San Francisco’s Hottest New Attraction Is on Top of a Highway

They say youth is wasted on the young, but what about a playground with a view? That, after all, is what the youth of San Francisco have been given at the newest major addition to a national park—Presidio Tunnel Tops. Now, every day, hundreds of children will clamber, run, fall, and splash with the Golden Gate Bridge wreathed in fog as a backdrop.

I was in San Francisco for the first time since the pandemic to check out a host of things old and new. My home was one of the city’s more storied properties, the former Francis Drake Hotel, now called the Beacon Grand after a facelift. It’s fair to say a good many of you have likely stayed here at least once over the years, probably with family as I did two decades ago. (Enumerating decades really does make one feel old, wow.) Since it opened in 1928 in Union Square, it has been one of the city’s more prominent Art Deco skyscrapers. But by the 2010s it was a little worse for wear and by the end of the decade its decor was decidedly outdated. The new ownership has given the rooms a refresh—single pane glass swapped out, lighter colors, bathrooms with historic accents—and have revamped the dramatic lobby by moving the bar up to the mezzanine. If all goes according to plan, the iconic Starlight Lounge will be back in a year or so.

That you can go from the Union Square area, very much your bustling city center, and drive or bike 3 miles or so to a place like the Presidio, all while remaining in the same city, requires a suspension of disbelief. The park comprises over 1,400 acres of eucalyptus forest, fields, and dunes looking out over the bay and its bridge make up this park. This section of San Francisco, right at the tip of the peninsula out of which shoots the Golden Gate Bridge, is where the Spanish once built a military outpost (just a couple months after the eastern colonies declared their independence from England). This area remained a military base under Spain, then Mexico, and finally the U.S. until it closed at the end of the 20th century. In the 1990s and 2000s, former barracks were converted into houses for rent, museums, and hotels; and industrial spaces were repurposed for breweries and activities like rock climbing. There’s a golf course and a bowling alley serving beer and burgers. Miles and miles of trails through its forests and along its misty cliffs opened, creating one of the greatest parks of any city anywhere. Installations from artists like Andy Goldsworthy provided a level of whimsy to the place.

But, there was one major flaw. The highway bringing people out to the Golden Gate Bridge sliced across the park, cutting its upper portions from the seaside below. After years and years of planning and fundraising (the project cost $118 million), a design from James Corner Field Operations, the team behind the High Line, has finally been brought to fruition.

That plan involved funneling the highway into some sleek new tunnels, and on top constructing a series of terraces connecting the Main Parade Lawn to Crissey Marsh, the Bay Trail, and the beach. There were roughly 200,000 plants added during the construction, and while they are drought resistant species, there has been so little rain this summer that it’s still hard to envision what the space will look like once it’s all filled out.

That aside, there was already plenty of new park stuff to see and experience. Just behind the visitor center is a campfire circle that was added so the space felt like a true national park. Facing it, with the rest of the park sloping down into marsh and then Angel Island in the distance, it does feel national park-ish. Plus, there is actually a campground in the Presidio itself. If you’re facing the water, to your right is the transit center as well as Picnic Place where a number of public grills have been put in. The Presidio Trust spent a lot of time working on ways to make sure all of San Francisco would want to use this park, and in talking to various constituencies that meant not only having mass transit options but also amenities like grills.

Then there are a series of grassy lawns and overlooks–the first of which scans across the skyline to the Palace of Arts’ dome to Alcatraz to Angel Island. Lining one of the lawns are benches made of cypress that fell in the Presidio.

Then it’s down a terraced slope that will eventually be an amphitheater type thing with springy grass you can sprawl on (eventually: now roped off, the lawn currently looks more like early chia pet). Below it one finds the playground, which leans into the theories of risky play being good for children with wooden palisades to climb and a giant felled tree with shorn off limbs sticking out. Bonus for parents of toddlers–there’s a section with water pumps and troughs. For parents willing to look up from their phones, it’s a playground with perhaps the best view in the world.

The upper half of the Tunnel Tops area is sort of structured and play oriented. The area below the playground with the restored wetlands and trails winding their way through the dunes is rugged and loose and contributes again to this sense of wonder that something like this is in a major city.

My typical San Francisco visit involves the classic urban activities–restaurants, museums, architecture walks, etc. Next time, I think I’ll be getting a bike and filling a backpack with picnic goodies just to cruise around here and plop down for a scenic lunch.

And clearly I’m not the only one. It was the middle of the day in the middle of the week and the park was bustling. Friends in the city told me that on the weekend it’s already packed.

In cities, so much of the last 20 years or so has been about undoing the 50 years prior, of stitching communities back together and allowing people access to the natural wonders we’ve often paved over. The new Presidio Tunnel Tops are a great notch on that belt..