San Francisco San Francisco was a port city in the San Francisco Metropolitan Area , California . Located at the northernmost point of a peninsula , this city had shorelines on the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay . A lake was located in the southwest corner of this city . Major landmarks in the city were Fisherman ' s Wharf , Transamerica Pyramid , Golden Gate Park , and Presidio of San Francisco . The bridge s Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge connected this city to the northern and eastern regions of the bay , respectively . Many of the city ' s older structures remained intact into the 24th century , Starfleet Headquarters , Starfleet Academy headquarters , and other Starfleet facilities were located in this city . In 2161 , the United Federation of Planets was founded in this city . ( ; ; ) Government . This city was governed by the San Francisco Municipal Government and its sets of laws was codified in the San Francisco Municipal Code . Its ' coat of arms was the Seal of San Francisco . Early history . Although founded as a Spanish colony in the 18th century , San Francisco first gained prominence in 1849 , after gold was discovered in California . Thousands of American fortune seekers , known as the 49ers , settled in the city . By 1893 , San Francisco had a growing and diverse population , including professional gamblers like Frederick La Rouque and Joe Falling Hawk , as well as aspiring writers such as Jack London . The city also attracted a number of alien visitors , unbeknown to the Human population . Among these included the malevolent Devidian s , and the El - Aurian Guinan , who masqueraded as a wealthy local patron . During this time , occasional health epidemics struck San Francisco particularly hard . Outbreaks of cholera killed many residents . ( ) " In an alternative reality of World War II created by Vosk ' s faction of the Temporal Cold War , Nazi Germany successfully invaded the East Coast of North America , while San Francisco remained under allied control . A squadron of P - 51 Mustang s defended the city from air raids in this reality . " ( ) In the mid - 20th century , San Francisco was the setting for novels featuring the adventures of the iconic private detective Dixon Hill . It also served as the backdrop for many movies , including the comedic classic " The Man From San Francisco " . ( ; ) By the end of that century , however , San Francisco had become a polluted metropolis , with a culture that was described by various commentators as " primitive , " " paranoid , " and " medieval . " The age seemed to have been characterized by greed , lack of proper medical care , and environmental crises , causing Leonard McCoy to consider it a miracle the citizens were able to survive into the 21st century . ( ) The city ' s social ills became even more pronounced by the 2020s . Massive unemployment and Homelessness caused unrest in the streets . The government responded by instituting the system of Sanctuary District s , requiring vagrants to live in segregated ghettos patrolled by law enforcement . Ostensibly , the Sanctuary Districts served only as temporary shelters until jobs could be found . In reality , they became a way to keep the segment of the population deemed " undesirable " out of the public eye . An economic recovery eventually occurred . This led to the closure of the Sanctuary Districts . ( ) San Francisco benefited enormously from radical changes that came after Earth ' s First Contact with Vulcan s . It soon became home to important United Earth institutions , including the precursor to Starfleet . The skyline was also altered significantly , with a host of new skyscrapers eclipsing both the Transamerica Building and Golden Gate Bridge . ( ; ; ) Role in diplomacy . San Francisco had a prestigious history as a place of peace . In 1945 , the Charter for the United Nations was signed in the city by some fifty of Earth ' s nation - states . After World War III , the nations of the world met in San Francisco to negotiate a peace treaty . ( ) The spotlight of diplomacy fell on San Francisco again in 2155 , when the representatives of Earth , Vulcan , Tellar , Andoria , Denobula , Rigel V , and Coridan met in the city to hold talks on the formation of a Coalition of Planets . ( ) Six years later , in 2161 , the charter that lead to the founding of the United Federation of Planets was signed in San Francisco . ( ) Incidents of time travel . In 2286 , Admiral James T . Kirk journeyed back through time to 1986 San Francisco , in a successful effort to retrieve two humpback whale s from the Cetacean Institute in the nearby city of Sausalito . ( ) In 2368 , archaeologist s digging beneath the Presidio uncovered several artifacts from the late 19th century . Among several mundane artifacts was the severed head of Lieutenant Commander Data , which had been undisturbed for nearly five hundred years . It was learned that Data and several members of the ' s crew had traveled back through time to San Francisco in August 1893 in an effort to prevent the Devidians from draining the neural energy of Humans and disguising it as a cholera epidemic . While there , they met the noted humorist and prolific author Samuel Clemens . ( ) The area of the city formerly designated Sanctuary District A was