How Big is Golden Gate Park

If you're new to the Bay Area, you might find yourself wondering, "Just how big is Golden Gate Park?" Residents of San Francisco love their park, and rightly so. Nestled in the western part of the city, Golden Gate Park is a beautiful natural respite in the middle of a major American city.

When you settle into this lush, green park, it feels like you're deep in the woods, far away from the city. But how big is Golden Gate Park to create that far away feeling?

Golden Gate Park is shaped like a large rectangle, much like Central Park in New York City. The rectangular park covers 1,017 acres, or over one and a half square miles. Considering that the entire landmass of the city of San Francisco is about 46 square miles, the park is a significant part of the overall size of the city.

The citizens of San Francisco began clamoring for a city park in a vein similar to one that was being built in New York in the 1860s, although it wasn't until 1875 when tangible progress began on Golden Gate Park in the form of tree plantings and dune restoration. By the late 1870s, over 150,000 trees were planted in the park, many of which are the blue gum eucalyptus trees that still provide the lovely canopy and fresh scent that the park is know for to this day.

Golden Gate Park manages to pack a wide array of features into its 1,017 acres. Here are some of the most interesting and popular attractions:

• De Young Museum - The De Young Museum originally opened in 1895 and is named for an early San Francisco newspaperman named M. H. de Young. Following the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989, the de Young was severely damaged. The museum was completely redesigned and reopened in 2005, featuring a distinctive tower that rises above the canopy of eucalyptus trees and can be seen from many areas of the city.
• Japanese Tea Garden – The Japanese Tea Garden opened in 1895 as well, and covers five acres of the park. The garden features a teahouse, Drum Bridge, pagoda and Zen garden. It is the oldest tea garden in the United States.
• Golden Gate Park Stadium – Golden Gate Park Stadium was originally built with aspirations of becoming a huge amphitheater. Those plans never were formalized, but the stadium opened in 1906 and was used for horse harness racing and polo matches. In 1967, Timothy Leary held his famous Human-Be-In, considered the kick-off to the Summer of Love, where thousands of hippies were encouraged to tune in, turn on, and drop out.
• Windmills – The two windmills on the west side of the park were installed in 1902 and were initially intended to pump water throughout the park. They remained operational for several decades until the city installed electric water pumps. Now they are purely decorative and still remain popular sites for those driving up Highway 1 along Ocean Beach. The northern windmill was restored in 1981, and the restoration of the southern windmill is still ongoing.

In addition to the attractions listed above, there are many other wonderful things to discover in Golden Gate Park. You can take a long hike on a trail, have a picnic in a grove of trees, or just lay down in the sun for a nice nap. San Francisco residents are lucky to have such a beautiful natural resource like Golden Gate Park.

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