Exploring Places LXXXI: Sacramento, the US

A postcard from Sacramento to start the new academic year!

Sacramento aerial view           

WHERE IS SACRAMENTO?

Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. It is at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley.

Location of Sacramento

SACRAMENTO IS FAMOUS FOR...

… being home to one major league sports team — the Sacramento Kings of the National Basketball Association.

Sacramento Kings

… being a major distribution point, a commercial and agricultural center during the American Gold Rush

California clipper

… being named "America's Most Diverse City” by the Time Magazine

Sacramento skyline

PLACES TO VISIT

Old Sacramento

The oldest part of the town besides Sutter's Fort is Old Sacramento, which consists of cobbled streets and many historic buildings, several from the 1850s and 1860s. Buildings have been preserved, restored or reconstructed, and the district is now a substantial tourist attraction, with rides on steam-hauled historic trains and paddle steamers.

Old Sacramento logo

The historic buildings include the Lady Adams Building, built by the passengers and ship's carpenters of the ship Lady Adams.Having survived the Great Conflagration of November 1852, it is the oldest surviving building in Sacramento other than Sutter's Fort.

Big Four Building

The "Big Four Building", built in 1852, was home to the offices of Collis Huntington, Mark Hopkins, Leland Stanford, and Charles Crocker. The Central Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Railroad were founded there. The original building was destroyed in 1963 for the construction of Interstate 5, but was re-created using original elements in 1965. It is now a National Historic Landmark. Also of historic interest is the Eagle Theatre (Sacramento, California), a reconstruction of California's first permanent theatre in its original location.

Eagle Theatre

The Crocker Art Museum

The Crocker Art Museum is the oldest public art museum west of the Mississippi River. On July 26, 2007, the museum broke ground for an expansion that more than tripled the museum's floor space. The modern architecture is very different from the museum's original Victorian style building.

The Crocker Art Museum

The Tower Bridge

The Tower Bridge is a Vertical lift bridge across the Sacramento River, linking West Sacramento in Yolo County to the west, with the capital of California, Sacramento, in Sacramento County to the east. It was previously a part of U.S. Route 40 until that highway was truncated to east of Salt Lake City. In 1982, the Tower Bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Sacramento Tower Bridge

California State Capitol

The California State Capitol is home to the government of California. These Neoclassical structure was completed between 1861 and 1874 at the west end of Capitol Park, which is framed by L Street to the north, N Street to the south, 10th Street to the west, and 15th Street to the east. The Capitol and grounds were listed on the office of the National Register of Historic Places in 1973,[1] and listed as a California Historical Landmark in 1974, with a re-dedication on January 9, 1982 to commemorate the close of the bicentennial restoration project

California State Capitol

Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Sacramento

Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament

It is a cathedral of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. It is the mother church and seat of Jaime Soto, the ordinary bishop of the Diocese of Sacramento. The Cathedral is located downtown at the intersection of 11th and K Streets.

If you want to find out more about what Sacramento has to offer, why don’t you watch the video below?

Sources:

Wikipedia

Visit Sacramento