November 29-30, 1975: A Weekend in Los Angeles
	Return to Index for 1975

One of the many good things about coming to San Francisco to work on EEO-Reporter is that I am able to spend time in this beautiful city, and also explore what's locally referred to as "the Bay Area"- an area bounded by the Pacific Ocean, Santa Rosa on the north, the mountains east of Oakland, and San Jose at the south end of the Bay. I am taking every opportunity I have to borrow Greg's car and go see what I can see.

This weekend I have the opportunity to do a good deal of exploration. Greg is busy with his own stuff, and he's lent me his car so I can get around.

I took quite a few pictures on my outings, but, frankly, I didn't necessarily keep track of the exact routes I followed on each of the excursions I made on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. About the best I can do for this photo album is to try to point out the location of each of the groups of pictures that I took, and I'll use the map at right for this purpose.

For example, on one excursion I drove down past the Marina District and across the Golden Gate Bridge into Marin County. So I've marked these three locations on the map. I've marked other locations, too, so you can see generally where the main features and sights within the San Francisco Bay Area are located.

I may go ahead and insert other, more detailed maps below, or I may insert a lower level aerial view of something that I saw and photographed, but in any event, I hope that having a general idea of where everything is around here will help you, the visitor, to put the photographs in context. It'll help me, too, eventually, when memories of my wanderings begin to fade.

The Golden Gate Bridge

The iconic Golden Gate Bridge appears in just about every professional photograph of San Francisco, and has become the defacto symbol of the city- similar to the Space Needle in Seattle or the Empire State Building in New York City, or the Eiffel Tower in Paris. I would cross it in both directions many, many times in my trips out here.

The View North from Nob Hill

This Saturday morning, I've borrowed Greg's car to go and explore a bit. My plan is to head over to, and across, the Golden Gate bridge into Marin County just to see what I can see.

I picked up Greg's car from over at Grace Cathedral two blocks away. He's worked out an arrangement with the church so he can park it in the small church lot most of the time, which makes it convenient as on-street parking in San Francisco is as difficult or more so than it is in Chicago. I zig-zagged through the street of Nob Hill heading northwest towards the Marina District and the bridge.

When I got to the western edge of Nob Hill, there were good views to the north and northwest, and that's where the picture at left was taken. I believe I was just off Fillmore Street (at least that's what my notes say) and I am looking down towards the Marina district and Alcatraz in the far background. San Francisco has very good weather in the Winter. It can be a bit chilly but the days are beautiful.

Let's take a look at where the Marina District and the bridge are in relation to Greg's apartment, and you'll get a further appreciation for how conveniently-located he is.

On the map at right, you can see the first part of my path this morning, as I come down off of Nob Hill to the Marina District and then head west towards one of the approaches to the Golden Gate Bridge. I have been down here a few times already after work to do my jogging. This area is one of the few large, flat areas in the city, and so I, and a lot of other people, use it as a recreational area. Certainly there is some of the best jogging scenery I've every experienced.

The Marina District sits on the site of the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition, staged after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake to celebrate the reemergence of the city. Aside from the Palace of Fine Arts, all the other exposition buildings were demolished to make way for the current neighborhood.

Because it is so centrally-located, with such spectacular scenery (including amazing views of the Golden Gate Bridge, it quickly became one of the most desirable (and expensive) places in the city to live.

The area in the 19th century prior to the 1906 earthquake consisted of bay shallows, tidal pools, sand dunes, and marshland. In the late 19th century the waterfront was reinforced with a wall, and a road into the area from nearby Fort Mason was built. Most of the sand dunes were leveled out and a hodgepodge of wharves and industrial plants was built extending from what is now Laguna Street to Steiner Street. However, all of this was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. I got out of the car for a bit and walked around.

Taken from the park along the waterfront, this view looks generally north out past Alcatraz.

Here is a really neat picture looking west past the breakwater to the Golden Gate Bridge.

