{"nrhp_refnum":"78000760","name":"Union Ferry Depot","other_names":["Ferry Building"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Embarcadero at Market St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"San Francisco","county":"San Francisco","state":"CA","lat":37.795478012000046,"lon":-122.39319803799998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-12-01","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Engineering","Transportation","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"The Ferry Building (originally the Union Ferry Depot) is a steel-frame Beaux Arts terminal at the foot of Market Street on the Embarcadero in San Francisco, begun in 1895 and completed in 1903.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it an architectural, engineering and historical landmark. Its 235-foot clock tower was modeled on Seville's Giralda, and its reinforced-concrete foundation helped it withstand the 1906 earthquake. Until the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges opened, it served as a major commuter and mail terminal, handling about 50 million passengers a year.","narrative":"Rising 235 feet above the foot of Market Street, the Ferry Building is a steel-frame Beaux Arts terminal on San Francisco's Embarcadero. Construction began in 1895 and finished in 1903, following a design by architect A. Page Brown, who died soon after construction contracts were let. Edward R. Swain then served as supervising architect. The clock tower was modeled on the twelfth-century Giralda in Seville, and its clock faces were the largest in the United States when installed. The building also earned recognition for engineering: its reinforced-concrete foundation helped it survive the 1906 earthquake with little damage, and the American Society of Civil Engineers named it a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1975. Before the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges opened, it handled some 50 million commuters a year, making it among the busiest passenger terminals in the world. Ferry service ended in 1956, and the interior was converted to offices, though the exterior remains largely as built.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899, 1900- (specific dates 1895-1903)","architect_builder":"A. Page Brown; Edward R. Swain","architectural_style":"Neo-classic Beaux Arts","criteria":[],"status_note":"Ferry service ended in 1956. The interior was altered into offices, used by the World Trade Center, commercial tenants and Port offices, while the exterior keeps its original appearance to a remarkable degree.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:31.309269-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/78000760.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78000760/e1df749ea0-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78000760/e1df749ea0-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"JaGa","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:San_Francisco_Ferry_Building_(cropped).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">JaGa</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:San_Francisco_Ferry_Building_(cropped).jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123861343","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Ferry_Building","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1408117"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/san-francisco/union-ferry-depot-78000760/"}