1987 San Francisco Surf and Foghorns
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ส.ค. 2013
- The audio in this video has been remastered! You can find the remastered audio at: / 1987-san-francisco-sur...
In the late '80s, my dad recorded the foghorns of San Francisco on tape for my mother. Many of the foghorns in San Francisco Bay can never be heard again as they have been replaced by more advanced technology. (Please read on)
Here is what my dad has to say:
This recording was made late in the evening on the foggy night of August 29th, 1987 from
Lands End near Lincoln Park in San Francisco, using fairly inexpensive stereo equipment. The coordinates are approximately N 37 degrees 47' 14"; W 122 degrees 29' 40.5". Years later I converted the recording to digital for posterity. There are four separate fog horns audible, each with specific characteristics such as direction, intervals and frequencies; two are single, two are double. I believe two of these are located on the nearby Golden Gate Bridge itself and another may be at Point Bonita on the Marin Headlands, 2.5 miles west of the bridge. Also audible is the surf below the cliffs of Lands End. At about 1:09:00
into the recording a small plane can be heard flying overhead. For more information about these and other fog horns in San Francisco Bay, visit:
goldengatebridge.org/research/...
science.kqed.org/quest/audio/c... - เพลง
This teleports me back to when I was 4 or 5 in the 50's living on 16th Ave. Oh...if I could roll the clock back!!! I also remember the smell of the fog/dew at night. What a great place to have lived.
Where do you live now?
Very nice, very nice indeed. :)
Love the sound of Foghorns over the water! Interesting story how they came about.
Did you know Ed Aratta?
5th and Clement here. Still standing.
Fabulous -- I lived in the Richmond District in the 70s and these were the sounds that sent me to sleep every night. I swear that listening to this, I can SMELL the fog!
Fog has a scent?? Please expound.
@@cacatr4495 Yes it does. Sort of like the smell of a steamed up bathroom. Just at about 50 degrees though. Sometimes it carries ocean and beach smells with it. Other times it's a fresh almost sweet smell. It has a feel too - like being wrapped in a soft grey blanket - sounds are muffled, making it difficult to tell the direction they came from. Objects appear and disappear as the fog drifts slowly in from the ocean.
Yes. Pretty special.
@@williamblevins6410 beautiful and accurate description
As a former yet still at heart a Bay Area resident who lives in Great Falls, Montana now I love this and it's soothing to hear this
It sucks because now there is only 3 left and all of them are on the bridge. No longer an orchestra of foghorns. 🥺🥺
Awesome. I remember going to sleep to the sound of these foghorns or waking up to hear them in the middle of the night (and I live quite far from the bay and ocean). There is no sound quite like it. They resonated musically through the hills. I never found them the least bit disturbing; they were always quite calming and comforting.
I’ve always loved the foghorns since I was a kid. It brings me peace and serenity. I hope these never go away.
I'm a native New Yorker who ended up living in San Francisco for 5 years. This makes me homesick for my then 'new' home. I loved the sound of the foghorns in the morning.
Do you wish New York had also kept its streetcars like San Francisco has? (Even cable operated ones which were removed by 1905 in New York)
I found this recording the other night and play it now to sleep by. I love it. I used to live on California Street near Fillmore from 1976 through 1981 and slept with my window open every night to hear the fog horns. I loved it. The sound always stayed with me. I was really sad when they replaced them. There is nothing like it. Thanks to you and your dad for recording this and for posting it.
We lived in San Francisco from 1979 to 1998.......I miss that city like I would miss a very special friend!!! I would move back in A heartbeat if I had the money!!!! But, we visit from time to time and it is better than not at all!!!
@@phyllispetras3821 Someone like you deserves to win the lottery to bring your memories back to life. In the years that I lived in SF and in Berkeley I amassed a cache of beautiful impressions. I run them through my conscious mind periodically to relive what I will always consider the high point of my time on earth. Best wishes from someone who understands your homesickness.
Wait, they no longer have foghorns?
I lived there 1978-1984, around your time. We could afford to live there. Wasn't it fun?
@@musicartlover1955 they still have them.
