Must-see
Ferry Building
Fifty thousand people a day once passed through this terminal, until the bridges took the ferries’ riders
The story
Before you is the San Francisco Ferry Building. It was built in 1898 to a design by the architect A. Page Brown. Its 245-foot clock tower echoes the Giralda, the bell tower of the cathedral in Seville. The clock faces are twenty-two feet across. There were no bridges over the bay then, and people from the towns across the water came here by ferry. In the 1930s, fifty thousand people passed through the terminal every weekday. Among the world’s stations, only Charing Cross in London was busier. The building came through the earthquakes of 1906 and 1989 with little damage. But in 1936 the Bay Bridge to Oakland opened, a year later the Golden Gate Bridge, and people switched to cars. The ferries nearly emptied. In 1957 a double-deck freeway was built in front of the building, and only the tower could be seen behind it. The 1989 earthquake damaged the freeway, and in 1991 it was torn down. Since 1993 a farmers market has been held on the plaza in front of the building. The terminal was restored over ten years and reopened in 2003. Inside, the long hall is now a market with shops and cafés, and ferries once again carry passengers across the bay.
Visiting
The Embarcadero at the foot of Market Street. Shops and cafés are inside the building; their hours vary. The farmers market on the plaza runs Tuesdays and Thursdays 10:00–14:00 and Saturdays 8:00–14:00. Embarcadero BART and Muni Metro station is nearby, and the historic F-line streetcar stops in front of the building.
Photos
Sources
- American Planning Association — Great Places in America: Ferry Building, San Francisco
- Foodwise — Ferry Plaza Farmers Market
- Wikipedia (EN) — San Francisco Ferry Building
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