San Francisco Urban Explorers

Section 6: Tunnel Tops to Ferry Building

Though this final section is likely the most familiar part of the Roundabout trail for both locals and visitors, we trust we’ve still found some new treasures to share with all. Open only since 2022 and still adding features, community-built Tunnel Tops Park (over 80% funded by public donations) is part of the former army base turned national park Presidio; access by free Presidio Go shuttle, Muni 30 and 43 lines and more. Continuing the Roundabout theme of transformation, the site of a utilitarian Golden Gate Bridge freeway connector is now a park and kids natural playscape connecting Crissy Field and the waterfront to the Presidio Main Post, and known for its sweeping views from the Golden Gate to Alcatraz and beyond. Head east from here along the waterfront and through the Marina District, former marshland transformed into a site for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, at which San Francisco showed off its recovery following the 1906 quake and fire. Bernard Maybeck’s magnificent Palace of Fine Arts is one of the few expo remnants; catch some photos as you pass.

Many may be familiar with the path through former Port of Embarkation Fort Mason (busiest during WWII, when it was the central hub for troops and supplies headed to the Pacific), but the Roundabout takes us off the familiar route, revealing little-known Black Point Battery, where cannons still look out to the bay, and the adjacent Black Point Historic Gardens, offering terrific views from the hillside terraced in the 1850’s, the gardens restored and reopened in 2021. The trail continues past Aquatic Park, historic Hyde Street Pier, and Fisherman’s Wharf. Along the way, stop in at the SF Maritime National Historical Park Visitors Center in a 1907 brick warehouse known as “The Cannery” (where, despite its location, 2,500 employees once canned fruits and vegetables, not fish, for Del Monte). The visitor center is a great free museum sharing SF’s maritime history (and has a handy clean bathroom!). The Fisherman’s and Seaman’s Memorial Chapel (a tribute to San Franciscans who have devoted their lives to the sea) and the Musée Mécanique at Pier 45 (filled with historic and not-so-historic arcade games and attractions), are other worthy stops. Finally, as you carry along towards the Ferry Building return, don’t miss the slight detour off the Embarcadero, (here named Herb Caen Way after the legendary and beloved former local newspaper columnist), to take in the Klamath Ferry rooftop gardens at Pier 9 (open weekdays and first Saturdays; the 1925 ferry once carried over 1,000 passengers at a time across the bay), and Pier 3 Promenade.