 | We camped at Marin Park
about 10 miles north of the Golden Gate bridge. There are not many sites near San
Francisco and this one is 10 minutes' walk from the ferry terminal at Larkspur. |
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The first thing you pass on the trip across the Bay is a large collection of buildings on the far bank
from the ferry terminal. These make up San Quentin Prison. |  |
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It looks much more attractive in the sunlight than it really is and I
suspect it is much worse still on the inside. |
| Once clear of the
terminal and the prison the power is turned up and the water jets of the
catamaran propel it at great speed across the bay to Pier 1 in about half
an hour. |  |
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Although San Francisco is famous for the Golden Gate bridge there are two
other possibly even more impressive bridges across the bay. This one carries Interstate 580 from San Raphael to Richmond. |
| The coast has some very
rocky outcrops and these are covered in houses with seemingly not an inch to
spare. This is
probably Tiburon, still to the north of the bridge. |  |
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There are islands inside the bay. The houses there seem to be older but
quite a bit larger, but are they still occupied? The smallest one definitely
looks a bit the worse for wear. |
| For once there is no fog
and we get to see the whole bridge which is about a mile and a half long. |  |
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The heart of San Francisco starts right by the ferry landing. These are
mainly banks and other financial institutions. San Francisco has only about 750,000 people
but the Bay area includes several other cities such as Oakland, Berkeley and
Richmond which are much bigger. |
| What remains of the docks
is quite historical with old paddle steamers now mainly used for
restaurants. The real working docks are more in Oakland on the other side of
the Bay. |  |
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I suspect that crossing the Bay on this old paddle steamer was much slower. |
| The Ferry Building is
dwarfed by the skyscrapers around it. There are two ferries, the other one
goes to Sausalito just at the northern base of the bridge. |  |
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This is the western part of the Oakland bridge which crosses the Bay from
San Francisco. There is another half beyond the island on the left. |
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There are two bridges on the other side. The nearer one is still under
construction. A section of the old one collapsed and caused havoc until
it was repaired. Many bridges in the US are now in poor condition. The
new bridge is now having funding problems. |
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We saw this crane coming in from outside the Bay. I've no idea
where it had been |
| Going home across the Bay
enabled us to try for a shot of the bridge with the sun behind it. I think
my camera lens is dirty! |
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 | This was our ferry. We
actually used this route on two days and went in by bus on the other day. |
| The ferries run
roughly every hour and can carry over 400 passengers and a few bikes but no cars. |  |
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A railway used to run across the front at Larkspur with this bridge but it
is now no longer in use. |
| The girls out for a row.
One wonders what the coach might be saying to them...... |  |
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