 1969 on the Apple Corps building rooftop in London. Former Beatle Paul McCartney returned to Candlestick in August 2014 to perform at the last ever event at the sports stadium before it was demolished for redevelopment. Read more...
The two windmills on the western edge of Golden Gate Park originally pumped groundwater for park irrigation. The Dutch Windmill, and the Murphy Windmill located to the south, were completed in 1903 and 1908 respectively and operated until 1913 when electric water pumps were introduced. Both mills subsequently fell into disrepair but have since been restored with turning sails, and 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...
Tatiana, a four-year-old Siberian tiger escaped her open-air enclosure by scaling a 12-foot-4-inch (or 3.8 meter) high wall at the San Francisco Zoo on Christmas Day, 2007, and mauled three men visiting the zoo, killing one of them. 17-year-old Carlos Souza of San Jose died after suffering blunt-force trauma from tiger bites to his head and neck. His friends, brothers Read more...
The distinct areas of black sand on some San Francisco beaches, such as Ocean Beach and Funston Beach, are mostly iron-rich magnetite crystals. The major source of this black magnetite is the granite rocks of the Sierra Nevada mountains where tiny grains break away through erosion and are carried to the ocean by rivers and deposited on San Francisco beaches Read more...
The 96.5 KOIT radio studios are located on the third floor of the DC Station building on Junipero Serra Boulevard in Daly City, California. The Adult Contemporary format radio station relocated here in 2020 from its former studios in downtown San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood. The broadcast facilities are shared with three other Bonneville-owned Bay Area FM stations, 99.7 NOW (KMVQ), Read more...
You can ride a bike across the eastern side of the Bay Bridge from Oakland as far as Yerba Buena island only. As the Bay Bridge Trail bike path runs along the new east span only, at present you cannot ride all the way across the bridge between Oakland and San Francisco. The bridge cycle path is open daily from Read more...