San Francisco is spoken of in the same breath as Paris, Venice, and Rome, and has earned the slogan "America's Favorite City" for its openness, dramatic beauty, cultural amenities, the diversity of its neighborhoods and population, and its icons--the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, cable cars, Fisherman's Wharf, and fog. It sits on the tip of a peninsula on the edge of a continent in one of the world's most seismically active areas--no wonder there has always been a"sitting on the edge" mentality here. The city appeared instantly--just add gold and stir!--when that precious ore was discovered in the nearby hills in 1848. It was a boomtown that lasted, and all of that rich history is captured in Travelers' Tales San Francisco along with clear portraits of today's city. In these true stories you will explore the North Beach of the Beat era and beyond with Herbert Gold, discover true romance on a cable car with Michele Anna Jordan, uncoverthe real Mission district with John Krich, marvel at the city's wild light with Andrei Codrescu, gumshoe through Sam Spade's San Francisco with Don Freeman, and learn what it means to be a "quintessential San Franciscan" with the late Herb Caen.