During reconstruction of the city after the 1906 earthquake, the area was chosen as the site of the Panama–Pacific International Exposition. Although rubble from the earthquake was used as part of the land reclamation, most of the landfill came from dredging mud and sand from the bottom of the Bay. After the end of the exposition in 1915, the land was sold to private developers, who tore down nearly all of the fair's attractions and developed the area into a residential neighborhood. This major redevelopment was completed in the 1920s, although in the 1930s, with the completion of the nearby Golden Gate Bridge, Lombard Street (now Highway 101) was widened, much improving access to the area.

Telephoto View of the North Bay

Sailboats and the Golden Gate Bridge

The neighborhood is most famous for the Palace of Fine Arts, which houses a hands-on science museum and children's educational center, and which takes up much of the western section of the neighborhood. The Palace is the only building left standing in its original location within the 1915 Exposition fairgrounds. The grounds around the Palace are a year-round attraction for tourists and locals, and are used as a location for weddings and wedding party photographs for couples.

At the Fort Point National Historic Site

I drove further west towards the Golden Gate Bridge. When the bridge was built, space was available on Fort Point for parkland and a Visitor/Welcome Center. Here you can park and, if you wish, walk out onto the bridge itself. (Of course, as you have probably seen in the huge number of movies and TV shows that have featured the bridge, you can walk all the way across the bridge as there are pedestrian walkways on either side.)

Fort Point is a masonry seacoast fortification located on the southern side of the Golden Gate at the entrance to San Francisco Bay. It is also the geographic name of the promontory upon which the fort and the southern approach of the Golden Gate Bridge were constructed. The fort was completed just before the American Civil War by the United States Army, to defend San Francisco Bay against hostile warships. The fort is now protected as Fort Point National Historic Site, a United States National Historic Site administered by the National Park Service as a unit of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

I have driven across the Golden Gate Bridge before; the first time was a couple of years ago when I came to San Francisco for the Cullinane Corporation User Group Meeting. At the time, I was working for Continental Bank, but during the conference, a presentation I made to the attendees (detailing how the Bank was using the EDP-Auditor software) caught the attention of John Cullinane, and that same evening he offered me a job- which I took a month later. But today, I'm going out onto the bridge on foot.

The Golden Gate Seen from Fort Point

(Picture at left) The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the one-mile-wide strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The structure carries U.S. Route 101. It has been declared one of the Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. At the time of its opening in 1937, it was both the longest and the tallest suspension bridge in the world, with a main span of 4,200 feet and a total height of 746 feet. The color of the bridge is officially an orange vermilion called international orange. The color was selected because it complements the natural surroundings and enhances the bridge's visibility in fog.   (Picture at right) The bridge-opening celebration began on May 27, 1937, and lasted for one week. The day before vehicle traffic was allowed, 200,000 people crossed either on foot or on roller skates.

Walking onto the Golden Gate Bridge

Walking out on the bridge was quite an experience; I have never walked on such a large bridge before, and it was a little sobering knowing that, over the years, an estimated 750 people have jumped or fallen to their deaths from the bridge.

Down below the southern end of the bridge, this is Fort Point, the Civil War era fort built to protect San Francisco.

From a short distance out on the bridge, this the view looking back at the city of San Francisco.

One of these days, I would like to walk entirely across the bridge, but I didn't do that this weekend. I went back to the Visitor Center parking area, got the car, and continued to the north end of the bridge, where I found another parking area and observation point.

The Marin Headlands

I drove across the bridge and took the marked exit for the observation area. This same exit led me to a road that would up into the point of land called the Marin Headland, from which there were excellent views of the bridge and the city.

This parking area had some walks that you could take to get different views of the bridge, and of course you could also park here and walk out onto the bridge heading south. From one of the walks, you can see the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge, and how the north approach curves around the eastern side of the Marin Headland, which is sloping up out of the picture to the right.

There are viewing areas for the bridge at both ends, and they provide an entirely different experience. The north end is officially known as "Vista Point".

