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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 added to the San Francisco Designated Landmark list.

The Presidio of San Francisco is a 1,491-acre former US Army installation in the northwest corner of the city, at the south end of the Golden Gate Bridge, transferred to the National Park Service when it was vacated by the military in 1994. Today, the Presidio is a thriving urban park with a unique mix of residential communities, businesses, historic sites, recreation areas, forests, grasslands, beaches and bluffs, connected by a network of hiking and biking trails. In 1996, after considering a sale of the Presidio, it was effectively privatized by transfer of its management to the Presidio Trust, a federal government corporation tasked with making the Presidio self-sufficient and independent of direct taxpayer support. The Presidio Trust now manages most of the park, with the National Park Service managing the coastal areas, both working in partnership with the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy.

Rob Hill Campground, the only campsite within the city of San Francisco, is situated in a forested area of the Presidio above Baker Beach. This group campsite is open seasonally between April 1 and October 31, and has restrooms but no showers, no RV camping and no hookups. Advance credit card reservations are required and the maximum stay is three nights.

The fifth-floor balcony of Unit 405 at 2020 Kittredge Street in downtown Berkeley collapsed in the early hours of June 16th, 2015, and a group of people standing on it fell to the street below. Five Irish students and an Irish-American citizen, all in their early 20s, died and seven others were injured in the incident. Dry rot was a contributing factor in the structural failure, and balconies have since been removed from the building.

The official mascot of the University of California, Berkeley is Oski the Bear, who represents the university’s California Golden Bears sports teams. Oski originated as a cartoon-strip character in Cal’s student newspaper, The Daily Californian, and made his real-life debut on September 27th, 1941, during Cal Football’s victory in a season opener against the Saint Mary’s Gaels. Previously, Cal had used live bears at games as mascots. Oski is named after the old ‘Oski Yell’ that was once regularly chanted at football and basketball games, but now rarely heard.

Dogs are permitted at Baker Beach in San Francisco, and are allowed off-leash in some areas provided they are under voice control at all times. Off-leash dogs are allowed on the beach north of Lobos Creek but only if they will respond immediately to commands to return to a leash when called. Dogs must be on a leash at all times south of Lobos Creek, on beach access trails, picnic areas, parking lots, the Coastal Trail and the Sand Ladder.

The closest parking to the Greek Theatre at Berkeley is a few minutes walk away at the Stadium Parking Garage under Maxwell Family Field on Gayley Road between Cal Memorial Stadium and the Greek Theatre. Event parking charges range from $25 – $45.

The nearest BART station to the University of California, Berkeley is Downtown Berkeley, which is served by trains running to and from Richmond. The campus is a block east of the station.

You can take an elevator up the Campanile (also known as the Sather Tower) followed by 38 steps to its observation deck. It offers 360-degree views of the UC Berkeley Campus and, on clear days, as far as Oakland and San Francisco. The tower is open from 10 am daily and admission charges apply. Backpacks, large bags, food, and drink are not permitted on the observation platform.

The Campanile at Berkeley, also known as the Sather Tower, is 307 feet (or 94 meters) tall.

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.

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.

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.

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 for summer solstice bonfires, this event attracted increasing public interest and was held annually until 1989, when some 350 people attended. By 1990, its growth and a lack of permits led to the event moving to Nevada where it continues to be held annually, albeit on a larger scale.

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 fatally stabbed a guard. A sentence of hanging for first-degree murder was later commuted to life imprisonment, which he served in solitary confinement. In 1920, Stroud reportedly found a nest of young sparrows in the Leavenworth prison yard and raised them to adulthood, starting a pastime that progressed to rearing almost 300 canaries in his cell over many years, writing two books on birds, and earning him the name ‘Birdman’. Prison staff, frustrated with Stroud’s activities and the unsanitary cell conditions caused by the birds, eventually succeeded in transferring him to Alcatraz Island penitentiary in 1942, where, despite his nickname, he was never permitted to keep birds. The name Birdman of Alcatraz gained wide recognition following the 1955 book of the same name by Tom Gaddis, and the 1962 movie starring Burt Lancaster.

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 Paul Scott, is reported to have reached the mainland but he was captured and returned to Alcatraz.

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 the prison’s hospital wing before being transferred in January 1939, aged 39, to the prison at Terminal Island, Los Angeles.

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.

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. It is documented that there were populations of brown pelicans inhabiting the Bay’s islands. The name is credited to Spanish naval officer Juan Manuel de Ayala who charted San Francisco Bay in 1775. Although it is suggested that Ayala’s original charts ascribed the name to what is now Yerba Buena Island and at some point in history it instead became attached to the present day Alcatraz Island.

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 radioactive metallic element. The Crocker Laboratory was demolished in the 1960s to make way for new UC Berkeley campus buildings, and was situated where Tan Hall and Pimentel Hall stand today.