Listening to this breaks my heart in two. The City was my Dad's and my Grandfather's City. It became my City. These sounds send me back in time to the most wonderful place on Earth at that time. I left in 1989, came back in 1998 and left again in 2002. I wish I could go back. It has changed so much and having a family there seems impossible. Maybe some day I can return. I miss you.
If I close my eyes, and listen to this from another room. It brings back great memories of the sound of San Francisco. This is what I miss most about not living there anymore.
What a place.
It is like no other place: the greatest American city, located where natural forces are in evidence on an epic scale in a dramatic geographic setting. This is a wonderful reminder for me -- I lived there from 1989 to 1995 and again from 1998 to 2001.
Kenneth Sturmer me too
Do you live outside of CA?
Me too
so many memories of falling asleep to this..I may just put it in the back round of my bedroom . One thing I miss dearly from childhood..
I've lived in the San Francisco Marina District for 35 years and the foghorns are an audio landmark. By the way, that higher pitched horn with the two blasts is on Lime Point Lighthouse at the base of the north tower.
As a kid, my dad bought his first sailboat in the early 60's. We sailed and raced on the Bay. Crossing the Gate from Sausalito to the City front, heading to the starting line, the fog horns were a constant, and music to my ears. I also remember Crissy Field, was a landing strip at the time, for the Army. Loved watching these light planes land there, while we sailed up and down the city front.
Livin' in North Beach late '80-'81, sippin' Graffeo coffee on the apt. rooftop, looking out at Alcatraz, and hearing this in the distance along with the cable car line running below the street track.
'80-'81 period?? Wow, what a great time to live in San Francisco. Sounds heavenly.
I lived across from you!!! Sorry we did not meet!!
spiritualgirl82 and affordable
@@pretzelstick320 I shared a 2BD apt. on Taylor near Lombard St.; rent was $320....
With the new guard rails that were just installed, the bridge can make this wonderful whistling sound in certain wind conditions. On some nights we get the perfect winds that resonate so well through the presidio, marina, cow hollow and even north beach. If its foggy and windy we get both the whistling and fog horns. I'll stay here as long as I can for that alone!
I dig the new light display on the Bay Bridge too; such a wonderful visual night time framing of that structure....
Ah back when San Francisco was wonderful
I was in San Francisco in the 60's and I loved the those foggy days.
I enjoyed all the sounds of the early morning by the sea !
God Bless You !
i live in SF and this is the sound that frightened me as a very little child but soon became the only thing to put me to sleep
Did your family move there from Italy not long before you were born? Most second generation Italians born in America have English names
@@visionist7 No i was second gen. lol My mom is not Italian and she named me..lol She knew an italian girl in high school and really liked her and her first name.
@@SpookyStregaAL ah cool lol. What are your thoughts on the city now compared to when you were little? There's lots of bad press but I might visit in September
@@visionist7 i do think it is different. I remember mom and pop shops and families in my neighborhood. Now it seems like corporate stores and techies..as you'd assume ...I do not think it's as "dirty" as is being reported. the places i used to see needles and trash are the same places they used to be..homelessness was always a problem. I will always love this beautiful city. Come visit! where are you from?
@@SpookyStregaAL Naples =) our city is easily the filthiest hole imaginable, yet we barely notice as we're too busy dodging traffic (and giant potholes), lol. Despite all that, we give visitors the warmest welcome
Lived in the S.F. area from the late 70's til '89, and the sounds of the horns was a wonderful part of the soundscape that was San Francisco. You heard it differently depending on where you were in/around the bay, and it was all good. The best times were when the fog was really thick, but not so thick you couldn't see a ways on-shore, it was such a romantic and enveloping sensation. I remember the old KFOG radio station using the sounds as part of their station ID tapes. Both my wife (A SF girl) and I miss these sounds. Also had to learn to use them, was shipboard, USN. There was nothing quite like hearing them fade into the distance when you went under the gate and left port, nor like hearing them get louder as you came to the gate, homeward-bound.
Sweet!!!!!!!!!! Stephen love your comment!!
Thank you. I take it you live in the Bay area?
Fantastic insight !! Thank you !!!
Oh how I miss this sound. I lived in the Outer Richmond and the foghorns lulled me to sleep every night. Thank you for posting!
my late mom used to live in sf as a little girl. when she was an elderly lady shed wake up from dreams hearing the horns going woo woooomph.thanks. every time i see that bridge , i am trying to find some star fleet shuttles zooming around.
