Father's Day Adventure 2018
After being closed to the public for 80 years, Balboa Park’s California Tower at the San Diego Museum of Man is now open for public tours!
See a new view of San Diego from the California Tower! From the second floor of the Museum, you go up a staircase hidden to the public for decades. Then you climb seven floors, getting glimpses through narrow windows of the beauty outside. Finally, you climb a spiral metal stairway and emerge into sunlight where you will see a spectacular Southern California vista.
The Views
TO THE NORTH, the criss-crossing green cars of the San Diego Zoo’s Skyfari catch your eye as they glide over the canyon landscape just beyond the Old Globe Theater. You can see a bird aviary and sometimes hear animal calls — and maybe catch a peek of the Grinch! Beyond that, there’s the North Park water tower, and, even further away, in the distant northeast, the Cuyamaca Mountains.
TO THE SOUTH, you see the curving arc of the Coronado Bridge, busy shipbuilding yards, glittering downtown skyscrapers, the Coronado Peninsula, Mexico’s misty Coronado Islands, the flat top of Tijuana’s Otay Mesa, and beyond that, more of Baja California and Mexico. Airplanes fly past as they descend toward the airport, and red-tailed hawks often soar over the park’s canyons.
TO THE EAST, you see the ever-evolving heart of Balboa Park: beautiful park buildings, the Plaza de Panama, and the sports fields and trails. All this is set in front of the backdrop of the sepia and umber hues of the Laguna Mountains, as well as the antenna-covered peak of San Miguel Mountain. You may see helicopters land at the Naval Medical Center.
TO THE WEST is the Cabrillo Bridge, Banker’s Hill, more of downtown, the massive spur of Point Loma, and the glimmering San Diego Bay and the Pacific Ocean, dimpled by the movements of sailboats and military vessels going about their business. To the northwest — just a few feet away — you see the brightly-tiled California Dome, the sister landmark to the California Tower. Look to the northwest over the dome and you may see Mount Soledad and the taller buildings of Hillcrest.
The History
All of the California Buildings, as the structures housing the Museum of Man are called, were completed in 1914, and officially opened in 1915 as part of the Panama-California Exposition. They were designed by Bertram Goodhue, who was inspired by the churches of Mexico and Spain. Even though the California Buildings resemble a church, they have never been a church and have been exhibition halls from the start — except when they were used as a Naval hospital during World War II. The Tower was closed to the public shortly after the 1935 California Pacific International Exposition.
How it Works
Each tour group is in the care of knowledgeable, trained tour guides who will tell you about the history of the California Tower and other things. You will not be permitted to tour the California Tower on your own.
★ How high is the California Tower?
To the very top of the weather vane (which features the ship of Juan RodrÃguez Cabrillo, who sailed into San Diego Bay in 1542), it’s about 462 feet above sea level, or 198 feet above the ground. The viewing deck that visitors will go to, the eighth floor, is about 357 feet above sea level. The sea-level height includes the 254-foot mesa that the buildings sit upon.
★ What can you see from the California Tower?
If the weather is clear, you will be able to see about 23 miles to the horizon, which means a 360-degree view would cover as much as 415 square miles if mountains didn’t block the view to the east.
★ Has the California Tower been in any movies?
Of course! The most famous is
Citizen Kane (1941). In a fictional newsreel at the beginning of the film, the California Building doubles as Xanadu, Charles Foster Kane’s mansion in Florida. The mansion in the film is a pastiche of a variety of real-life buildings which demonstrate the newspaper magnate’s vast wealth. The California Tower has also been in
Top Dog (1995), starring Chuck Norris, which features scenes inside the California Tower, and the California Tower had cameo appearances in
Almost Famous (2000),
Traffic (2000), and
Anchormn(20
