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10 Top Tourist Attractions in San Francisco
10 Top Tourist Attractions in San Francisco
The Alamo Square is a is a residential neighborhood and park that is best known
for the famous Painted Ladies row of
Victorian houses on its east side along
Steiner Street. It is often the subject of
many a San Francisco postcard. There
are also many other pretty Victorians
encircling the lovely park. The park
includes a playground and a tennis court,
and is frequented by neighbors, tourists,
and dog owners. On a clear day, the
Transamerica Pyramid building and the
tops of the Golden Gate Bridge and Bay Bridge can be seen from the park’s
center.
7. Transamerica Pyramid
6. Lombard Street
4. Cable Cars
The world-famous Cable Cars run on
three lines in the steep streets of San
Francisco between Market Street and
Fisherman’s Wharf. These cars are a fun
ride, especially if you get to stand on the
running board, if a bit impractical for
everyday use though residents do, in
fact, use them on a regular basis. The
cable car is such an attraction that,
especially on weekends, it takes longer
to wait in line to ride up Powell Street than it does to walk the short but sloping
distance.
3. Alcatraz
Often referred to as The Rock, the small
island of Alcatraz served as a lighthouse,
a military fortification, and as a prison. It
was home to some of the most notorious
criminals of the time including Al Capone
and Machine Gun Kelly. Surrounded by
the freezing water of San Francisco Bay,
Alcatraz was believed to be inescapable.
The most famous attempt was carried out
by Frank Morris, and brothers John and
Clarence Anglin using an inflatable raft
made from several stolen raincoats. Today, the island is a popular San Francisco
tourist attraction and a historic site. It is operated by the National Park Service
and is open to tours.
2. Fisherman's Wharf
Silicon Valley is an almost $3 trillion neighborhood thanks to companies like Apple, Google, and
Tesla. But it wasn't always this way.
In the late 1800s, San Francisco's port helped make it a hub of the early telegraph and radio
industries. In 1909, San José became home to one of the US's first radio stations. In 1933, the
Navy purchased Moffett Field to dock and maintain the USS Macon. This made Moffett Field a
major hub for the early days of the aerospace industry. Many scientists and researchers all
found work in the area. In 1939, the Ames Research Center was founded in the area, and it
became home to the world's largest wind tunnel in 1949.
Also in 1939, William Hewlett and Dave Packard founded Hewlett-Packard in Palo Alto, which
originally made oscilloscopes. Then, during World War II, HP made radar and artillery
technology. At this point, computers were about the size of a room.
In the 1940s, William Shockley coinvented the transistor while at Bell Labs. The transistor is now
known as the computer processor. In 1956, Shockley left Bell and founded his own company
— Shockley Semiconductor Labs. It was the first company to make transistors out of silicon and
not germanium. The company was founded in Mountain View, California — so Shockley could be
closer to his sick mother. Shockley's company employed many recent grads of Stanford.
In 1957, eight Shockley employees grew tired of his demeanor and left the company. Shockley
called the group the "Traitorous Eight." They partnered with Sherman Fairchild to create
Fairchild Semiconductor. In the early 1960s, Fairchild helped make computer components for the
Apollo program. Later in the decade, many of the "Traitorous Eight" left Fairchild and
founded their own companies. Including Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce, who in 1968 founded
their own company in Santa Clara called Intel. Soon after, other ex-Fairchild employees and
"Traitorous Eight" members helped found AMD, Nvidia, and venture fund Kleiner Perkins.
In 1969, the Stanford Research Institute became one of the four nodes of ARPANET. A
government research project that would go on to become the internet. In 1970, Xerox opened its
PARC lab in Palo Alto. PARC invented early computing tech, including ethernet computing and
the graphical user interface. In 1971, journalist Don Hoefler titled a 3-part report on the
semiconductor industry "SILICON VALLEY USA." The name stuck.
In the 1970s, companies like Atari, Apple, and Oracle were all founded in the area In the 1980s,
Silicon Valley became the widely accepted center of the computer industry. eBay, Yahoo, PayPal,
and Google are just some of the companies founded in the area in the 1990s With Facebook,
Twitter, Uber, and Tesla joining them the following decade. The growth of the tech industry in
the area continues to this day.
http://www.businessinsider.com/silicon-valley-history-technology-industry-animated-timeline-video-2017-
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