History:

San Francisco's shoreline historically ran south and inland from Clarke's Point below Telegraph Hill to present-day Montgomery Street and eastward toward Rincon Point, enclosing a cove named Yerba Buena Cove. As the city grew, the cove was filled. Over fifty years a large offshore seawall was built and the mudflats filled, creating what today is San Francisco's Financial District. The San Francisco Belt Railroad, a short line railroad for freight, ran along The Embarcadero. The roadway follows the seawall, a boundary first established in the 1860s and not completed until the 1920s.

During the early-20th century when the seaport was at its busiest and before the construction of Bay Bridge, the plaza in front of the Ferry Building was one of the busiest areas of foot traffic in the world; only Charing Cross Station in London and Grand Central Station in New York City were busier. Piers 1, 1½, 3 and 5 (which now comprise the Central Embarcadero Piers Historic District) were dedicated chiefly to inland trade and transport. These connections facilitated the growth of communities in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys and fostered California's agricultural business. The Delta Queen docked at Pier 1½, ferrying people between San Francisco and Sacramento. There was once a pedestrian footbridge that connected Market Street directly with the Ferry building and a subterranean roadway to move cars below the plaza. In the earliest days, a maze of cable car tracks terminated here, servicing the ferry commuters. These were eventually replaced by a loop for several streetcar lines.

During World War II, San Francisco's waterfront became a military logistics center; troops, equipment and supplies left the Port in support of the Pacific theater. Almost every pier and wharf was involved in military activities, with troop ships and naval vessels tied up all along the Embarcadero.

However, after the completion of the Bay Bridge and the rapid decline of Ferries and the Ferry Building, the neighborhood fell into decline. The transition to container shipping, which moved most shipping to Oakland, led to further decline. Automobile transit efforts led to the Embarcadero Freeway being built in the 1960s. This improved automobile access to the Bay Bridge, but detracted aesthetically from the city. For 30 years, the highway divided the waterfront and the Ferry Building from downtown. It was torn down in 1991, after being severely damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

The Vaillancourt Fountain.After the freeway had been cleared, massive redevelopment begun as grand palm-lined boulevard was created, squares and plazas were created and/or restored, and the Muni N (which has been replaced by the T Third and J lines) and F lines were extended to run along it.

The T Third and J lines go to 4th and King Streets (at AT&T Park and the Caltrain terminal) and the F line now goes to Fisherman's Wharf. The Market Street Railway is also planning a new ‘E’ line to run up the Embarcadero, past the wharves, to Aquatic Park.

A sculpture, "Cupid's Span" by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, was built in 2003 along the Rincon Park area. Resembling cupid's bow and arrow with the arrow implanted in the ground, the statue symbolizes the place where Tony Bennett "left his heart".

Starting in late 2006, there have been regular demonstrations along the Embarcadero protesting the National Park Service granting the contract for Alcatraz cruises to Hornblower Yachts, which had resulted in 55 employees being sacked for belonging to a union. There have been protests spanning three months and several demonstrations with nearly 1,000 participants