Ferry Building & The Embarcadero: Portal to the Golden State

Why is it significant?

Stand right here on the Embarcadero promenade facing the grand neoclassical facade of the San Francisco Ferry Building, feeling the cool saltwater breeze sweeping off San Francisco Bay.

Key Facts

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Stand right here on the Embarcadero promenade facing the grand neoclassical facade of the San Francisco Ferry Building, feeling the cool saltwater breeze sweeping off San Francisco Bay. Look up at the two-hundred-and-forty-five-foot stone clock tower: modeled after the Giralda bell tower of Seville, this iconic clock has struck the hours since eighteen ninety-eight. Before the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge were built in the nineteen thirties, this building was the second busiest transit terminal on Earth, surpassed only by London's Charing Cross. Up to fifty thousand commuters and travelers arrived here daily by wooden ferry boats from Oakland and across the bay, passing beneath soaring skylit second-floor nave arcades. On the terrible morning of April eighteenth, nineteen zero six, a catastrophic seven point nine magnitude earthquake shattered San Francisco, igniting citywide fires that raged for four days. While eighty percent of the city burned to ashes, the Ferry Building's resilient steel frame and water proximity saved it from destruction, serving as the sole evacuation lifeline for thousands of refugees. Walk west into the Financial District toward the towering spire of the Transamerica Pyramid.