Coit Tower and the girl who ran with the firemen

Catch your breath: if you came up the Filbert Steps, through hanging gardens and, with luck, the squawking of Telegraph Hill's wild parrots, you've earned it. The hill takes its name from 1849, when a signal station was set up here to tell the city which ships were entering the Golden Gate.

1Lillie Hitchcock Coit

The tower is named after a remarkable woman. As a girl, Lillie Hitchcock fell for the volunteer firemen and, so the story goes, one day dropped her schoolbooks to help haul the engine of Knickerbocker Engine Company No. 5. In 1863 she was made an honorary member and wore the company's badge for the rest of her life. According to accounts of the time, she smoked, played cards and wore trousers when that was scandalous. When she died in 1929, she left part of her fortune to beautify the city.

2A fire hose nozzle?

That money paid for this tower of about 64 meters, completed in 1933 to designs by Arthur Brown Jr. and Henry Howard. Because of its shape, people soon said it was meant to look like a fire hose nozzle. The city's parks department says otherwise: the resemblance is a coincidence.

Look out at the bay: that island is Alcatraz. A federal prison until 1963, it has gathered a whole tradition of ghost stories.

Inside, the 1934 murals, painted by more than twenty artists, portray Depression-era California and stirred controversy for their political content.

3What to look for

• The fluted silhouette of the tower and its arches at the top.
• Alcatraz, the island out in the bay.
• The murals in the lobby, visible from the entrance.