San Francisco, is the cultural, commercial, and financial center of Northern California. It is the most densely settled city in California and the second-most densely populated major city in the United States after New York City. San Francisco and its surroundings are known as the San Francisco Bay Area, part of the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland combined statistical area, with an estimated population of 8.6 million. San Francisco is a popular tourist destination. Known for its cool summers, fog, steep rolling hills, eclectic mix of architecture, and landmarks including the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, the former prison of Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary on Alcatraz Island, and its Chinatown district. San Francisco has many nicknames including "The City by the Bay", "Fog City", and "The Paris of the West".
1. Golden Gate Bridge
The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate strait, the mile-wide, three-mile-long channel between San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean, It is the longest suspension bridge main span in the world, at 1300m. The Golden Gate Bridge ¡°possibly the most beautiful, certainly the most photographed, bridge in the world¡±. It has been declared one of the Wonders of the Modern World.
2. Lombard Street
Lombard Street is an east¨Cwest street in San Francisco, California that is famous for a steep, one-block section with eight hairpin turns? Lombard Street is built in 1922, was intended to reduce the hill¡¯s natural 27%grade, which was too steep for most vehicles. It is also a hazard to pedestrians, who are accustomed to shallow inclines. Lombard Street's west end is at Presidio Boulevard inside The Presidio; it then heads east through the Cow Hollow neighborhood. For twelve blocks, between Broderick Street and Van Ness Avenue, it is an arterial that is co-signed as U.S. Route 101. The eight sharp turns are said to make it the crookest street in the world.
3. Fisherman Wharf
Fisherman's Wharf is best known for being the location of Pier 39, the Cannery Shopping Center, Ghirardelli Square, a Ripley's Believe it or Not museum, the Mus¨¦e M¨¦canique, Wax Museum at Fisherman's Wharf, and the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. Fisherman's Wharf is a neighborhood and popular tourist attraction in San Francisco. It roughly encompasses the northern waterfront area of San Francisco from Ghirardelli Square or Van Ness Avenue east to Pier 35 or Kearny Street. The F Market streetcar runs through the area, the Powell-Hyde cable car lines runs to Aquatic Park, at the edge of Fisherman's Wharf, and the Powell-Mason cable car line runs a few blocks away.
Fisherman's Wharf is one of the busiest and well known tourist attractions in the western United States?
4. Palace of Fine Arts
The Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District of San Francisco, is a monumental structure originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in order to exhibit works of art presented there. One of only a few surviving structures from the Exposition, it is the only one still situated on its original site.
In addition to hosting art exhibitions, it remains a popular attraction for tourists and locals, and is a favorite location for weddings and wedding party photographs for couples throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, and such an icon that a miniature replica of it was built in Disney's California Adventure in Anaheim.