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San Francisco is a big city in California with a unique flair. Some people say it is a very European city because European influences are everywhere. San Francisco is a peninsula, the city is surrounded by the pacific.
The famous landmarks are the Trans American Pyramid, and of course the Golden Gate Bridge. The island of Alcatraz is famous because it was a prison and now it's a tourist attraction. Other landmarks are Lombard Street, it's the crookedest street of the whole world because the hill was too steep to build a straight street there. It was impossible for normal trains to go on such steep streets. So the Cable Car was built. San Francisco has also well known universities like Berkeley and Stanford University.
The Trans America Pyramid was built by William Pereira in 1972. When he showed the building plans everybody was shocked because of its shape. The Golden Gate Bridge was built by Joseph B Strauss in 1934. The bridge costed about $35 mio. and is 10 km long. The Levi's Jeans Company was also founded there.
San Francisco has many different districts. Chinatown is probably the most popular one. It's the biggest Chinatown out of Asia. There it smells horribly of fish, but you can see the original Chinese culture. In the Financial District is almost only skyscrapers, such like the Trans America Pyramid or the Bank of America. The Fishermen's Wharf is also a big tourist attraction. From there you can take a boat for Alcatraz and join a guided tour. San Francisco has two big famous parks, the Presidio and the Golden Gate Park. In the Mission district you can find the very first bildings being built by the Spanish in 1776. This district is also called Mission Dolores.
In 1849 when the goldrush began, the population of San Francisco risen from 40.000 to 56.000. The big Hippie movement started in Haight Ashbury in 1967. The summer of love united all young people. San Francisco became the capital of the Hippie movement. But today only a few shops and people remind us that there was the biggest hippie movement ever.
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