California
13 historic landmarks in California, across six eras of American history. Start with Alcatraz Island, Hearst Castle and Golden Gate Bridge.
- Landmarks
- 13
- Eras
- 6
Pictured Alcatraz Island
Kate Nevens · CC BY · via Wikimedia Commons
Landmarks in California
- The 20th Century
Alcatraz Island
San Francisco, CA
Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay held one of the earliest U.S. military fortifications on the West Coast and, from 1934 to 1963, the federal government's most secure and notorious penitentiary.
The 20th CenturyHearst Castle
San Simeon, CA
Hearst Castle is the grandest expression of Gilded Age ambition in the American West — a hilltop palace that newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst built to house one of the largest private art collections in the country.
The 20th CenturyGolden Gate Bridge
San Francisco, CA
The Golden Gate Bridge is one of the most celebrated feats of engineering in the world and the defining symbol of San Francisco.
World War IIManzanar
Independence, CA
In the desert of California's Owens Valley, more than 10,000 Japanese Americans — the majority of them U.S. citizens — were imprisoned behind barbed wire and guard towers for no crime but their ancestry.
Spanish ColonialMission San Juan Capistrano
San Juan Capistrano, CA
Called the 'Jewel of the Missions,' Mission San Juan Capistrano is the most complete surviving example of California's Spanish mission chain, founded the same year as American independence.
The 20th CenturyTCL Chinese Theatre
Los Angeles, CA
Few sidewalks anywhere carry more star power than the forecourt of the TCL Chinese Theatre, where handprints, footprints, and signatures of hundreds of Hollywood legends are pressed into concrete going back nearly a century.
The 19th CenturyCable Car System
San Francisco, CA
The last manually operated cable car system on Earth, saved from extinction by a grassroots ballot campaign, and the only moving object ever designated a National Historic Landmark.
Spanish ColonialPresidio of San Francisco
San Francisco, CA
A military post continuously held by three different nations for over two centuries, the Presidio is now one of America's boldest experiments in park management — a national park required by law to pay for itself.
The 20th CenturyHollywood Bowl
Los Angeles, CA
A natural canyon turned into one of the world's great outdoor concert venues, the Hollywood Bowl's iconic concentric-arch shell has hosted everyone from the Los Angeles Philharmonic's founding 'Symphonies Under the Stars' to the Beatles.
The 20th CenturyBalboa Park
San Diego, CA
A 19th-century civic park transformed by two World's Fair-style expositions into one of the largest urban cultural parks in the United States, and the unlikely birthplace of the San Diego Zoo.
Gilded AgeHotel del Coronado
Coronado, CA
One of the largest wooden buildings ever raised in America, built in under a year on a barren sandspit, the 'Hotel Del' turned a remote California peninsula into a Gilded Age resort destination and a Hollywood backdrop.
Spanish ColonialMission San Antonio de Padua
Jolon, CA
One of California's most isolated missions, preserved from development only because it now sits inside a U.S. Army base, Mission San Antonio de Padua also built one of the earliest water-powered mills and irrigation systems in the state.
Geological & NaturalMuir Woods National Monument
Mill Valley, CA
One of the last stands of old-growth redwoods near San Francisco, saved from a water company's dam by a conservationist who then declined to have the grove named after himself, insisting it honor John Muir instead.
Historical Essays
Spanish ColonialThe Spanish Frontier: Forts, Palaces and Missions from Florida to California
Long before the English colonies became a nation, Spain had built across the southern edge of what is now the United States. Five landmarks trace that frontier from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Old USA Editors · 2 min read · September 28, 2026
- The 20th Century
Engineering the American Century
From twelve seconds aloft on the Outer Banks to a steel arch on the Mississippi, five landmarks record how American engineers remade the twentieth century — and where you can see their work today.
Old USA Editors · 2 min read · September 28, 2026