Welcome to San Francisco! This loop starts at the Ferry Building, heads inland to the Transamerica Pyramid and old Jackson Square, then returns along the Embarcadero.
Stop 1 of 8Free preview
Ferry Building
The Embarcadero at the foot of Market St
Welcome to San Francisco! We're starting at the Ferry Building, and that clock tower above you is 245 feet tall, with four clock faces you can see straight up Market Street. The building was designed by architect A. Page Brown and opened on July 13, 1898, replacing a wooden terminal from 1875.
The tower is sometimes compared to the Giralda bell tower in Seville, Spain, but there's no evidence the architect used it as his model. For decades this was the front door of the city. Before the bridges were built, commuters from the East Bay poured through here on ferries, and rail passengers heading to or from the transcontinental lines crossed the bay here too. The building rode out both the 1906 and 1989 earthquakes with little damage.
After the bridges came, ferry traffic dropped and the building was carved up into offices. A restoration starting in 2002 brought back the long Great Nave inside, and the ground floor became a marketplace. Listen for the bell chiming on the hour during the day.
🚶 Walk to the next stop (820 m · ~10 min walk): Walk out the front of the building, the Market Street side, cross The Embarcadero at the signal and head inland, west, toward the Financial District. You're aiming for Montgomery Street between Clay and Washington; the pyramid on the skyline is your guide. About 10 minutes.
Look straight up. The Transamerica Pyramid is 48 stories and 853 feet tall, and it was the tallest building in San Francisco from its completion in 1972 until 2017. It was designed by William Pereira. When it opened it was among the tallest buildings in the world, and it's still one of the most recognizable shapes on any skyline.
It's even been nicknamed Big Pointy. The Transamerica company moved its headquarters away years ago, but the building still appears in its logo. Here's the history under your feet: this whole area is built on filled land. Where you're standing was once near the shoreline of Yerba Buena Cove, the little bay around which the Mexican-era town of Yerba Buena grew in the 1830s.
In 1846, American sailors landed nearby and raised the flag at what's now Portsmouth Square, a couple of blocks west of here. Later, the cove was filled in, and the city pushed out into the bay.
🚶 Walk to the next stop (300 m · ~4 min walk): Walk a block northwest to where Columbus Avenue meets Kearny Street. The narrow, copper-green building shaped like a slice of pie is our next stop. About 4 minutes.
