The Embarcadero is the walk San Francisco got back. For decades a double-decker freeway ran along this water and walled the city off from its own bay; the 1989 earthquake cracked it, the city tore it down, and the result is the best flat walk in town — the seawall, the palms, the streetcars, and the Ferry Building clock tower at the head of it all.
Start under that clock. Inside, the Ferry Building's nave is a food hall now; on a Saturday morning the farmers' market spreads around it and you should plan the walk for then. Cross Harry Bridges Plaza for the Bay Bridge view, then head north along the promenade. Walk out on Pier 7 — wooden, lamp-lit, almost empty — for the skyline turned back on itself. The numbered piers run on past, their bulkhead facades still lettered with the old shipping lines, the Exploratorium occupying 15 and 17.
End around Pier 23, the 1930s waterfront bar that outlasted the freeway above it. The F-line historic streetcar runs the whole way back if your legs are done. Come back after dark once, for the Bay Bridge lights.