“One day many years ago a man walked along and stood in the sound of the ocean on a cold sunless shore and said, "We need a voice to call across the water, to warn ships; I'll make one. I'll make a voice like all of time and all of the fog that ever was; I'll make a voice that is like an empty bed beside you all night long, and like an empty house when you open the door, and like trees in autumn with no leaves. A sound like the birds flying south, crying, and a sound like November wind and the sea on the hard, cold shore. I'll make a sound that's so alone that no one can miss it, that whoever hears it will weep in their souls, and hearths will seem warmer, and being inside will seem better to all who hear it in the distant towns. I'll make me a sound and an apparatus and they'll call it a Fog Horn and whoever hears it will know the sadness of eternity and the briefness of life."
The Fog Horn blew.” ― Ray Bradbury, The Fog Horn
Will
This made me have tears to read it......Ray Bradbury, we so miss you.
Thank you for posting this.
This should be inscribed on all lighthouses with foghorns
Breathe. Pause just so. Gather in the fog that chases the darkness from its home. Then call out. There. And just there. And its might becomes your own.
That was beautiful, thank you, for sharing.
Laugh all you want but I am very happy to have had this "pop up" on my TH-cam page. I've looked several times and come up with next to nothing. Thank you to whom ever posted this. Now, lights out and it's time for the most restful sleep I can imagine.
Tenacity Amen.
Thanks a lot for this. It's amazing how calming this is, rekindling memories of the Bridge and the Headlands. I was on a bus going back to SF from Muir Woods and as we crossed the bridge there was a huge tanker passing directly under us. It was early morning, the sun had broken through the clouds over Oakland, illuminating the Bridge towers and the tanker dramatically. The fog was slicing across the roadway like shimmering curtains. I thought I was in heaven.
Nice re-visualization. The setting there is so remarkable; w/ the hills juxtaposed to create multiple and highly unique viewing perspectives, along w/ all of the epic architectural landmarks such as the two bridges, etc. which are bathed in that very special light, makes it truly one of a kind....
Can I ever relate to this, word for word, sound for sound. It was heaven. GG bridge, Sausalito, the Wharf, I am melting in the memories.
@@miltonjenkins2090 It sounds like whenever it becomes convenient and safe again to travel, many of us will be returning to these hallowed spots. I hope you do so.
Oh, wow, that was described so beautifully.,
Thank you for posting this. We played it to our baby first 4 months of life. It helped calm her and put her to sleep.
The foghorn is still the same today! My favorite noise in the whole world, love my home
*BAY AREAAAA 😍*
Same!
Actually, the horns were replaced not long after this. Digitized.
@@adalinerogers4317 Correct
@@adalinerogers4317 The one on the Golden Gate still is in use I believe
Absolutely adore this video clip and the sounds of the old fog horns. San Francisco became my home in 1992 so I missed the old fog horns by few years but became a huge fan of the new fog horns. The sound is so mystical and wonderful to me. I love San Francisco and can't imagine this beautiful city by the Bay without the mystical sounds of the fog horns. To read the comments feels like to travel back in time and learn a bit more about one of the greatest city in the world .
I was born in South San Francisco in 1958. I grew up hearing these foghorns and took them for granted. In 1987 I moved to Arizona for five years. When I came back to California the foghorns were gone. I now live in Clovis California which is outside of Fresno, and I’m so grateful to hear theses foghorns again. Thank you so much. May 12, 2021 10:00 PM
Gone? I fell asleep to them the evening of 03JUL22...
There is only 3 left and they are on the bridge. It isn't an orchestra like it was. 1958 and early 60s there would've been even more horns like a musical. This is 1987 so even then a lot of them they took out. They at one time had 50 foghorns each with a different unique tone and timing for sailors to know location. Now with tech they don't need them as much sadly. Only recordings of SFs voice remain and it calms me. I was born in Clovis and now live in SF. Heh.
@@williamblevins6410 You only heard the bridge ones. The amount in the 1950s was about 50 foghorns and it was literally like they were having conversations to each other. Look up old recordings. It was never silent. They took A LOT out. This was in 1987 when they had more in than now, so imagine the 50s when most were still in place.
