California
San Francisco
San Francisco's famous landmarks make more sense as solutions to geographic problems. This transit-assisted guide follows the Gold Rush shoreline, buried ships, Chinatown, cable cars, the 1906 disaster, Mission Dolores, counterculture, the Golden Gate Bridge and Sutro Baths to explain how water, hills, earthquakes, migration and repeated booms forced a compact Pacific city to keep inventing itself.
Stories in San Francisco
- Ferry Building: The Front Door Before the Bridges
- Jackson Square: The Ships Under the Streets
- Portsmouth Square: Chinatown Refuses to Disappear
- Cable Cars: A Transit Solution That Became a Symbol
- Lotta’s Fountain: The Earthquake Was Only the Beginning
- Mission Dolores: San Francisco Before San Francisco
- Haight-Ashbury: The Summer of Love Becomes a Brand
- Golden Gate Bridge: A Depression-Era Bet on Connection
- Sutro Baths: When a Millionaire Tried to Democratize Leisure
- The Financial District: The Skyline Keeps Moving