page_title: Northern California
section_title: Major transit ferries
hierarchical_section_title: Northern California / Transportation / Major transit ferries
caption_attribution_description: The Ferry Building is a terminal for ferries on the San Francisco Bay and an upscale shopping center located on The Embarcadero in San Francisco, California. The Bay Bridge can be seen in the background.
context_page_description: Northern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers include the San Francisco Bay Area, the Greater Sacramento area, and the Metropolitan Fresno area. Northern California also contains redwood forests, along with the Sierra Nevada, including Yosemite Valley and part of Lake Tahoe, Mount Shasta, and most of the Central Valley, one of the world's most productive agricultural regions.
  The 48-county definition is not used for the Northern California Megaregion, one of the 11 megaregions of the United States. The megaregion's area is instead defined from Metropolitan Fresno north to Greater Sacramento, and from the Bay Area east across Nevada state line to encompass the entire Lake Tahoe-Reno area.
  Evidence of Native American habitation in the area dates from at least 19,000 years ago and successive waves of arrivals led to one of the most densely populated areas of pre-Columbian North America. The arrival of European explorers from the early 16th to the mid-18th centuries did not establish European settlements in northern California.
context_section_description: San Francisco Bay Ferry
  Golden Gate Ferry
  Blue & Gold Fleet
  Angel Island - Tiburon Ferry
caption: The historic San Francisco Ferry Building is the busiest ferry terminal on the West Coast and connects Downtown San Francisco to various parts of the Bay Area.
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