the location of the Bell Riots of 2024 . In 2371 , Benjamin Sisko , Jadzia Dax , and Doctor Julian Bashir were thrown back to this time period by a temporal anomaly . ( ) A temporal agent from the 31st century , , transported Jonathan Archer to the 2161 charter signing in 2154 . Daniels attempted to use the event to elicit Archer ' s cooperation . ( ) Geographical . San Francisco was home to the following major installations : Both Starfleet Headquarters and Starfleet Academy were located in an area of San Francisco known as the Presidio . ( ; ; ; ; ) One of the city ' s oldest neighborhoods was the Mission District . Another district was Chinatown . The Clift Hotel was one of the best known hotels in the city . ( ) The Embarcadero was a street in San Francisco , directly along San Francisco Bay . There was a restaurant , often visited by Malcolm Reed and Mark Latrelle . ( ) The 602 Club was a popular meeting place for many Starfleet pilots in the 2140s . ( ) The pizzeria Fiorella ' s was located in San Francisco , on Fountain Street . It was one of Hoshi Sato ' s favorite places to eat . ( ) In the early 2150s , Doctor Phlox liked to frequent the restaurant Madame Chang ' s , which was located in San Francisco . In 2154 , Phlox was assaulted near the restaurant and captured by three Rigelian s , who were working for the Klingon Empire . ( ) By 2151 , many alien diplomatic structures were built in the San Francisco area , including the Vulcan Compound in Sausalito . ( ) In 2285 , James T . Kirk had an apartment high up in a tall skyscraper with sweeping views of the city , the bay , Alcatraz , Golden Gate Bridge , and at least two other prominent 23rd century skyscrapers . There was a bar in San Francisco that was visited by Doctor McCoy in 2285 . ( ) During her Academy days , Captain Janeway frequented a little coffee shop on Market Street , which was called the Night Owl . ( ) Miscellaneous . San Francisco was the home of the San Francisco Giants baseball team . In the 21st century and onwards , the Trans Francisco mass - transit line was one of the main means of transportation in San Francisco . ( ; ) San Francisco is also served by Bay Area Rapid Transit , based on the current high - speed underwater tunnel subway that severs the San Francisco and the surrounding metropolitan . ( ) Malcolm Reed contacted his parents from San Francisco before he signed onto . ( ) San Francisco was the birthplace of Hikaru Sulu . ( ) " In 2258 of the alternate reality , Nero deployed a drilling rig over the city , but disabled it , causing it to plunge into the bay . ( ) The next year , Starfleet Headquarters was attacked by the treacherous . He later returned in the damaged warship , which crashed into the city . " ( ) In 2375 , San Francisco was attacked by the Breen , resulting in massive casualties and heavy damage to the city , including the renowned Golden Gate Bridge . ( ) Most of the city , including the Golden Gate Bridge , was fully rebuilt and restored less than a year later . ( ) " In an alternate reality of 2372 visited by Harry Kim , parts of San Francisco were pedestrianized and served by public transports . In this reality , Kim lived in an apartment near a coffee shop called Cosimo ' s . Since the establishment ' s owner , Cosimo , was actually an alien whose time - streams Kim ' s shuttle intersected , it is unknown if the restaurant actually existed in the prime reality . " ( ) San Francisco was identified on a political map of the North Pacific region in the library computer . This map was retrieved by the Talosian s when they accessed the starship ' s computer s in 2254 . ( ) Literature . In " Dangerous Ground " , Doctor John Rawley was born in this city in the early 20th century . ( ) Appendices . Background information . Gene Roddenberry previously worked on a show entitled " Have Gun Will Travel " , in which the protagonist lived in San Francisco . He conceived of San Francisco ' s importance to the " Star Trek " franchise in " The God Thing " , as that ultimately - rejected script placed Starfleet Headquarters in the city . ( " " , p . 69 ) Roddenberry went on to establish the city ' s importance with the production and of , the first feature - length film , choosing San Francisco primarily because of its role in the creation of the United Nations . However , he also considered the city an appropriate showcase for the secular Humanism that underlined much of his own philosophy ( though controversies have arisen about the role of Alan Dean Foster in the changes to the " Star Trek " lexicon the film introduced ) . More shots of San Francisco were planned to appear in " The Motion Picture " than were ultimately completed for the film . A storyboard from the movie , depicting one of these unused shots , shows a walkway with a building on one side and a row of trees on the other , backgrounded by a skyline featuring multiple high - rises . ( ) The scale model of the San Francisco skyline was originally created by Industrial Light & Magic for the movies featuring the TOS cast ; it has been reused as stock footage and in modified form ever since . Paramount Pictures also commissioned several matte painting s of San Francisco , which have been used to establish location . Interior scenes set in San Francisco were typically shot at a Paramount Studios sound stage . The conference room at Starfleet Headquarters in " Star Trek VI : The Undiscovered Country " was actually a room in the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood . Outdoor scenes featuring the Presidio were filmed at the Tillman Water Reclamation Plant and Gardens in Van Nuys , supplemented by a matte painting . 