High on a Hill...

Physiography – Chapter 2

San Francisco is a tightly packed city, with houses stacked up against each other. There are many rolling hills containing such houses in addition to streets, electric street cars and subways. Despite the City's urban setting, there are substantial areas of land on this peninsula where one can escape from urban life such as Golden Gate Park, the Presidio, the beaches, in addition to the smaller parks located throughout the City.

San Francisco contains many hills. The neighborhoods are named after the hills they were built on: Nob Hill, Telegraph Hill, or Russian Hill. The highest hill within city limits is Mount Davidson, standing at 925 ft. This hill is located near Twin Peaks, located in the southwest area of the city. Twin Peaks however is not populated, but is a city park and tourist attraction. It is easily identified by its red and white radio tower.

Being a peninsula does not mean it is alone out in the ocean. There are a few smaller island that surround San Francisco. The most famous is Alcatraz ("Welcome to THE ROCK"), where the federal prison was until 1962. It is not a state park and tourist attraction accessible only by boat. Treasure Island is another well known island you can visit, located and accessible along the Bay Bridge which connects San Francisco to Oakland. This island is man-made, a result of dumped dirt from Yerba Buena Island, when they tunneled through it to create the Bay Bridge.

San Francisco lies along the Coast Range of mountains. These mountains make contact with two earth plates under the ocean. This contributes to two earthquake fault lines that run near the City: the San Andreas and Hayward Fault, both responsible for the 1906 and 1989 earthquakes.

The City's coast and beaches exist, but are not like that of Southern California. The ocean waters rarely warm up enough to swim in and dangerous rip tides prevent leisurely swimming.

The native trees are Giant Redwood conifers. There are no rivers or natural lakes that run through the city. The flora and fauna seen throughout the city for the most part is man-made. Thousands of non-native plants were planted in Golden Gate Park, which was once a barren, sandy dune.