While most of Marin County is heavily forested, the Marin Headlands are not. First of all, the headlands oftentimes create their own clouds when moist, warm Pacific Ocean breezes are pushed into higher, colder air, causing condensation, fog, fog drip and perhaps rain. The hills also get more precipitation than at sea level, for the same reason. However, despite being relatively wet, strong gusty Pacific winds prevent dense forests from forming. The many gaps, ridges, and valleys in the hills increase the wind speed and periodically, during powerful winter storms, these winds can reach hurricane force. In summer, breezes can still be very gusty, when the oceanic air and fog cross the hills.

So when I was finished walking around the Vista Point (which included another short walk out onto the bridge itself), I got in the car and went through a tunnel under the bridge approach and onto Conzelman Road, which ascends into the headlands.

In addition to the wonderful views from along Conzelman Road, the Marin Headlands also attracts military buffs, as the headlands are also the site of a number of historic military settlements and fortifications, including Fort Cronkhite, Fort Barry, a large number of bunkers and batteries, and an old SF-88 Nike Missile silo. The first military installations were built in the 1890s to prevent hostile ships from entering San Francisco Bay, and there are at least three fortifications from the pre-World War I period that you can walk through.

During World War II, more batteries were built into the hills to protect them from aerial bombardment and the high caliber shells that would be fired by Axis battleships. The emplacements at the top of Hawk Hill were used for a radio station. The gun batteries were decommissioned, but during the Cold War antiaircraft missile and radar sites were built atop the hills. At several locations, shelters were built into the hillsides to protect the military personnel from the use of nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons.

Observation posts are sprinkled through the hills, and there are marked paths to some of them. All the military sites in the Headlands have been decommissioned and returned to civilian use, although some have been preserved as historical sites. Many historical buildings are now used by non-profit organizations, but maintained in their historical condition.

Of course, I drove up here for the views; here are some of them:

In this picture, I was lucky enough to see an aircraft carrier slowly coming in to San Francisco Bay- probably destined to dock at the Oakland Navy Yard.

Taken a few minutes later, the carrier is just coming under the main span of the Golden Gate. I wish I'd been on foot in the middle of the span when it went under!

I did park the car at one of the turnouts and follow a couple of the pathways to two of the old military emplacements. They were interesting, but basically just the concrete bases where the guns were once mounted.

The California Coast (Rodeo Cove)

My walk brought me to the top of the headland, and from there the views north up the California coast were just amazing. That's Rodeo Cove down below.

I couldn't see it from where I was standing, but at the cove down below there is a sandy beach and also Rodeo Lagoon. The lagoon is separated from the Pacific Ocean by the beach, and so the lagoon water is brackish. The 37-acre lagoon stretches a half-mile from the beach eastward into the headland, but it's not like a fjord or anything. The lagoon is only six feet deep at its deepest point, but most of it is wadable.

Rodeo Lagoon empties into the Pacific Ocean only when the water level gets high enough to erode through the sand bar. This high water level usually occurs in the winter months, but if the winter is dry, the lagoon won't empty at all. The salinity of Rodeo Lagoon is not nearly as high as the ocean on the other side of the beach. Most of the lagoon water is about one-tenth as salty, although the water deep in the lagoon, which almost never exits to the ocean, has a salinity level about half that of the ocean itself. The lagoon is not used recreationally; not only are there water quality issues, but there are wildlife concerns as well. In most years, the lagoon hosts a family of sea otters.

Back at the car, I headed back down to US 101. On the way, I stopped to take more pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge as the afternoon light showed it off to good advantage:

This would be my iconic picture of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Just before the road descends the headland back to Highway 101, you are right near the bridge, and the view is stunning.

If you refer back to the map at the top of this page, you'll see that I marked the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge on the map, and since I had some more light today, I drove on up there to have a look at it, although I didn't cross it. The bridge connects the two sides of the North Bay- the city of San Rafael in Marin County, and the city of Richmond, which is north of Oakland. It was built after the Golden Gate Bridge.

