Market Street is a major street and important thoroughfare in San Francisco, California. It begins at the Embarcadero in front of the Ferry Building at the northeastern edge of the city and runs southwest through downtown, past the Civic Center and the Castro District, to the intersection with Corbett Avenue in the Twin Peaks neighborhood. At this point, the roadway continues as Portola Drive until it terminates in the southwestern quadrant of San Francisco.

Market Street serves as the terminus for all intersecting streets in the downtown area: named streets are to the north and west of Market Street, and numbered streets run to its south and east.

History

Market Street cuts across the city for three miles from the waterfront to the hills of Twin Peaks. It is a major transit artery for the city of San Francisco, carrying in turn horse-drawn streetcars, cable cars, electric streetcars, electric trolleybuses and diesel buses. Today Muni's buses, trolleybuses and heritage streetcars (on the F Market line) share the street, while below the street two levels of tunnel carry the Muni Metro and BART respectively. While cable cars no longer operate on Market Street, cars of the San Francisco cable car system terminate to the side of the street at the intersections with California Street and Powell Street. Long described as San Francisco's [[Fifth Avenue, its [[Champs Elysees, its Main Street, Great White Way or Path of Gold, Market Street had its best moment on Christmas Eve in 1910, when Luisa Tetrazzini sang to the city she loved.

Market Street parades have long ascribed significance t o events such as the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, the Preparedness Parade of 1917. The parade of the influenza masked revelers of the first Armistice Day, and the 1934 [general strike]] that paralyzed the ports of the Pacific Coast.