Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
in-between spaces) and grouchiness (they've debated forcing visitors to take shut-
tle buses down their street). Pedestrians use a staircase/sidewalk alongside the
road, safe out of the path of cars; the view down the hill and across to Coit Tower
is something drivers are too focused on the wheel to enjoy with you. On week-
ends, the queue of cars wishing to drive down the street can stretch west past Van
Ness. It's better to walk it, and for that purpose, you can jump off the Powell-
Hyde cable car right at the top of the crooked part and then head down toward
North Beach on foot.
SIGHTS BY AREA
FISHERMAN'S WHARF
In the old days, before the Golden Gate eased the traffic situation, commuters
would pour off the cable car at Fisherman's Wharf and head for
Hyde Street
Pier
5
(Jefferson and Hyde sts.;
%
415/447
-
5000; www.nps.gov/safr; free
admission; late May-Sept 9:30am-7pm, Oct-late May 9:30am-5pm),
where they'd
catch a boat across the Bay. Nowadays, nothing leaves from the pier; since 1962,
it has been lined instead with a one of the world's best collections of rare working
boats maintained by the National Park Service's San Francisco Maritime National
Historic Park. They include the Glasgow-built
Balclutha,
a gorgeous 1886 three-
masted sailing ship that, most famously, appeared in the classic Clark Gable movie
Mutiny on the Bounty;
the
Eureka,
an 1890 paddle-wheel ferryboat that was once
the largest of its kind on Earth; the
Hercules,
a 1907 tugboat that worked towing
logs up the West Coast; and the lumber schooner
C. A. Thayer
from 1895. The
Alma,
built in 1891, was once one of many schooners that plied the many water-
ways of the Bay Area, but today, it's the only one left. Although you can admire
the boats from the dock for free, $5 will get you onto the
Balclutha,
the
Eureka,
and the
Hercules
as much as you want for a week. (National Park Service passes
get you on for free.) All the vessels are designated National Historic Landmarks.
On the way onto the pier, stop by the
information center
and
gift shop
to
the left of the entrance; there, or on the stands outside, you can glean informa-
tion about when to catch the
free daily tours
conducted by rangers. There's a
general 1-hour walking tour that goes daily at 10:30am, and the rest of the day,
especially on weekends, will be peppered with absorbing tours such as a 45-
minute tour of the
Eureka
's engine room. Although these tours are useful for some
basic background information, I have to say that I found the expertise of the
ranger who guided me most recently to be suspicious; he pronounced
Ghirardelli
with a “jeer” (instead of a “gear”), and any anyone who has lived in the city longer
than 10 minutes knows not to do that, although I didn't question his passion for
ships. There's a poorly publicized but well-assembled historical exhibit about the
Hyde Street Pier and the Wharf in the lobby of the Argonaut Hotel across the
street, which agrees to provide the space to the National Park Service in exchange
for the right to run a hotel in a historic warehouse.
On the other side of the cable-car turnaround, but closed at press time for a
3-year renovation, the
Maritime Museum
(
%
415/447
-
5000; www.nps.gov/safr)
looks like a Streamline Moderne ship preparing to sail to sea from Aquatic Park.
It began life as a
lido
(public pool) in the 1930s before being given over to a
museum in 1952. It's famous for its superlative model-ship collection, which is
