Market Street
Market Street is one of the main thoroughfares in San Francisco . It begins on The Embarcadero Street in front of the Ferry Building at the northeastern end of the city and runs southwest through Downtown, along the Civic Center and The Castro district to the intersection with Corbett Avenue in the Twin Peaks district. From there the street continues as Portola Drive and finally ends in the southwest of the city.
meaning
The role of Market Street as a traffic axis is reinforced by the fact that it lies on the border of two street systems. The streets to the south-east run parallel or at right angles to Market Street, while those in the north-west run almost exactly in the direction of the cardinal points .
Market Street is one of the largest thoroughfares in San Francisco and was previously used by horse trams , cable cars , electric trams , electric trolleybuses, and diesel-powered buses . Today Muni buses, trolleybuses and a museum train (on the F Market line) share the street, while the underground trains operated by Muni Metro and BART run on two levels below . Cable cars no longer run on Market Street, but end just before that at the intersection of California Street and Powell Street.
Long known as San Francisco's Fifth Avenue , Champs-Élysées , Main Street or Great White Way , Market Street is also an important street for downtown San Francisco.
history
Market Street runs three miles across town, from the waterfront to the hills of Twin Peaks. It was originally planned by Jasper O'Farrell , a 26 year old civil engineer who immigrated to Yerba Buena . Later, in 1846, when the city was captured by the Americans as a result of the Mexican-American War , Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco .
O'Farrell first restored the original layout of the settlement around Portsmouth Square and then built Market Street as the widest street in the city, as an arrow pointed at Los Pechos de la Choca , the breasts of the Indian girl , now Twin Peaks .
In his book Forgotten Pioneers , TF Pendergast writes that after the engineer finalized his plan of Market Street and the southern part of town, what was considered to be the untypical width of the proposed street excited some of the mob and caused a storm of indignation for ruthless disregard for landowners' rights; and the mob opted for lynching. A friend warned O'Farrell, who then rushed to North Beach, took a boat to Sausalito and then retired to Sonoma by relay race on fast horses. He thought it wise to spend some time in the country before venturing back into town.
At that time, a 20 meter high sand dune blocked the road at the site of today's Palace Hotel, and a hundred meters to the west was a hill nearly 30 meters high. The city cleared the dunes and used the sand to fill in the area between Portsmouth Square and Happy Valley at First and Mission.
Events
On the occasion of major events such as the Panama-Pacific International Exposition , parades take place on Market Street, which also resulted in incidents such as the Preparedness Day Bombing in 1916 ; and annual Armistice Day parades to commemorate the armistice after the First World War , the 83-day general strike in 1934 that paralyzed the ports of the Pacific coast, and the end of World War II .
Market Street had a joyous moment on Christmas Eve 1910 when soprano Luisa Tetrazzini sang on Lotta's Fountain to the city she loved.
Another historic moment on Market Street was the December 31, 1999 New Years Eve celebration held at the Ferry Building. Over 1.2 million people welcomed the year 2000 to Market Street and its intersections.
Web links
- Virtual tour aerial view with links to buildings along Market Street
- JB Monaco Market Street Photo Gallery Historical images of the street
Coordinates: 37 ° 46 '25 " N , 122 ° 25' 17" W.