Instant Cities: San Francisco

San Francisco › Places and landmarks

Union Square

The square of the big shops and hotels, named after the rallies for the Union before the Civil War.

See it in 3D Watch the tour

Photo: The wub, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Union Square was set aside as a park in 1850 by John Geary, the city’s first mayor. Its name comes from the great rallies held here for the Union in 1860 and 1861, when the Civil War was about to begin.

In the middle stands the Dewey Monument, a column with a bronze Victory on top, put up in 1903 for Admiral Dewey’s victory in the bay of Manila in 1898. Under the square lies a parking garage of 1942, one of the first underground garages in the world.

Round the square are the big department stores and hotels, with the St. Francis on the west side. At Christmas a tall tree and an ice rink stand on the square, and the cable cars on Powell Street ring their bells along its west side. Visit it in 3D ›

More in San Francisco

Transamerica PyramidThe white pyramid of the Financial District, 260 metres tall, the sign of San Francisco’s skyline since 1972. Ferry BuildingThe ferry terminal at the foot of Market Street, with its clock tower after the Giralda of Seville, now a food hall. Coit TowerThe slim concrete tower on top of Telegraph Hill, built in 1933 with the money of Lillie Hitchcock Coit. Dragon GateThe gate into Chinatown on Grant Avenue at Bush Street, with green tiled roofs, dragons and two stone lions. ChinatownThe oldest Chinatown in North America, along Grant Avenue and Stockton Street, with lanterns over the street. Cable carsThe last cable cars in the world still running in city streets, pulled up the hills by a cable under the road. Washington SquareThe green heart of North Beach, the Italian quarter, before the white church of Saints Peter and Paul. City LightsThe bookshop of the Beat poets on Columbus Avenue, which published Allen Ginsberg’s Howl in 1956. Golden Gate BridgeThe orange suspension bridge across the mouth of the bay, about five kilometres west of the game’s map. Lombard StreetThe block of Lombard Street on Russian Hill with eight hairpin bends between flower beds, west of the game’s map. AlcatrazThe rocky island in the bay, a federal prison from 1934 to 1963, built so that no one could swim away. Sourdough breadThe sour, chewy bread of San Francisco, baked since the Gold Rush from a living dough.