Warren G Harding died at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco on August 2nd, 1923, aged 57. The 29th American President was reportedly suffering from pneumonia and died suddenly in room 8064 (now room 888), the eighth-floor presidential suite. Read more...
Classifieds website Craigslist was started in 1995 from founder Craig Newmark’s ground floor apartment at 1010 Cole Street in San Francisco. Craigslist operated from here until 2000 when it moved to offices in the Sunset District. Read more...
The Black Hawk jazz club was located on the corner of Turk Street and Hyde Street in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District and operated from 1949 to 1963. The building was later demolished and the site is now a small parking lot. A plaque in the sidewalk reads: On this corner, the world’s best jazz musicians performed at the Blackhawk. The Read more...
The Transbay Tube, the underwater rail tunnel carrying Bay Area Rapid Transit’s subway lines under San Francisco Bay between San Francisco and Oakland reaches a maximum depth of 135 feet (or 41 meters) below sea level Read more...
In-person help at the San Francisco IRS Taxpayer Assistance Center (TAC) is available by appointment only, between 8:30 am and 4:30 pm Monday to Friday. To make an appointment call 844-545-5640. The TAC is located in the south lobby of the Phillip Burton Federal Building at 450 Golden Gate Avenue (between Polk Street and Larkin Street) and government-issued photo ID 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 San Francisco Marathon starts from Mission Street and The Embarcadero, San Francisco, at 5:30 am. It is held annually on the fourth Sunday in July. Read more...
BART trains cross San Francisco Bay through an underwater tunnel running between downtown San Francisco’s Embarcadero station near the Ferry Building, and West Oakland station. Known as the Transbay Tube, the 3.6 mile (or 5.8 kilometer) immersed tube sits on the Bay floor and contains two rail tunnels separated by a central pedestrian and maintenance gallery. Read more...
The Dewey Monument in Union Square, San Francisco is a statue commemorating Admiral George Dewey’s victory in the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish–American War. It is 97 feet (or 30 meters) tall and features a bronze statue by sculptor Robert Ingersoll Aitken of Nike, the ancient Greek Goddess of Victory, holding a trident and balanced on a granite Read more...
Embarcadero Station is the busiest BART stop as measured by the average number of weekday passengers exiting the station. During February 2020, BART reported that an average of 47,941 people exited the station daily on weekdays, followed closely by 45,090 at nearby Montgomery Street Station. Embarcadero Station is a combined BART and Muni Metro rapid transit underground station on Market Read more...
The famous Painted Ladies in San Francisco are located at 710 to 720 Steiner Street, opposite Alamo Square Park in the Western Addition. The name was given to the iconic row of Queen Anne style houses in the 1970s due to their colorfully painted facades. Read more...
On September 22nd, 1975 Sarah Jane Moore fired a gun twice at President Gerald Ford as he left San Francisco’s St. Francis Hotel via the Post Street entrance. Both shots missed and the president was quickly escorted away in his limousine. Moore was sentenced to life in prison for the assassination attempt but was released on parole on December 31st, Read more...
San Francisco’s pier numbering system starts at the Ferry Building on The Embarcadero at the end of Market Street. Odd numbered piers are located to the left, going north, and even numbered piers are located to the south. Because some piers have fallen into disrepair or been removed over the years, there are gaps in the numbering system. Read more...
There is a parking lot next to the San Francisco DMV office at Fell Street and Broderick Street in Haight-Ashbury which is free for DMV customers between 7 am and 5 pm. Read more...
The three-sided glass tower on the Mulberry Union building opposite UCSF Medical Center on Parnassus Avenue houses a historical working mechanical clock designed by Seth Thomas that was salvaged from the old campus Medical School Building prior to its demolition in 1967. After a period of storage, the mechanism of the clock, which also tells the day of the week, Read more...
During a free performance by U2 to 20,000 people in San Francisco’s Justin Herman Plaza on November 11th, 1987, lead singer Bono spray painted “Stop The Traffic” and “Rock N Roll” on the Vaillancourt Fountain. Footage of the act can be seen in the band’s 1988 concert film, Rattle and Hum. 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...
The downtown San Francisco area is not officially defined but is generally considered to refer to the city’s Financial District. The area it is often broadened to include the Union Square, Chinatown, Tenderloin, and SoMa districts. Read more...
Stand at a brown and white Cable Car Stop sign. As the cable car approaches, raise your hand to signal the driver to stop. Pay the conductor after boarding (with $20 notes or less) if you don’t already have a ticket or pass. If the cable car does not stop, it is likely full. Between 8 am and 5 pm, Read more...
San Francisco’s cable cars are pulled along by a cable below the street that runs at a continuous 9.5 mph. The cars can release their grip on the cable and brake for slowing down and stopping. Read more...