Golden Gate Park

Golden Gate Park InfoGolden Gate Park Photographs
     San Francisco is the definition of an Urban Landscape. Buildings are packed closely together. A back yard is a luxury. Even back in the 1800's the landscape of San Francis featured buildings piled on top of one another. There was literally no open space in San Francisco.

     Someone got the bright idea to terra-form the sand dunes to the west into a park before the "city" encroached on them. The idea was to provide a "natural" area for families to go and relax in the open air. At first they went to the designer of New York City's Central Park. He turned the project down stating there must be a better place to build the park. They finally found an engineer with the know how and the drive to construct Golden Gate Park.

     The plan took several years and made use of the natural succession of plants. Today this project would have been totally impossible because one, it destroyed the native landscape and two, it did not use native species of plants. However, this was the 1800's and the city wanted a park. And a park they got.

     Golden Gate Park sits in the western part of San Francisco. It is one and a half miles wide (north to south) and four miles long (east to west). It is a very pleasant park. It serves its purpose well. It provides the citizens of San Francisco an open space to go on a sunny day (they do exist,) to relax and enjoy nature.

     There are numerous things to do and see there. These galleries show only a small part of the park.

   Any comments, please sent to .

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The Ferry Building

A fountain

Another View
The Ferry Building, with its impressive clock tower, is one of the most notable landmarks on the San Francisco waterfront. Designed by Polk, the tower was modeled after the Giralda tower of the Cathedral of Sevilla (Spain). At the time of construction, it was apparently to model buildings from ancient structures in Europe. Since 1906 the Ferry Building has been the entry point of passengers by boat from all over they bay.

The Embarcardo

The Bay Bridge

Hill's Brother's Coffee
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All photos by John L. Polos
Copyright August 20, 1998