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 | San Francisco S.F. Streets Reviews | Tips 1 - 10 of 36 |  |
 | |  |  | S.F. Streets: Market Street | Tip Rating:    |  |  | |  |
Oft-described as the Main Street of San Francisco, Market slashes a broad diagonal across the central part of the city. Originally conceived following the 1849 Gold Rush as a means to beautifying the rapidly growing city, the street was layed out in a direct axis with the harbour and the two summits of Twin Peaks, a tall mountain within the city. Unfortunately, this design, unorthodox within the grid-planned city, caused traffic nightmares for those wishing to cross it, and according to some, still does. But its hinderance of traffic also meant it became a spot that had to be stopped at common to all of San Francisco- a principal artery. Ever widened to resemble the great European boulevards then just appearing, Market Street was incredibly fashionable in the periods just prior to and following the great 1906 earthquake. It then deteriorated, becoming home to less erudite members of the city's population. Multimillion-dollar efforts to 'clan up Market Street' have rsulted in shiny new street amenities that make the street shine like the Champs-Elysees, but has not conquered the social dilemma (nor has it helped replace honest shopkeeper-owned businesses with upscale cappucino bars and chains as the city's developers and pro-gentrifyers have hoped). In any event, a simple walk down the street can reveal the elegance and the trauma, the grime and the glitter that is San Francisco.
Slashing through the grid, it is like a metaphorical cross-section of the city. Start in the Castro District, best known for its gay population, and proceed under the rainbow banners. You'll soon pass by the dramatic California Volunteers Monument symbolising the role of the state's soldiers in the Spanish-American War. Soon you'll pass by the gilded neoclassical Civic Center, and then the fountain of United Nations Plaza, bustling with homeless. Then you'll come through the delerict and gritty Tenderloin, which suddenly becomes clan and upscale moving past Hallidie Plaza, where tourists line up for the cable car turnaround. Thn it's up through the towering Financial District to the majestic Ferry Building which terminates the street, a San Francisco landmark. Along the street, you'll see historic streetcars, trolleybuses, buses, trucks, cars, professional people, homeless people...the entire cross-section of vehicular and pedestrian San Francisco. And because Market is the city's transit spine, two subway systems run underneath as well. It's one big, bustling, busy axis which you have to check out. Leave a Comment
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San Francisco
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