Historically interesting places
Bodie
Bodie is a ghost town dating back to the gold rush. It is located east
of San Francisco on the Nevada border. The city was laid out after 1859 as a
gold mining settlement and was abandoned due to a fire in 1932. Nowadays you can
visit the few houses that have been spared.
After encountering a very profitable gold vein around 1876, the city grew very
quickly. Around 1880, for example, around 10,000 people lived here.
During this heyday there were around 65 saloons, numerous brothels and even a
railroad. Bodie was one of the most lawless cities in the West at the time.
-
Abbreviationfinder.org: Find common acronyms associated with California.
Also see top 10 cities by population in California.
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Find state songs of California and get song lyrics for "California Soul".
Old Town-Mission Valley in San
Diego
This area of San Diego consists of the very touristy old town and the Mission
Valley. The former is considered the birthplace of California, since the first
Europeans settled here in 1769. The latter is San Diego's commercial center and
includes a whole range of shopping options, large and small. In addition to many
historic houses from San Diego's Wilhelminian era, the following sights are not
to be missed:
- Casa de Estudillo
- Junipero Serra Museum
- Mason Street Schoolhouse
- Mission San Diego de Alcala
- Mormon Battalion Visitors' Center of San Diego
- Old Town San Diego State Historic Park
- Post Museum
- San Diego Courthouse
- Sheriff's Museum
- Wells Fargo History Museum
- Whaley House
Special buildings and structures
Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco
The skyscraper is the headquarters of the Transamerica Corporation and
was built between 1969 and 1972 and with its 260 meters height it has become the
second symbol of the city. Sales and office space can be found on the 48 floors.
The shape of the building is that of a four-sided pyramid with two wings on
opposite sides of the skyscraper. At the top of the building are four cameras
that film in all four directions and these images can be viewed at the entrance
to the building. The foundations of the building are earthquake-proof due to
their hydraulic suspension. Over 1,500 people work in this building.
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600 Montgomery Street
San Francisco, California 94111 |
Golden Gate Bridge
The most photographed bridge on earth is probably one of the most
beautiful in the world. The engineering masterpiece by civil engineer Joseph
Strauss spans the entrance to the bay. The bridge was worked for 20 years until
it was opened to traffic on May 27, 1937. By the way, Strauss died of a heart
attack a year later. The foundations of the bridge consist of 300,000 m³ of
concrete and the 2.7 km long bridge is suspended from two 97 m high pylons with
steel wire. Around 600,000 rivets were installed per pylon. But when the last
rivet, a golden one, was to be installed on the day of the inauguration, the
rivet, which was too soft, broke and fell into the water. This last rivet was
made of steel. So far, more than a billion vehicles have crossed the bridge.
Cross the bridge on foot towards Sausalito, is a windy but completely harmless
adventure. In the meantime, the bridge is also being made safe for an 8.3
magnitude earthquake on the Richter scale. At the south end of the bridge there
are two plaques: one to commemorate the workers who died during the construction
and the other to commemorate the senior engineers.
Apple Campus 2, Space Ship
This building, nicknamed "Space Ship", is the new Apple headquarters in the
60,000-strong city of Cupertino in Santa Clara County. The official name is
Apple Campus 2. The building designed by the British architect Norman Foster in
the form of a circular ring with a circumference of around 1.6 km and an area of
260,000 m² is located on a total of approximately 175 ha = 1.75 km² Terrain.
There are solar panels on the roof, which together generate an output of 17 MW
and can thus almost completely cover the electricity consumption of the
building. More than 12,000 employees of the group work in the roughly 5 billion
expensive building. The building was completed in late 2017.
Los Angeles City Hall
The city's government center is located in the Civic Center in Downtown LA. The
building was completed in 1928, has 32 floors and was the tallest building in
the city from 1928 to 1964. A viewing deck is available for the public on the
27th floor, which should not be missed if you are looking for good views of
Downtown LA. Many may be familiar with the building from films and television
programs, so the building can be seen in the television series Superman.