@@williamblevins6410 th-cam.com/video/jJWd5eHeFY4/w-d-xo.html See what I mean?
I rmbr falling asleep to these sounds at Stinson Beach as a kid, thanks for the recording!!
My wife and I both grew up in the sunset district and were talking about missing the foghorns. Thanks to your dad, I can play this for my wife to fall asleep to.
I used to live in Diamond Heights, you could hear these big boys bouncing off the fog all night long. Oh how I miss that time and place. Nice Upload thanks DAD! :)
+Whitewolf Wendi Brown Diamond Heights? Where exactly is that? Is it near Sausalito?
@@MsAussie83 Diamond Heights is up on the mountain near Twin Peaks.
Just like lullabies.
I grew up on Pierce St. near Filbert.... There was many a night in my youth during the 60's that I fell asleep to this wonderful sound. Sadly I moved away back in 1992, and now life in Peoria Illinois. Listening to this takes me right back to those wonderful moments... Thanks ever so much !!!!❤❤❤❤❤
5th and Clement here! Still standing.
This is a really great recording !
Thanks so much for sharing it, here I am in the tropical Philippines, after living in the San Francisco bay area since 1967, and to listen to the bay. Fog horns is a real blessing.
The low pitched horns are still there, but the high pitch ones are completely different now. This sounds even better than the high ones they have now. I still love falling asleep to this though. You can even here some of my vids filmed outside.
My only connection here is that I drove across the Golden Gate Bridge once while on vacation... Still, though, this is a very nice recording, and I can see why people would get attached. Props to your father for making the recording, and thank you for posting it where people can access it freely.
I sat on that concrete wall many times. Glad to have this video now that I'm in NC.
Growing up in the Richmond District, 27th Avenue and Geary Street to be precise, the fog horns were my lullaby for many many years
Reminds me so much of my childhood, thank you! I still ear the exact sounds in 2017!
It’s almost hard to listen to because of how nostalgic I get
I grew up in the East Bay and could hear several foghorns on gloomy summer nights. It was a great sound to fall asleep to. I'm not sure which ones I was hearing, probably East Brother Island but there were several different ones. After a hot Autumn day when the fog rolled in thick and low there was nothing better than to feel the cool damp air coming through the window and listen to those sounds.
I hear that noise every day they are ON and I LOVE it!!! I work in the Presidio and just feel like I want to cuddle back to bed when I hear the horns! Can't have enough about that noise!
@Amee415 And why are they gone? Is it the lack of federal funds that are being misused now?
Sweet, it is very relaxing, and makes everything alright.
This is so eerie yet amazing... I can't stop listening!
Your father was a visionary. Thanks So Much for uploading this, a very welcome memory.
Thanks for posting this and thanks to your dad for recording it. This really takes me back to my childhood and nights my dad would take my brothers and I to areas along or near the SF water front in the late 60s and early 70s.
It is terrific that you have posted this lost-forever experience. I have linked this video to my blog entry about my love of fog & foghorns.
Thank you, Styrous ~ The Styrous Viewfinder
Before they fenced off the area behind Fort Point, I used sit back behind there, at night, listening to the foghorns and water sloshing back and forth. The cool air and the smell sea water was great too. Great memories !
Well done! I lived in SF in the 70s out toward cow hollow. The horns would lull me to sleep. Thank you for preserving something magic.
Thank you for this. I miss the foghorns.
i grew up in daly city on the cliffs near palisades park could hear the horns clearly. used to leave the window cracked on foggy nights to fall asleep to. wouldnt surprise me a bit if i was near him that night as we used to party quite often at the old gun emplacements at fort miley above lands end. love san francisco always will
My grandparents lived in outer Richmond. I still remember the sound of the fog horn. There’s really no place like SF, despite its many flaws.
This reminds me of my youth and still living at home. We lived very near lake Michigan, I had the bedroom in the back of our house and it faced that lake. I would lay in my bed peacefully listening to pleasant, reassuring sound of the fog horn from the lighthouse. It gave me such comfort knowing that sound guided all boats to safety. Still now when I hear a fog horn I feel at peace. *Seth Freiberg* thank you for this video.
Memories of my time in San Francisco..I found the sound comforting during the night.