This looks eastward across the bridge. The bridge is not nearly as pretty as the Golden Gate, mostly because of its long, two-level low span approach. There is not that much large ship traffic this far north in the bay, but the center span is still high enough for everything except the largest ships.

I wondered what this was at the time I took the picture, but I never put the picture in my paper album. In putting this online album together, I have found out that it is an old fishing pier that is now a gun club.

I hadn't put either of the above pictures in my paper photo album, as neither was all that interesting, so I didn't pay much attention when I wrote the short description for each one back then. But now I wonder why, in the picture of the Richmond-San Rafael bridge, there is no traffic on the upper deck. I haven't a clue.

Mt. Tamalpais/Mt. Tamalpais State Park

I actually drove up into Marin County to Mt. Tamalpais (locally referred to as "Mt. Tam") a number of times, but most of the pictures I took were taken on the weekend covered by this album page. On the map at the top of this page, you can see where the 2,700-foot mountain is located. It is surrounded by protected, public land, and the entire area is criss-crossed with county roads. There are lakes and reservoirs, hiking trails, and campgrounds- all within an hour of downtown San Francisco.

It's not particularly important that I put my pictures in some sort of order, or try to identify the locations on maps or on aerial views. I did write notes for each one in 1976-77, and it's those notes that I will be using now. I have so many pictures that it seems the easiest way for me to include them in this online album, and the easiest way for you to be able to have a look at them, is if I use a slideshow.

If this is the first slideshow you've encountered in this album, let me explain how it works. I've taken each of my pictures and created a "slide" that has that picture and whatever bit of narrative goes with it, and I've arranged these slides pretty much in time sequence based on when they were taken. You will see the first slide, my picture of Kent Lake, one of the reservoirs on the slopes of Mt. Tam, below. In the lower corners of the slide are little arrows. If you want to see the next slide, click on the right-pointing arrow in the lower right corner of the slide. To go back to a previous slide, click the left-pointing arrow in the lower left corner. In the upper left corner of each slide the show will tell you which slide you are on and how many there are. Using this technique means less coding for me and less scrolling for you- a win-win.

So have a look at my pictures from Marin County and Mt. Tam. It is a beautiful area, and I hope you get to visit it sometime yourself!

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Some Comments

I should point out that the work that Greg and I did in San Francisco turned out to be much longer and more involved than anyone had at first thought, and I ended up staying out there, with only short breaks, through April, 1976. We worked long hours, but were able to start relatively late in the morning, to take advantage of the best time to utilize the computers. My stay out there also afforded me the opportunity to see some friends, notably Luray Lindgren, Charles Couric (both from Myers Park) and Bill Tobe.

Another notable achievement was that I was eventually able to visit every single Baskin-Robbins store in the entire San Francisco Bay Area, including San Jose and some of Sacramento. It was about this time that I really began to hit a lot of BR stores, with the total passing 100 while I was in San Francisco. You will find the complete story of this odyssey elsewhere in this photo album and also on my personal web page.

In addition, I got to take a lot of side trips to various locations around the area. I visited Sacramento and Reno, Lake Tahoe and Yosemite. There will be photo album pages coming up for most of these side trips. All of these trips were extremely enjoyable and restful. I also had the chance to become very familiar with the city of San Francisco. It is a beautiful city, and I feel as at home there as I do in Chicago. I have been back a number of times, both to continue work on the new system and to do other work, and I always enjoy it.

Finally, I have also formed a close friendship with Greg, at whose apartment I always stay when in town, and I always look forward to going out there. Greg has his problems with some of the San Francisco personnel of Cullinane, and he may decide to leave, but I'm sure that won't affect our relationship. The EEO-Reporter system, as it turned out, didn't sell as well as we anticipated. Part of this was due to the shift in political winds as equal employment opportunities would shortly move out of the public eye, replaced by other national issues. But the system did make back its development costs and a good deal more (and also, incidentally, got Tony and I another couple of trips to Hawaii).

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	November 29-30, 1975: A Weekend in Los Angeles
	Return to Index for 1975