50 Fun Facts About San Francisco

What colour is the Golden Gate Bridge painted?

The US Navy had wanted black and yellow stripes; architect Irving Morrow picked the orange vermilion instead.

The Golden Gate Bridge opened to the public in which year?

At the time it was both the longest and tallest suspension bridge in the world.

Who served as chief engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge?

Moisseiff, Morrow and Ellis all made major design contributions.

Alcatraz Island served as a federal prison from 1934 until which year?

The cold water and strong tides made escape nearly impossible.

Which famous gangster was held at Alcatraz?

Robert 'Birdman' Stroud and 'Machine Gun' Kelly were also inmates.

In 1969, Alcatraz was occupied for over 19 months by protesters from which group?

The American Indian Movement joined the occupation that began that November.

San Francisco is home to the world's last manually operated version of which transit vehicle?

Of 23 lines built in the 19th century, only three survive.

The city's first successful cable car line, the Clay Street Hill Railroad, opened in which year?

Andrew Hallidie's design became the template for cable systems everywhere.

Lombard Street is famous for a steep block with how many hairpin turns?

The switchbacks, built in 1922, tamed a natural 27 percent grade too steep for cars.

The colourful Victorian houses known as the 'Painted Ladies' stand across from which park?

The row on Steiner Street is also called Postcard Row and appeared in Full House.

The 1906 San Francisco earthquake had an estimated magnitude of what?

Fires afterward destroyed over 80 percent of the city.

The 1906 disaster holds the grim record as the deadliest US example of what?

More than 3,000 people died.

San Francisco takes its name from which saint?

The Spanish founded Mission San Francisco de Asís in 1776.

San Francisco was founded by settlers from where in 1776?

They established the Presidio at the Golden Gate and the mission a few miles away.

The California Gold Rush began in 1848 when gold was found at a sawmill owned by whom?

James W. Marshall spotted it at Sutter's Mill in Coloma on January 24, 1848.

The gold-seekers who flooded California were nicknamed what, after the peak year?

1849 was the peak year for gold rush immigration.

San Francisco's signature bread is which tangy variety?

French bakers brought the technique during the Gold Rush; the 49ers mascot is even called Sourdough Sam.

The Transamerica Pyramid was San Francisco's tallest building from 1972 until which year?

The 48-storey skyscraper sits in the Financial District.

Coit Tower overlooks the bay from which San Francisco neighbourhood?

Lillie Hitchcock Coit's bequest paid for it; despite the legend, it was not designed to look like a fire hose nozzle.

The Palace of Fine Arts was built for which 1915 world's fair?

Its huge open rotunda is enclosed by a lagoon in the Marina District.

The Haight-Ashbury neighbourhood became the centre of which 1960s movement?

The 1967 Summer of Love is forever linked to it.

The famous burst of 1960s idealism centred on the Haight is known as what?

It happened in 1967.

San Francisco's Chinatown is notable as the oldest in which region?

It is centred on Grant Avenue and Stockton Street.

Pier 39 at Fisherman's Wharf is famous for a colony of which animals?

They started hauling out on its marina docks after the 1989 earthquake.

One famous San Francisco park covers how many acres, making it larger than New York's Central Park?

It draws about 24 million visitors a year.

Which NFL team plays in the San Francisco area, having won five Super Bowls?

Their name honours the Gold Rush forty-niners; they now play in Santa Clara.

Which quarterback led the 49ers to four of their Super Bowl titles in the 1980s?

Jerry Rice, Ronnie Lott and coach Bill Walsh were part of that dynasty too.

The San Francisco Giants moved to the city in 1958 from where?

They had been the New York Giants, playing at the Polo Grounds.

The Giants won three World Series in a five-year span in which years?

Manager Bruce Bochy oversaw the dynasty.

The Golden State Warriors moved to the Bay Area in 1962 from which city?

They changed their geographic name to Golden State in 1971 and now play at Chase Center.

The boxed pasta dish advertised as 'the San Francisco treat' is called what?

It is loosely based on the Levantine pilaf dish rizz bi-sha'riyya.

The 1980s-90s sitcom about the Tanner family, Full House, was set in which city?

Widowed dad Danny raises three daughters with help from Uncle Jesse and Joey.

The Ghirardelli chocolate company was founded in San Francisco in which year?

It is the third-oldest chocolate company in the US, after Baker's and Whitman's.

The Golden Gate strait connects San Francisco Bay to which body of water?

The strait is narrow, roughly a mile and a half wide.

The Bay Bridge crosses San Francisco Bay to which neighbouring city?

It carries about 260,000 vehicles a day on two decks as part of Interstate 80.

San Francisco is unusual in California for being a consolidated city and what?

It became a combined city-county in 1856.

Roughly how many named hills lie within San Francisco's city limits?

They give the city its famously steep, rolling streets.

The Presidio, a former army post at the Golden Gate, is now managed by which body?

It was transferred out of military use on October 1, 1994, after 219 years.

Union Square in San Francisco is best known as which kind of area?

The Dewey Monument stands at its centre.

Coit Tower's interior is decorated with murals in which artistic style?

Twenty-two artists painted the frescoes in 1933-34.

That same large park's western end features two of what, built in Dutch style in 1903?

The park also holds the de Young Museum and the Japanese Tea Garden.

Which 1964 bridge took the world's longest suspension span record from the Golden Gate?

The Akashi Kaikyo later took the height record in 1998.

Before the Golden Gate Bridge opened, how did people cross to Marin?

The Hyde Street to Sausalito ferry took about 20 minutes.

The Painted Ladies row at 710-720 Steiner Street is also nicknamed what?

The seven houses are also called the Seven Sisters.

The Golden Gate Bridge spans a strait of roughly what width?

The strait links the bay to the open Pacific.

The de Young Museum and California Academy of Sciences both sit inside which large green space?

So do the Conservatory of Flowers and the Japanese Tea Garden.

The Presidio of San Francisco was first established in 1776 as what?

New Spain built it to gain a foothold in Alta California.

Which chocolate-themed plaza near Fisherman's Wharf is named after a confectioner?

The company's first store opened in 1852.

The US Navy suggested painting the Golden Gate Bridge in what scheme, which was rejected?

Architect Irving Morrow's International Orange won out.

What was San Francisco called before Mayor Washington Bartlett renamed it on 30 January 1847?

The pueblo had been founded in 1834, and US forces from the USS Portsmouth captured it with little resistance in July 1846.