I've never lived near foghorns but this is super peaceful
I miss those foghorns! I want them back.
I first came to the US in 1978, visiting Ithaca, San Fran and Galveston for job seminars (I'm an academic). The best thing I remember about the whole trip was the Golden Gate foghorns. I sat for an hour under the bridge enveloped physically and spiritually by these majestic noises. To me it was like a great symphony - Bruckner (rather appropriately) comes to mind, or perhaps Gabrieli (an antiphony). Listening to this video literally brings tears to my eyes. Is it still just the same? I have the impression the other vids on TH-cam that's it's less rich and complex now. All 3 universities offered me jobs. I ended up in Galveston for 4 years and then the North East. I suppose our lives would have been totally different. Perhaps I would have tired of this antiphony but I think not.
No, you would not have tired of it.....
San Francisco is ALWAYS called San Francisco or The City, not San Fran, 'Frisco or other
nicknames.
@@eamantari9356 Exactly!!
Fred, thank you for sharing this. We're gathering stories for a short documentary about foghorns, and would love to talk to you more if you're available. All the best, Tom
Yes I feel so lucky to have lived most of my life in San Francisco, CA.. I remember lying on my mom's couch alone, in otherwise silence..listening to a euphony of many different foghorn sounds- there was also a high pitched wood- aspirated sound that went"FFFFFOPP" - (more like a tugboat of some kind?).. The sounds were so haunting to me then (and now).. as if they are talking to each other.. sounding simultaneously lonely and ominous .. I wrote about them with detailed descriptions in my journal as a kid.
I was born in the S.F. Univ. of Calif. hospital in 1958 and lived on the Presidio - yep, it's true! - the first 2 yrs of my life. Father was active duty Army physician at Letterman. I, too, find endless comfort in the sound of foghorns, and am pleased to find all these other folks on the band wagon. I was born during one of S.F.'s rare thunderstorms (July) and also love a raucous, stampeding storm!
I remember falling asleep to these exact fog horns when I was little. I lived in the Richmond District, so it was a nightly thing during the summer.
I used to live on California St at Buchanan and I would watch the clouds roll by and hear the fog horn . This brings me back. It’s so relaxing. Wish I could be there again .
I lived there for 5 amazing years . I miss this sound so much. It was always like a natural sleeping pill to me. So calming reminds me of Buddhist monks chanting ..:)ommmm oooohhhmmmm oohhhhmmmm
Thanks, checkout SoundCloud for the high def version
@@SethFreiberg awesome thanks for that :) only video I found that captured sf specific fog horns barges etc. Thanks again brings back great memories and now I have a permanent sleep sound playlist 😊😊😁
This is awesome, thank you so much. I lived in SF from 1985-1990 and this was a comforting sound that put me to sleep so many nights.
I love these ocean and fog horn sounds. Thank you so much for sharing this. It is so calming. I can almost feel the fog. :)
I never got to live in The City itself but spent a ton of weekends there in my youth, so The City is a large part of what I think of when I think of home. These sounds! They bring me right back there.
I remember being stationed at the presidio ARMY base in 1986 for a short time I loved the sound of the fog horns
One month exactly before my actual day of birth! This is awesome!
I definitely miss these sounds. Thank you so much for sharing!
Growing up in the 1950s & 60s, in Cleveland, Ohio, on Lake Erie. It was a steel manufacturing & smelting hub. There were tugs boats and lots of coal barges, that had to be brought into the narrow off-loading points. I lived about 10 miles away, and the relaxing sounds of the horns, lulled me to sleep & greeted me in the morning.
For 20 years I lived on the top of the hill on 43rd Ave and Geary Blvd. I miss these sounds.
Thanks for sharing this Sf native that had to move away appreciates it love foghorns
Hart Crane's poem "The Harbor Dawn" describes these nautical sounds.
i remember when in the star trek movie " voyage home " whilst the the crew was in capt kirks aprtment in sanfran sisco, you could hear the fog horns in the background. my late mom would have dreams of these going off as she lived in the bay area as a child. love the sound. shame most are all gone now.
It's crazy that you wrote this because I remember the same noises from The Wrath of Khan, the scene with Kirk and McCoy at Kirk's apartment on his birthday.
