San Francisco Bay Area--Locations and Landmarks Quiz

Answer: Mt. Diablo

Mount Diablo (which means Devil Mountain in Spanish) is a popular East Bay hiking destination. Mt. Hamilton, in the South Bay, is the highest elevation in the region. Mission Peak is also in the East Bay (but farther south) and Mt. Tamalpais is in Marin County in the North Bay.

Answer: Baseball World Series

The two teams in the 1989 World Series were the Oakland A's and the San Francisco Giants. The players were warming up for the start of game three when the quake hit. The fans in Candlestick Park didn't even realize the significance of the quake until about half an hour later, when TV footage began to broadcast the damage. Because the World Series that year involved the Bay Area's two professional baseball teams, many people left work early to see the game.

This meant that traffic was much lighter than normal when the quake hit at around 5:15 pm, likely resulting in far fewer casualties.

Answer: Lombard Street

Lombard Street has been made famous in numerous movies over the years. It is a residential street that is not only extremely crooked, but VERY steep as well. The other streets mentioned are actual important roads in the city.

Answer: San Jose

San Jose lies an hour south of San Francisco, at the bottom end of San Francisco Bay, where the East Bay and the Peninsula meet. Santa Clara and Palo Alto are north of San Jose as you travel up the peninsula (the west side of the bay) and Fremont is about 20 minutes north on the east side of the bay.

Answer: San Francisco Zoo

Although the San Francisco Zoo is only a few miles away, it is not a part of the very famous Golden Gate Park. The park is actually 20% larger than New York City's Central Park, and is the USA's third most visited urban park (after Central Park and Chicago's Lincoln Park.)

Answer: Caldecott Tunnel

The Caldecott Tunnel was bored through the Las Trampas Range, and made San Francisco an accessible commute distance from the inland east bay. The Holland Tunnel connects Manhattan to New Jersey underneath the Hudson River, and the Van Buren St. Tunnel is in Chicago, but no longer used. I threw in Utilidors just for fun---they're the tunnels that run underneath Disney's Magic Kingdom in Orlando and allow equipment and staff to travel throughout the park unseen by the public.

Answer: Catalina Island

Alcatraz really needs no introduction, but the prison, which closed in 1963, is a major tourist attraction. Treasure Island was once owned by the military, while Angel Island is a small island near Alcatraz inhabited by a population of deer. Catalina Island IS in California, but it's located 20+ miles off the Los Angeles area coast out in the Pacific.

Answer: San Jose State University

San Jose State has had the highest foreign student enrollment of all Master's Degree institutions in the USA, and is the founding campus of the 23 colleges in the California State University System. San Francisco State is also in the same system, but was not founded until 1899. Berkeley is part of the University of California system. Santa Clara University is a private Jesuit school just north of San Jose.

Answer: Sausalito

Sausalito began life as a blue collar town, but is now a much visited tourist destination known for its art galleries and restaurants. San Rafael is the county seat and largest city in Marin County---the wealthiest county (measured by per capita income) in California and one of the wealthiest in the nation. Santa Rosa and Sonoma are both cities in counties north of Marin.

Answer: Bay Bridge

The SF--Oakland Bay Bridge (commonly called just the Bay Bridge) section collapse was one of the most serious and costly consequences of the quake. The collapse resulted in one fatality, when a driver, unable to stop in time, drove into the gap and landed on the lower deck.

The San Mateo and Dumbarton Bridges are the other two of the three bridges spanning the bay, but they are south of the Bay Bridge. The Golden Gate Bridge crosses from San Francisco north to Marin County.