The Let's Play Archive

Driver: San Francisco

by Occultatio

Part 3: Chapter 2 Landmark Guide

Chapter 2 Unlocks the North-West section of the city, however the only unlocked section that is driven through is the Presidio with a glimpse of Ocean Beach. A few more landmarks North of Market street are cleared up as well as some in Golden Gate Park during the fly by.

Fort Point - Screenshot - Google Maps - Wiki
American Zoetrope - Screenshot - Streetview - Wiki
San Francisco National Cemetery - Screenshot - Streetview - Wiki
Saint John's - Screenshot - Streetview
Temple Emanu-El - Screenshot - Streetview - Wiki - In real life this is across the street from St John's.
Palace of Fine Arts - Screenshot - Streetview - Wiki - Good photos in the wiki.
The Cliff House - Screenshot - Streetview - Wiki - More great photos.
Coit Tower - Screenshot - Streetview - Wiki
Pacific Union Club - Screenshot - Streetview - Wiki - The building the club is in is famous for being the first brownstone building west of the mississippi. It also survived the 1906 earthquake and fire (the interior didn't). The club itself is one of the oldest on the west coast, and the most exclusive. The park next to the club is Huntington Park. The building past the park is the next landmark, Grace Cathedral.
Grace Cathedral - Screenshot - Streetview - Wiki - The building on the left is the California Masonic Memorial Temple. The buildings on the right are the headquarters of the Episcopal Diocese of California.

Golden Gate Park: - Google Maps
Sprekles Temple of Music - Screenshot - Wiki
Academy of Science - Screenshot - Wiki
De Young Museum - Screenshot - Wiki
Stow Lake - Screenshot - Wiki


Feature: Golden Gate Bridge

Completed in 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge was not only a large milestone for the city, but for the world. At 4200ft, the bridge set the record for the longest suspension main span in the world; a record that would hold until 1964. Today, 75 years later, it is still 2nd in the nation and 10th in the world. Its 692ft towers held their record of being the tallest in the world until 1998 (It is currently 9th). It probably also has the record for most people held, which would have been during the 50th anniversary when the bridge was closed so that nearly a million people could try and walk across. Since there isn't anything on the other side of the bridge, once people had walked across they had to walk back against the flood of people. Here's a picture I took before it got really really crowded.
While the bridge itself is well replicated in this game, the landscape around it isn't. Most of the shoreline in San Francisco is flat; however the North-West is all cliffs (with some beaches you can walk to). There also aren't any roads that go under the bridge on either side (each side has a very very small tunnel, but both are well past the abutments). My guess to why they decided to change the terrain is so that you would get a better view of Fort Point. The Point in real life is tucked under the bridge at the end of a dead-end mile-long road; had they recreated that you may never have seen it.