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The Financial District is a Neighborhood in San Francisco , California that serves as its main Central Business District . LOCATION The area is marked by the cluster of high-rise towers that lies between Grant Street east of the Union Square shopping district, Sacramento Street and Columbus Street, south of Chinatown and North Beach , and the Embarcadero that rings the waterfront. The city's tallest buildings, including the Bank Of America tower and the Transamerica Pyramid , are located here. The District is home to the city's largest concentration of corporate headquarters, law firms, banks, savings & loans and other financial institutions, such as the corporate headquarters of VISA , Wells Fargo Bank , the Charles Schwab Corporation , Barclays Global Investors , The Gap , and the Union Bank Of California among others. The headquarters of the Bank Of California , the 12th district of the United States Federal Reserve , and the Pacific Stock Exchange (although no longer located in that building) are located in the area as well. Montgomery Street ("Wall Street of the West") is the traditional heart of the district. There are several shopping malls in the area including the Crocker Galleria, the Embarcadero Center, the Ferry Building, and the Rincon Center complex. HISTORY in the heart of the Financial District commemorates the United States annexing San Francisco and California from Mexico during the Mexican American War in 1848 .]] The area was the center of European and American settlement during Spanish and later Mexican rule. Following American annexation and the Gold Rush , the area boomed rapidly and the Bay shoreline, which originally ended at Battery St, was filled in and extended to the Embarcadero. Gold Rush wealth and business made it the financial capital of the west coast as many banks and businesses set up in the neighborhood. The west coast's first and only Skyscrapers , were built in the area along Market Street . The neighborhood was completey destroyed in the 1906 Earthquake & Fire (although miraculously, the area's skyscrapers survived), and rebuilt. Because of state wide height restrictions due to earthquake fears, the district remained realtively low-rise throughout the 20th century until the late 1950s, when due to new building and earthquake Retrofitting technologies, the height restrictions were lifted, fueling a skyscraper building boom. This boom accelerated under mayor Diane Feinstein during the 1980 s under her plan of "Manhattanization". This caused widespread oppostion citywide leading to the "skyscraper revolt" similar to the " Freeway Revolt " in the city years earlier. The skyscraper revolt led to the city imposing extremeley strict, European syle height restrictions on building construction citywide. . The headquarters 12th District of the United States Federal Reserve is the glass sheathed building to the left]] Due to these height restrictions, (which have been relaxed and overlooked over the years), overcrowding, and changes and demand in the local real esate market, development in the area, as well as the district's boundaries as a whole have shifted to SOMA as the focus has shifted from building office space, to high rise Condominiums and hotels. Notable examples include the Four Seasons Hotel , and The Paramount, currently the tallest condominums on the west coast. SEE ALSO 49-Mile Scenic Drive EXTERNAL LINKS
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