San Francisco Points of Interest
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The south tower of the Golden Gate Bridge is about
4.3 miles from Sutro Tower.
27 November 2012
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Congregation Emanu-El is about 2.25 miles from Sutro Tower.
14 May 2012
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Muir Beach Overlook in Marin County is about 10.5 miles from Sutro Tower.
27 April 2022
Sutro Tower and the Pink Triangle
Each year, on the weekend of the Pride Parade, volunteers install a pink triangle on Twin Peaks. In Nazi concentration camps, suspected homosexuals were forced to wear pink triangles. Like the word queer, we have appropriated the pink triangle as a symbol of pride and solidarity.
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23 June 2012
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8 September 2019
Orange Skies Day
On Wednesday, September 9th, 2020, smoke from the North Complex Fire caused the skies above San Francisco to glow apocalyptic orange all day.
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Dawn
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Dusk
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Evening
1 La Avanzada Street
Built 1971-1973
Sutro Tower was built by Kline Towers of Columbia, South Carolina. Construction began in 1971. Transmissions began on July 4, 1973.
Adolph Sutro, the King of the Comstock Lode, had a mansion located near the spot where Sutro Tower stands today.
When viewed from a distance, the tower appears to stand on Twin Peaks. This is not so. Nor does it stand on Mount Sutro. Rather, it stands on a hill between Twin Peaks and Mount Sutro.
Sutro Tower, with a height of 977 feet, is the second tallest structure in San Francisco, exceeded only by the Salesforce Tower with a height of 1,070 feet. The top of Sutro Tower is 1,811 feet above sea level.
Like the Salesforce Tower and the Transamerica Pyramid (height 853 feet), Sutro Tower is visible from much of San Francisco and neighboring counties. Also like the Salesforce Tower and the Transamerica Pyramid, Sutro Tower had many detractors when it was new. You can guess a San Franciscan's age by his or her opinion of Sutro Tower. The more a person likes the tower, the younger that person is. It's a generational thing.
On a clear day, I sometimes picture Karl the Fog slumbering beneath the hills of San Francisco. Sutro tower is Karl's portal between his subterranean state and his ethereal state. Karl moves between these two dimensions like a benign Smoke Monster.