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200 North Spring Street
Los Angeles, California 90012 |
Capitol Records Tower in Los
Angeles
One of the most outstanding buildings in the Californian metropolis is the
headquarters of Capitol Records, an American record label that belongs to the
EMI Music Group. The tower consists of 13 floors and was once the first round
office building on earth. Various recording studios are housed in it. The shape
of the building is said to resemble a stack of records.
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1750 Vine Street
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California 90028 |
Eastern Columbia Building in Los
Angeles
This 13-story building in the Broadway Theater District is considered by many to
be the most beautiful historic building in LA. The Art Deco house opened in 1930
as the new headquarters of the Eastern Outfitting Company and Columbia
Outfitting Company. It can be recognized from afar due to its turquoise facade.
| Contact |
849 S Broadway
Los Angeles, California 90014 |
Union Station in Los Angeles
The architecturally very interesting central station of LA was designed by John
and Donald B. Parkinson in a mixture of Spanish colonial style, mission revival
and late art deco and also contains Moorish architectural elements. The station
was opened in 1939 and since then has been the long-distance train station of
Los Angeles. The building continues to impress with courtyard gardens on both
sides of the waiting hall. Right next to the main building is the highly
remarkable station restaurant, a masterpiece designed by Mary Colter.
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800 North Alameda Street
Los Angeles, California 90012 |
US Bank Tower in Los Angeles (also Library Tower)
The tallest building in the city at 310 meters and the tenth tallest in the
United States was built between 1987 and 1990. It is earthquake-proof, at least
up to 8.3 on the Richter scale. It extends over a total of 73 floors, with a
helipad on the roof. It is the highest helipad on a building worldwide. The
Library Tower is the tallest building in the United States west of the
Mississippi.
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633 West Fifth Street
Los Angeles, California 90071 |
Watts Towers (Nuestro Pueblo) in Los Angeles
This impressive collection of 17 connected structures (two of them over 30
meters high) was built by the Italian immigrant Simon Rodia in his spare time.
It took him 33 years (1921 - 1954) to do this. The highly interesting work of
art consists of steel tubes and rods, which are wrapped with wire mesh and
covered with mortar. Rodia never gave a specific reason to build and always
worked alone. In 1955 he gave up the towers and left the city without ever
returning.
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1765 East 107th Street
Los Angeles, California 90002 |
Coit Tower in San Francisco
This tower, which was built on Telegraph Hill in 1933, is approx. 65 m high. The
peak is located approximately 150 m above sea level and offers the most
beautiful view of the city and Golden Gate. The base is glazed and houses a
museum. The tower was built in honor of benefactor Lillie Hitchcock Coit.
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1 Telegraph Hill Blvd
San Francisco, California 94133 |
Alcatraz in San Francisco
This prison island in San Francisco Bay is now legendary. Al Capone and
Robert Stroud served their sentences in the huge concrete building. Alcatraz was
the safest prison in the world and not a single prisoner was able to flee alive
because the water is too cold and the current is too strong. The prison was
closed in 1963, is now a listed building and can be visited by tourists. There
is also a museum on the island that brings the history of the prison closer to
the visitor.
California State Capitol in Sacramento
The California State Capitol in the city of Sacramento was built from 1861 to
1874 and was the seat of the legislature of the state of California and the seat
of its governor. The building, built in a neoclassical style, is reminiscent of
the Capitol in Washington and offers visitors very beautiful exterior and
interior views. In 2001 there was an attack with a truck that killed the driver
and caused serious damage to the building.
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1315 10th Street
Sacramento, California 95814 |
Painted Ladies in San Farncisco
The Painted Ladies are several wooden houses in San Francisco that were
built in the 19th century in the Victorian style. Many of these buildings were
destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. Nowadays, the preserved Painted Ladies are
restored and colorfully painted, giving San Francisco its very own flair.
Hearst Castle near San Simeon
The Hearst Castel was built between 1919 and 1947 for the newspaper magnate
William Hearst and is now one of the best tourist attractions in California. The
castle combines elements of different architectural styles and enchants with its
sometimes fantastic beauty and splendor. The 30 m long Neptune pool is also very
impressive.
| Contact |
750 Hearst Castle Road
San Simeon, California 93452
www.hearstcastle.com |
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