I lived near the ocean when I was a kid and used to fall asleep to the sound of far off foghorns -- always loved it.
I hear 4 foghorns in this recording: The 2 on the bridge, Lime Point, and I can't make out the 4th one, either Alcatraz or Mile Rocks. The 4th horn can be heard at 0:43 directly after the Lime Point Foghorn sounds
TheKilroyman Alcatraz was a two tone diaphone
@TheKilroyman: I can hear the bridge horns both the single lower tone and the higher mid span, then two blasts from what sounds like a 300 hz electric horn then another higher chord sound, not sure of its location.
thank you for this. this is so peaceful, especially when paired with Rainymood. It's the perfect background noise for my studying.
1991-1995 on the Presido
my dog and I were at Crissy or Baker beach 6 days a week. I was the hiking boots, shorts and t-shirt with the amazing swimming dog, Beta
Confusing the crap out of my RA blasting this.
I play this when I read in my office. :)
I'm listening to this at work while I am doing my calculations! Love it. So miss this from when I was a kid living there.
I used to lounge in bed in Noe Valley in the 70s listening to the horns as the fog moved back into the ocean. I'm having my best luck sleeping with the fog horn and the far away sounds of the ocean breaking onshore from above the Kahala district on Oahu. Yes, this fog horn sound is a national treasure and I hope someone is preserving it.
Really need this now. Thanks for sharing
This recording is great because it includes the electronic beam as well as the iconic GG bridge air-blown foghorns.
Thank you for the sounds of home!
Its Nice to bring the sound of San Francisco into my Bedroom half way across the world!
absolutely love this .. ;)))
Slept to this for decades. Wind permitting! Holy City Zoo Batman!😂
I grew up in the East Bay. This sound is home to me.
Man I like this new Microphones/Mount Erie record!
Once a man stood in the sound of the ocean, on a cold sunless shore and said, "We need a voice to call across the water and warn ships. I'll make one. I'll make a voice like all of time and all the the fog that ever was ; I'll make a voice that is like an empty bed beside you all night long and like an empty house when you open the door, and like trees in autumn with no leaves. A sound like the birds flying south, crying and a sound like November wind and the sea on the hard cold shore. I'll make a sound that's so alone that noone can miss it, that whoever hears it will weep in their souls , and hearths will seem warmer and being inside will seem better to all who hear it in distant towns. I'll make a sound and an apparatus and they'll call it a fog horn and whoever hears it will know the sadness of eternity and the briefness of life." Ray Bradbury
This was cool thank you....
Wonderful! Makes me wish I was back in my city by the bay. Try combining this with a track of ocean wave and seagulls. Perfect!
Superb video! I had fun living in SF.
when my late mom was a little girl, shed hear these in her dreams .
Thank you for thisssss
So relaxing 😌💤
This is outstanding. The kind of "ambient album" I'm always looking for. I hope you don't mind that I downloaded the video to add to my music collection. I really think this would be worth releasing as an actual ambient album or field recording.
Amazing
Wow !!!!
Awesome recording !!!!
March of 2021 ,,,,,
My dad's grandfather was a mariner AKA a sailor and a fisherman who immigrated from Italy. He died a long time ago. I didn't know him back then. I hear these foghorns rarely at night when the fog rolls in. This happens when I sleep. I did a really cool experiment. If I sleep on the right side of the pillow with my left ear down and my right ear up the ceiling, the sound muffles down which sounds like someone screaming. If I sleep on the left side of the pillow with my right ear down and my left ear up to the ceiling, the sound begins to go in between frequencies every time. I used to hear the blasts from these noisy devices when my parents and I visited my late paternal grandfather. The one who used to be a butcher?
I love these sounds
Having grown up in Marin... my understanding is that the GGB is the only foghorn that draws ships to the sound.. center span..
Hi Seth, I love this - thanks to you and your Dad! Can I use a bit for a video project please?
now San Francisco has the sound of the wind blowing thru the golden gate bridge
okay i did not know this was 1HR
Seth,
Can you please reload this to play 10 hours like the other channels. This is by THE BEST FOGHORN and Ocean sound on TH-cam. Thanks. Your subscriber.
Is it sufficient to loop the video using TH-cam playback controls? support.google.com/youtube/answer/10788593?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&oco=0