19th century San Francisco was actually a redress of the " Western " Universal Studios backlot set . Different sections of the same back lot were used for some of the street scenes in the 24th century as well . " Star Trek IV : The Voyage Home " was the only " Star Trek " movie or television production filmed substantially in San Francisco itself . When Leonard Nimoy and Harve Bennett relayed to Nicholas Meyer the story of that film prior to its making , Meyer ' s first reaction was to ask if San Francisco had to be the movie ' s main 20th century setting , he having already made a film in which time - travelers end up in that city . Meyer wondered aloud about whether the former " Enterprise " crew couldn ' t go somewhere else " for a change , " suggesting Paris as an alternative city . Nimoy and Bennett promptly replied that the San Francisco setting had to be used . " " Ostensibly this had something to do with the fact of Starfleet Headquarters being based there , " " recalled Meyer , " " but may more likely have been related to the fact that filming in San Francisco would be cheaper than attempting it in Paris . " " ( " The View from the Bridge - Memories of Star Trek and a Life in Hollywood " ) Upon visualizing 1940s ' San Francisco for the episode , Eden FX took considerable care to depict the city correctly . Robert Bonchune later recalled , " " That little sequence , in going back to the producers [ for approval ] , took a lot of finessing and tweaking for it to look right , and [ for ] San Francisco to look right . " " ( ) For the film , three or four different versions of 23rd - century San Francisco were developed in concept CGI illustrations . Stated Roger Guyett , " " There would be no reason there still couldn ' t be current buildings around . " " ( " Star Trek - The Art of the Film " , p . 51 ) Director J . J . Abrams intended to introduce the city with a static camera . " " I wanted to do an establishing shot that was part of a scene , " " Abrams pointed out . " " So you see . . . ' Look , there ' s future San Francisco . " " ( audio commentary , xxx ) The production shot aerial plates and scenic reference in the city , which Industrial Light & Magic significantly modified , adding towering buildings supposedly constructed to replace those lost in a mid - 21st century cataclysm . As well as adding such futuristic and monothlithic structures , some fairly common reference sites were also used , such as the Transamerica Pyramid and the Golden Gate Bridge . The reuse of these locations helped maintain continuity with earlier " Star Trek " films . Views of the city predominantly consisted of three - dimensional structures layered through levels of haze , creating parallax effects . Footage set in the grounds of Starfleet Academy required the filmmakers to digitally expand the city from another angle . Associate Visual Effects Supervisor Eddie Pasquarello explained , " " Some of our aerial shots of San Francisco began with a real plate ; but by the time we were done , it was pretty much all 3D digimatte . " " ( " Cinefex " , No . 118 , pp . 60 & 64 ) Various filming locations were used for the depictions of San Francisco in . Industrial Light & Magic Senior Visual Effects Supervisor Roger Guyett recollected , " " We used parts of the CAA building in Los Angeles as San Francisco . We modified them a lot , but the style of architecture allowed us to establish a lot of in - camera shots . This time we filmed Starfleet exteriors at the Getty Center in the Santa Monica Mountains , and we used Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove as subsections of Starfleet . " " The filmmakers decided that , in San Francisco , buildings newer than the Golden Gate Bridge dwarfed the Transamerica Pyramid . After Roger Guyett shot visual effects plates and aerial reference footage in downtown San Francisco , Tiburon and Los Angeles , ILM developed environment extensions . " " We started with the very tall and elongated city buildings that were featured briefly in the previous movie , " " explained ILM Art Director Yanick Dusseault . " " In this movie , we were moving between buildings in 80 or 90 shots , so we had to get more intimate with the design . We spent a lot of time coming up with designs that fit " Star Trek " and the current city . San Francisco is the perfect location for capturing the " Star Trek " feel – it ' s very bright and airy , and fit the optimistic aesthetic . " " The ILM environments team created a model of futuristic San Francisco featuring sixty high - resolution buildings and then dressed in tiers of lower - resolution architecture . The high - resolution constructs could be exchanged and rotated to produce new configurations . ( " Cinefex " , No . 134 , pp . 72 & 74 ) According to the " " ( p . 32 ) , San Francisco was the capital of the North American continent . An early version of the script for would have implied that as of 2063 , no one was thought to live in San Francisco anymore .