Sacramento Audio Walking Tour

Highlights

• 
  Sutter's Fort

  John Sutter made this adobe stronghold, Sutter's Fort, the heart of his New Helvetia—literally "New Switzerland"—project. He secured a 50,000-acre land grant from the Mexican governor and in 1839 founded the agricultural and trade colony; construction of the fort proper began in 1841.

• 
  Governor's Mansion State Historic Park

  Home to 14 governors, the California Governor's Mansion in Sacramento rises in front of you. This is a thirty-room, three-story Second Empire-Italianate Victorian mansion built in 1877.

• California State Railroad Museum

  Inside Old Sacramento State Historic Park, the California State Railroad Museum rises in front of you. Part of the California State Parks system, this museum interprets the role of railroads in the Western U.S., and it does so with an astonishing collection.

• 
  Leland Stanford Mansion State Historic Park

  Feel the weight of this grand house, built in 1856 and now the official reception center for the Government of California. Feel the weight of its stories: it was originally owned and built by Sacramento merchant Shelton C. Fogus, and the mansion’s Renaissance Revival transformation is attributed to Seth Babson, who went on to design the E.B. Crocker residence and art gallery now part of the Crocker Art Museum.

• 
  Tower Bridge

  Picture this vertical lift bridge spanning the Sacramento River, linking Yolo County to the west with the capital city to the east. Often known as the M Street Bridge, this elegant span once carried U.S. Route 40 — until that highway was truncated to east of Salt Lake City — and carried US Route 99W down the western portion of the Sacramento Valley from Sacramento to Red Bluff.

All 31 stops

• California State Capitol Museum (Sacramento)

  Notice the museum galleries filling the basement and first floor of the California State Capitol here in Sacramento.

• Statue of Thomas Starr King (Capitol Park)

  Haig Patigian sculpted the statue of the American minister Thomas Starr King that you see here in the grounds of the California State Capitol.

• California State Library (Capitol Mall)

  Founded in 1850, this is the California State Library.

• The California Museum (Sacramento)

  One block from the California State Capitol, at 1020 O Street in Sacramento, the California Museum occupies the March Fong Eu Secretary of State Building…

• Governor's Mansion State Historic Park (Sacramento)

  Home to 14 governors, the California Governor's Mansion in Sacramento rises in front of you.

• Leland Stanford Mansion State Historic Park (Sacramento)

  Feel the weight of this grand house, built in 1856 and now the official reception center for the Government of California.

• Crocker Art Museum (Sacramento)

  Oldest of all art museums in the Western United States, the Crocker Art Museum stands here in Sacramento.

• Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament (Downtown Sacramento)

  Bishop Jaime Soto's seat, the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento.

• Trinity Episcopal Cathedral (Sacramento, California) (Sacramento)

  Trinity Episcopal Cathedral serves as the seat of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California, and it rises here in Sacramento in front of you.

• Cesar E. Chavez Plaza (downtown Sacramento)

  César Chávez gives his name to the downtown Sacramento park you have reached, built on the Old City Plaza Sutter founded in 1849.

• Sacramento City Library (Sacramento)

  The Sacramento City Library, also called the Central Branch, sits here in Sacramento, California, close to Sacramento City Hall.

• Capitol Mall (downtown Sacramento)

  Capitol Mall runs through Sacramento's state capital as a major street and landscaped parkway, and you are on it now.

• Tower Bridge (Capitol Mall)

  Picture this vertical lift bridge spanning the Sacramento River, linking Yolo County to the west with the capital city to the east.

• I Street Bridge (Sacramento)

  This historic metal-truss double-deck swing bridge spans the Sacramento River in front of you, linking Sacramento with Yolo County to the west.

• Old Sacramento State Historic Park (Old Sacramento)

  Old Sacramento State Historic Park spreads out in front of you.

• Pony Express Terminal (Old Sacramento)

  Back in 1860 the Pony Express chose the building in front of you, the B. F. Hastings Bank Building at 1000 2nd Street, as its…

• California State Railroad Museum (Old Sacramento)

  Inside Old Sacramento State Historic Park, the California State Railroad Museum rises in front of you.

• Sacramento History Museum (Old Sacramento)

  Since 1985 this building has told the story of Sacramento and the California Gold Rush as the Sacramento History Museum.

• Big Four Building (Old Sacramento)

  Three separate buildings raised along the Sacramento River waterfront over 1851–1852 make up the Big Four Building in front of you, inside Old Sacramento State…

• What Cheer House (Old Sacramento)

  What Cheer House — at times the Sackett Hotel, at times the Grand Hotel — is the historical Old Sacramento building you now face.

• Orleans Hotel (Old Sacramento)

  Stagecoaches bound for the mines once stopped at the Orleans Hotel, the California Historical Landmark whose replica now rises in front of you.

• Delta King (Old Sacramento)

  Resting here in Old Sacramento, the Delta King is a 285-foot-long (87 m) sternwheel steamboat.

• Sacramento Southern Railroad (Old Sacramento)

  Beneath your feet runs the Sacramento Southern Railroad, owned by the California State Railroad Museum, on museum property in Old Sacramento State Historic Park.

• California State Military Museum (Old Sacramento)

  At 1119 Second Street, in Old Sacramento State Historic Park, you face the former home of the California State Military Museum.

• Sutter's Fort (Sacramento)

  John Sutter made this adobe stronghold, Sutter's Fort, the heart of his New Helvetia—literally "New Switzerland"—project.

• Sacramento Historic City Cemetery (Sacramento)

  Sacramento's oldest existing cemetery opens in front of you at 1000 Broadway, at 10th Street.

• Saint Andrews African Methodist Episcopal Church (Sacramento)

  In 1850 Saint Andrews African Methodist Episcopal Church was founded as the first African American church in California and the first AME on the West…

• Mesick House (Sacramento)

  Mary Mesick's home at 517 8th Street in Sacramento, California, rises in front of you.

• J. Neely Johnson House (Sacramento)

  Greek Revival and Neoclassical, the J. Neely Johnson House of 1853 is one of the city's early, elegant domestic statements.

• Cranston-Geary House (Boulevard Park)

  Locals call the Cranston-Geary House the Bramson Home, and it faces you here in Boulevard Park.

• Winters House (Sacramento)

  Herman Winters built the 1890 house you face in Sacramento, California.

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